DWELLINGS OF THE VARFOLOMEEVKA NEOLITHIC SITE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the nature of housing construction on the Varfolomeevka site of the Orlovka Neolithic culture of the steppe Volga region. The most complete data were obtained during the excavations of the Varfolomeevka site (late VII-VI thousand BC) on the Maly Uzen river. Later residential buildings overlapped and damaged the earlier ones, but a comparison of the planimography and stratigraphy made it possible to distribute them along chronological horizons and reconstruct the main characteristics of Neolithic buildings. Dwellings are represented by large semi-dugouts with several hearths, utility pits along the walls of the ditches, the location of floors at different levels, and dense building on the site. The dwellings had been functioning for a long time. This is confirmed by long-term foci with ash deposits of more than one meter on both monuments and traces of repair of support pillars at the Varfolomeevka site. It is established that there was a single stable tradition of housing construction at all stages of the Orlovka culture.