Settlement Analysis Research Articles

Assessing Seismic Crack Performance of Diyarbakır Çüngüş Masonry Stone Bridge Considering 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Malatya, Gaziantep Earthquakes

Examination of the creep behavior of historical buildings and interpretation of seismic failures in historical buildings are of great importance for the safety and future of these important structures. In this study, time-dependent settlement and three-dimensional (3D) seismic analyzes of a historical stone bridge are investigated using the 3D discrete element modeling technique. For the settlement and seismic analyses, the historical single-span Çüngüş bridge which was built in the 18th century in Diyarbakır-Turkey by Ottoman Empire is used. Since Diyarbakır is in a dangerous zone according to the Turkey seismic map, the examination of this structure is very critical for the history of Turkey. The 3D model of the bridge is created using the FLAC3D program based on the finite difference method and all the stone elements in the historical bridge are modeled separately as blocks. Special interaction elements are defined between the discretely modeled stones. For settlement creep analyses, the Burger-creep material model, which was not used for the creep behavior of historical buildings in the past, is utilized. Firstly, the 500-year long-term creep behavior of the bridge is examined by considering the fix boundary condition and full reservoir condition. According to the creep analyses, it is seen that the most deformation and failure section of the bridge is the arch section. Then, for the seismic analyses of the bridge, free-field and quiet non-reflecting boundary conditions are defined in the model. Furthermore, hysteresis damping coefficients are taken into account in seismic analyzes with the help of special fish functions. 10 various earthquakes are considered for seismic analyses. According to the earthquake analyses, the earthquake behavior of the Çüngüş historical bridge is assessed by considering the full reservoir condition and it is understood that 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Malatya, Gaziantep earthquakes significantly changed the seismic safety behavior of Çüngüş single-span historical bridge.

SBD-K-medoids-based long-term settlement analysis of shield tunnel

Long-term settlement is essential to operational tunnel safety. In this study, a systematic method for analysing shield tunnel settlement during the operation period is proposed. First, a new time-series clustering algorithm, namely shape-based distance (SBD)-K-medoids, is proposed to mitigate the limitation of low efficiency. The clustering precision and efficiency of the new algorithm were validated through hypothesis testing. Subsequently, the long-term settlement analysis framework is illustrated in detail, consisting of four parts: data pre-processing, section division and settlement characterisation, similarity clustering, and attribution analysis. A new index, called the incremental tunnel settlement state (ITSS), is proposed to depict a shield tunnel’s long-term longitudinal settlement during the operation period. Finally, a case study of the Shanghai Metro Line 10 (ML10) was conducted to validate the method. The results indicate that the uplink of ML10 is divided into four clusters, which correspond exactly to four situations a shield tunnel section undergoes during operation. Through an attribution analysis, the formation conditions of each cluster are summarised. Corresponding settlement patterns are concluded and engineering countermeasures are proposed for rehabilition. In general, this case exemplifies the rationality and engineering practice value of the study’s approach, and the systematic method offers a new approach for analysing the long-term settlement of shield tunnels.

Turkey's disaster and emergency profile: Settlement information and analysis of earthquake parameters

Thousands of people die and billions of dollars of financial loss occur every year in Turkey and the world due to natural disasters. Although many reports and regulations have been prepared to eliminate the negative situations caused by natural disasters, changing climate conditions, technological advances and social habits require these measures to be developed, renewed, and made sustainable over time. In this context, creating a data pool to prevent the loss of life and property caused by disasters and performing the necessary studies becomes even more important. In addition to disaster-related information, this data pool should include physical and geographic information such as the distances of people's communal living areas to the administrative centers, the population in these living areas, and transportation facilities. In this study, a disaster and emergency profile for Turkey has been tried to be presented. For this, the distances of all settlements to the districts and provincial centers they are connected to, the transportation times and speeds of these centers, the altitudes of the settlements, earthquake zone numbers, earthquake hazard map parameters, populations, and areas were compiled or calculated. The evaluation was made separately according to the districts and provinces, taking into account the determined limits. Based on the profile reached at the end of the study, suggestions were developed for planning and projects for disasters and emergencies.

Understanding the Differential Nature of Protest Movements in Africa Through Political Settlements Analysis: the Case of the ‘Fixthecountry’ Movement in Ghana

What explains why protest movements refuse the support of opposition parties despite the correlation in their demands? Answers to this question make up the content of this paper. In recent years, protest movements have dominated the political space of several sub-Saharan African countries, many of which have claimed to have no partisan ties. Relying on insights from the detachment thesis, this paper argues that the nature of the strategies adopted by protest movements in relation to political parties depends on the nature of the country’s political settlements. The study uses the FixTheCountry protest movement in Ghana as a case study. After a discourse analysis into speeches and press statements, an analysis of 15 qualitative interviews conducted in Ghana, as well as a review of various secondary literature ranging from journal articles to books, this paper concludes that protest movements instrumentalise the competitive nature of a country’s political settlements to gain popular support from the citizenry. Given that only two political parties dominate Ghana’s political arena, the protest movement presents itself as non-partisan, a strategy intended to first, express distrust in both parties; and second, attract the attention of non-partisan citizens and disaffected supporters of both parties. The paper demonstrates that the nature of a country’s political settlements is a key determinant of the nature of the relationship between protest movements and political parties, both ruling and opposition ones. This paper’s findings contribute to our understanding of how contemporary African protest movements continue to shape and reshape their relationship with political parties and the relevance of a country’s political structure in the process.

