Scientists have discovered previously unknown settlements of the late Bronze Age in the Crimean Azov region

CrimeaPRESS reports:

Scientists from the Crimean Federal University discovered a Late Bronze Age settlement on the territory of the Karalar Natural Park in the Kerch Azov region. This was reported by the head of the department of natural scientific methods in archeology of the Research Center for the History and Archeology of Crimea of ​​KFU. V.I. Vernadsky, Doctor of Historical Sciences Tatyana Smekalova.

Experts conduct comprehensive research on the territory using satellite images, archival aerial photographs and targeted excavations. To determine the exact location of the excavations, scientists use magnetic surveys.

There are a lot of archaeological sites here. A large number of settlements dating back to ancient times have been discovered here since the 50s of the last century. All ancient settlements were located on the seashore, and the deep territory of the park remained unexplored. This is exactly what we are working on now. First, we outline promising locations for settlements, identified by patches of denser herbaceous vegetation visible on spring satellite images. Then, using magnetic surveys based on positive local anomalies, we identify clusters of semi-dugouts, which allows us to assume the location of settlements of the Late Bronze Age. Using the magnetic map we compiled, on one of the four settlements discovered in this way, we laid out excavations measuring 2×2 meters with great accuracy,” the KFU press service quotes Tatyana Smekalova.

According to her, in just two days of excavation, specialists were able to confirm the hypothesis based on the results of magnetic surveys. Scientists discovered a settlement consisting of two groups of semi-dugouts and cattle pens.

In the place where we assumed the presence of a room, it was actually found. We found ourselves in the center of a semi-dugout room, in which stones were discovered that probably belong to the lining of the semi-dugout, since people of the Late Bronze Age settled in rooms recessed into the ground, the walls of which were lined with stones. And in the middle we saw a stone hearth. Judging by the first results of the work, at the turn of the 2nd–1st millennia BC, that is, in the Late Bronze Age, these places were as densely populated as in ancient times, but people of the Late Bronze Age settled in other landscape niches: under the protection hills protecting settlements from the harsh north-east winter winds, close to streams and watercoursesnotes Tatyana Smekalova.

Specialists from the Institute of Physico-Chemical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences are also working at the site, developing the concept of biological memory of soils, for which they are looking for traces of agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts in soil samples.

Indicators of ancient anthropogenic impact remain in the soil for 3.5–4 thousand years. This is the age of the monuments themselves. We carry out mass analyzes of microbiological, chemical, physical indicators in cultivated soil layers and thus try to reveal the information potential of soilssaid Alexander Borisov, head of the laboratory of archaeological soil science at the Institute of Physical, Chemical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

After conducting the research, scientists from the Crimean Federal University and the Russian Academy of Sciences will begin processing the data obtained and comparing them with already known finds of this period on the territory of Crimea.

source: KFU press service

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