Ландшафтное окружение городищ и курганов скифского времени в донской лесостепи
Landscape Environment of Hillforts and Kurgans of Scythian Time within the Don Forest Steppe Region

Summary/Abstract: The article offers a reconstruction of the landscape in the 6th—3rd centuries BC in the environs of 24 sites of Scyphoid and Gorodets archaeological cultures. Information on previous soil and palynological analyses is summarized, and the results of the latest studies of buried soils are published. A modern soil map offers an approximate view of the vegetation of the Don basin in the past. Hillforts and barrows of the Scyphoid culture are concentrated in the territories of typical forest steppe, while the fortified settlements of Gorodets are found in the more forested northern territory. This may be due to the difference in management systems, especially farming (tillage and slash-and-burn farming). Under the earthen defensive ramparts of all the studied hillforts of Early Iron Age, associated with forest valley-river landscapes, the soils with properties of forest formation have been identified, however, in many cases preserving the features of Chernozems of the drier Bronze Age. Qualities of paleosoils suggest the process of afforestation of river valleys and adjacent sections of watersheds at the beginning of Early Iron Age. Kurgans, which demonstrate the military-elitist appearance of the material culture and mobility of their creators, are situated in the interfluvial meadow-steppes and are separated from the nearest hillforts under the forests by the local relief. Localization of these and other sites confirms the existence of different economic and cultural types among the population of the Scythian era.

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