Analisis Putusan Perkara Anak Pelaku Tindak Pidana Eksploitasi Secara Ekonomi Dan Seksual Terhadap Anak Secara Online (Studi Putusan No.6/Pid.Sus-Anak/2020/Pn.Pdg)

This paper is a case study with case number 6/Pid.Sus-Anak/2020/Pn.Pdg which has permanent legal force. In this decision, the child is the perpetrator of the crime of economic and sexual exploitation of children. Juridically in Article 70 of the SPPA Law, the personal circumstances of the child, or the circumstances at the time of the act or what happened later can be used as a basis for the judge's consideration not to impose imprisonment. However, in this decision the judge imposed a prison sentence on the child. The problem formulations discussed in this paper are: 1. How is the judge's consideration in imposing a criminal judgment against the child who is the perpetrator of the criminal offense of Economic and Sexual Exploitation of Children (Decision Number 6/Pid.Sus-Anak/2020/Pn.Pdg)? 2. Is the Judge's Decision Number 6/Pid.Sus-Anak/2020/Pn.Pdg. in accordance with the Purpose of Punishment of Children? The legal research method used is normative juridical with a problem approach, namely, case, statutory and conceptual approaches. This research is descriptive analytical, data collection techniques with document studies or literature studies. In the legal analysis of case settlement, according to the author, the child should not have been sentenced to imprisonment because first, the child had not previously committed a criminal offense, second, the child was cooperative and polite during the trial and the consequences of the incident hindered the child's growth and development. Judge Decision Number 2/Pid.Sus-Anak/2019/Pn.Pdg is not in accordance with the objectives of punishment in general, which are more precisely regulated in the SPPA Law because it emphasizes restitution to the original state rather than retaliation, and the use of imprisonment or detention as a last resort or as an ultimum remedium.

Using a settlement connectivity‐based framework to map the farmland abandonment risk: A case study on the World Heritage of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces

AbstractFarmland abandonment is a gradual, complex, and fragmented process that varied with time and space. How to identify the abandonment‐risk of farmland with a spatial explicit way is a challenge and a key step toward the efficient management and sustainability of regional agriculture. This paper introduced the quantification method of connectivity from landscape ecology, took the rural settlements as the source patches that farmers moved out with materials and energies into the sink patches of farmlands, and during the moving process the least‐cost path among settlements means the highest connectivity and the lowest risk of farmland abandonment. Then the new integrated framework for spatially quantifying the abandonment‐risk of farmland based on settlement connectivity combined with the least‐cost model (namely the FARBSC framework) was put forward and validated at the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces (HHRT) in Southwestern China. The verification and accuracy comparison of the FARBSC framework to the composite indicators and the buffer zone analysis of settlement were all indicated the efficiency of the new method. For the HHRT region, according to the FARBSC framework, the risky, weakly stable, stable, and highly stable zone is occupied 13.5%, 43.3%, 36.7%, and 6.5% of the land, respectively. The FARBSC framework had provided a quick and convenient way to mapping the risk area of farmland abandonment, especially for data‐lack remote rural mountainous areas, such rice terrace heritage sites in mountainous Asia. More detailed spatial data can be used to improve its accuracy in future studies.

Integration of DInSAR-PS-Stacking and SBAS-PS-InSAR Methods to Monitor Mining-Related Surface Subsidence

