Проблемы интерпретации многослойных геоархеологических объектов: мультислойчатость, макрослоистость и культурный слой

Abstract

The correctly documented stratigraphic position of cultural remains, as well as determining the nature of their inclusion in deposits (redeposited or in situ) are the basis for reliable geoarchaeological reconstructions. In a broad sense, cultural remains in deposits are defined as a “cultural layer / cultural level”. In world archeology, the study of cultural deposits is aimed at understanding the processes of site formation based on the symbiosis of natural science and “formation theory”. Understanding the features of the “cultural layer” depends on the nature and characteristics of the deposits. The concept of “layering” of deposits and the features of cultural deposits are interrelated. In Russian archaeology, there are several interpretations of the concept of “cultural layer”: geoarchaeological, archaeological, engineering-geological, and geographical-pedological. In geoarchaeological interpretation, natural deposits with cultural remains are considered as “culture-bearing” geological deposits, and deposits formed in places of long-term habitation are defined as “culture-genic” (anthropogenic) formations. In the first case, individual layers can be called “culture-containing”, in the second case, “cultural”. In culture-bearing deposits, archaeological materials can be found both in situ and in redeposited state. Culture-bearing deposits with in situ materials can be microlayered (thin-layered) in embryonic and underdeveloped soils or macrolayered in fully developed modern soil. Under these conditions, the soils were formed in different ways, and therefore the cultural remains in one visible layer can be archaeologically contemporaneous or chronologically heterogeneous. In the archaeological interpretation, the cultural layer is associated only with the remains of ancient settlements, and the features of the culture-bearing deposits remain out of focus. The engineering-geological interpretation does not distinguish between archaeological cultural deposits (older than 100 years) and modern technogenic strata, and even more so, the problem of layering of deposits is not disclosed. In the geographical-pedological interpretation, the main attention is paid to macrolayered culture-genic deposits. In order to obtain the most adequate understanding of the dynamics of cultures and technologies in the changing conditions of the surrounding paleoenvironment, in our opinion, the geoarchaeological interpretation of the concept of “cultural layer” is preferable.