Roman N. Modin^1,*, Margarita G. Ivanova², Igor V. Zhurbin^2,**

¹Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia
²Udmurt Federal Research Centre, the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Izhevsk, Russia

*E-mail: modin.roman@mail.ru
**E-mail: zhurbin@udm.ru

Keywords: the Cheptsa River region, Middle Ages, the Cheptsa archaeological culture, settlement, cultural layer, dating, comprehensive research.

The paper presents materials of a comprehensive study of the medieval Kushmansky III settlement (the middle Cheptsa River in the northern part of the Udmurt Republic) which has not been previously studied archaeologically and, based on its external features, was regarded as a settlement within the archaeological complex of the Kushmansky fortified settlement of Uchkakar, the 9th–13th centuries. Preliminary surveys (geophysical, etc.) showed limitations of the existing concepts. The study identified two lines of fortifications, traced the row layout of medieval buildings and identified areas of the cultural layer. Purposeful excavations whose results are discussed in the article showed that, judging by the nature of the cultural layer, the design of partly buried structures and the composition of finds of the 10th–12th centuries, the Kushmansky III settlement is similar to other settlements of the Cheptsa archaeological culture. The materials obtained prove that the adjacent capes of the right high bank of the river Cheptsa were the locations where two fortified settlements functioned simultaneously – the Kushmansky settlement of Uchkakar and the Kushmansky III settlement.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630009708-7