ИСТОРИЯ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ ПОСЕЛЕНЧЕСКИХ ПАМЯТНИКОВ САРМАТСКОГО ВРЕМЕНИ В ЛЕСОСТЕПНОМ ПОДОНЬЕ

Abstract

The article reveals the history of the study of hillforts and settlements of the first centuries AD on the Upper Don. The author substantiates the identification of three chronological stages in the history of settlement archeology of the Upper Don region. The first of them is associated with pre-revolutionary studies of local history societies, as well as with the work of the Upper Don expedition in the Lipetsk region and the expedition of the Voronezh State University in the Voronezh region. At this time, the process of accumulation of material from the first centuries took place, and its interpretation was limited to the term “early Iron Age”. The second stage of research began in 1978 with the creation of the Scythian-Sarmatian brigade of VSU (A.P. Medvedev) and its targeted study of burial mounds and settlements of the Sarmatian period in the forest-steppe Don region. During the same period, work was carried out by the LGPI expedition (A.N.Bessudnov), State Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Lipetsk Region (I. E. Biryukov, I. A. Kozmirchuk), as well as employees of the Department of Archaeology and History of the Ancient World of VSU (Yu. D. Razuvaev, M. V. Tsybin, A. S. Savrasov, A. D. Pryakhin, N. A. Tropin, etc.). The third stage is distinguished by the work of both scientific expeditions (A. M. Oblomsky, I. E. Biryukov, G. L. Zemtsov, Yu. D. Razuvaev, D. V. Akimov, etc.) and protective archaeological excavations. Discussions on the identification of groups of hillforts and settlements of the Sarmatian period are considered, and controversial issues of their dating are identified. From the historiographical analysis of the current state of the problem, further directions of its research logically follow: highlighting the cultural uniqueness of the settlements of the Upper Don and, especially, their chronology.