СТРАТЕГИИ ЗАСЕЛЕНИЯ НА РУБЕЖЕ БРОНЗОВОГО И ЖЕЛЕЗНОГО ВЕКОВ: ПРИРОДНЫЕ И ПАЛЕОЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ ФАКТОРЫ (лесостепная–подтаежная зоны в долине р. Тобол)

Abstract

The article describes the settlement specifics of the Itkul and Baitovo cultures population in the Tobol River region in the 8th–6th centuries BC. The settlements of the Itkul culture are confined to the areas of large drainage lakes and lake systems, they are located on sandy ridges and uplands and not obviously associated with watercourses. The majority of settlements are situated in the subtaiga zone in the interfluve of the Tura and Pyshma Rivers. There are fewer settlements in the forest-steppe area, they are located in ribbon-like forests. The Baitovo сulture sites, on the contrary, are clearly confined to the main rivers and their tributaries, they form a clearly expressed frame of settlements along the Iset and Tobol Rivers, a certain distance is maintained between many of them. These conclusions are substantiated by the vertical distribution of the sites, their confinement to water bodies, and detailed geomorphological characteristics of cultural and chronological groups of artifacts of the cultures under consideration. Summing up, main differences in the settlement systems of the Itkul and Baitovo collectives are: confinement of the Itkul culture settlements to the subtaiga zone, and the Baitovo ones — to the forest-steppe; gravitation of the Itkul settlements towards the areas of large flowing lakes and lake systems, the Baitovo settlements towards the river system; a high degree of concentration, a close interposition of weakly fortified settlements of the Itkul culture in places of their localization and the presence of a frame of equidistant and, apparently, interconnected settlements of the Baitovo culture. The settlement specifics of the Itkul and Baitovo cultures populations brought about by their origins and economic activities, as well as the natural and climatic dynamics reconstructed for the territory under consideration.