Korobov D.S., Borisov A.V.

Key words: Kislovodsk basin, Alans, agriculture, Early Middle Ages, lynchets, Celtic fields.
The investigations conducted by the authors in the Kislovodsk basin in 2005–2010 have shown that in the 1st millennium AD the Alanic population used two types of agricultural plots: long narrow ploughable terraces on smooth slopes and small rectangular or square plots with low stone walls as boundaries (types 2 and 3 of agricultural plots in the Kislovodsk basin). Analogies of such agricultural plots can be found in Europe (socalled lynchets and Celtic fields). The authors are of the opinion that the fi rst type of agricultural plot could have existed in the first half of the 1st millennium AD or in the 10th–12th cc., and the second – in the 5th–8th cc. Instead of being an indicator of regression, the fact that in the middle of the 1st millennium AD the tools used for tillage became more primitive and the technologies of land farming became simpler appears to indicate how the population adapted to the new landscape.