Over-exploitation of coal mines leads to surface subsidence, surface cracks, collapses, landslides, and other geological disasters. Taking a mining area in Nalintaohai Town, Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as an example, Sentinel-1A data from January 2018 to October 2019 were used as the data source in this study. Based on the high interference coherence of the permanent scatterer (PS) over a long period of time, the problem of the manual selection of ground control points (GCPs) affecting the monitoring results during refinement and re-flattening is solved. A DInSAR-PS-Stacking method combining the PS three-threshold method (the coherence coefficient threshold, amplitude dispersion index threshold, and deformation velocity interval) is proposed as a means to select ground control points for refinement and re-flattening, as well as a means to obtain time-series deformation by weighted stacking processing. A SBAS-PS-InSAR method combining the PS three-threshold method to select PS points as GCPs for refinement and re-flattening is also proposed. The surface deformation results monitored by the DInSAR-PS-Stacking and SBAS-PS-InSAR methods are analyzed and verified. The results show that the subsidence location, range, distribution, and space–time subsidence law of surface deformation results obtained by DInSAR-PS-Stacking, SBAS-PS-InSAR, and GPS methods are basically the same. The deformation results obtained by these two InSAR methods have a good correlation with the GPS monitoring results, and the MAE and RMSE are within the acceptable range. The error showed that the edge of the subsidence basin was small and that the center was large. Both methods were found to be able to effectively monitor the coal mine, but there were also shortcomings. DInSAR-PS-Stacking has a strong ability to monitor the settlement center. SBAS-PS-InSAR performed well in monitoring slow and small deformations, but its monitoring of the settlement center was insufficient. Considering the advantages of these two InSAR methods, we proposed fusing the time-series deformation results obtained using these two InSAR methods to allow for more reliable deformation results and to carry out settlement analysis. The results showed that the automatic two-threshold (deformation threshold and average coherence threshold) fusion was effective for monitoring and analysis, and the deformation monitoring results are in good agreement with the actual situation. The deformation information obtained by the comparison, and fusion of multiple methods can allow for better monitoring and analysis of the mining area surface deformation, and can also provide a scientific reference for mining subsidence control and early disaster warning.

Analysis of instantaneous surface settlement of tunnel construction in composite stratum based on semi-analytical method

It is important for shield tunneling safety to predict and control the instantaneous surface settlement. Particularly, the complex geological condition can make accurate prediction more difficult. To adapt to the stratum distribution, a semi-analytical method is established by introducing the finite layer method into tunnel mechanical analysis. Firstly, based on the elastic solution of the finite layer method, the horizontal flexibility coefficient of tunneling and the surface settlement are obtained by applying effective thrust to the excavation face. Secondly, two influencing factors are analyzed, including the penetration of shield tunneling and the Poisson ratio of geotechnical parameter. The relationship formula between the measured value and the theoretical value of the maximum settlement is derived through data fitting. Finally, the settlement prediction method of tunneling is proved to be practical, which provide a new ideal for the mechanical analysis of tunnels in composite strata.

Stress prediction of heated crude oil pipeline in permafrost region via fully coupled heat-moisture-stress numerical simulation and SVM algorithm

Large diameter crude oil transmission pipelines in unstable permafrost areas have been put into operation in China in recent dozen years. The perennial positive temperature operation of buried heating transmission pipelines leads to freeze–thaw of the soil around pipelines, and the axial stresses generated by thawing settlement of permafrost may induce fracture failure of weld crack. However, there are many shortcomings in existing frozen soil thawing settlement analysis and pipeline stress assessment methods, which makes it difficult to accurately analyze and predict the axial additional stress of pipelines induced by thawing settlement. Based on heat conduction and permafrost thawing consolidation settlement theory, numerical inversion analysis of centrifuge test was conducted to verify the accuracy of the finite element method. The key influencing factors such as wall thickness, insulation layer thickness, buried depth of pipe, and length of thawing settlement zone on the axial stress and strain state of buried pipeline under the condition of double pipe operation of Mo-da line were investigated. The results show that: Pipeline with an insulation layer, larger wall thickness and smaller buried depth is beneficial to improve the bearing capacity of buried pipeline under thawing settlement of permafrost. The axial stress varies nonlinearly with the increase of the thawing settlement zone length. Based on support vector regression (SVR) model, the axial stress prediction model of pipe crown and invert at different positions in the thaw settlement area was proposed and verified by field monitoring data of buried pipeline. The relative error between the prediction results and the field monitoring results is less than 15 %. This study can provide some theoretical support for the structural design of pipelines in thaw settlement area.

A Validated Framework for Characterising Informal Settlements: Two Cases from Greater Cairo, Egypt

There have been significant research studies on informal settlements within various disciplines including sociology, economy, politics, governance, and urbanism. However, little is known about the complexity and dynamism of informal settlements. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for understanding the multiplicity of factors influencing the formation and transformation of informal settlements. It examines and validates various intricacies characterising informal settlements in three ways. First, informal settlement characteristics and their relationships are explored. Second, growth and transformation variables are examined. Third, qualities of the informal urban form and those that relate to sustainability are juxtaposed. Utilising two case studies from Greater Cairo, a qualitative approach is adopted including a critical analysis of the literature, interviews with experts and academics, and field observations. Through a comprehensive investigation of informal settlements, two deductions were made: First, the critical physical, social, and economic characteristics that influence their growth were identified. Second, the unique correlations between these characteristics were established and verified by the two case studies. The correlations assist in establishing the logic and dynamics of the informal settlements that can then be applied to develop intervention strategies. In addition, the inferred informal urban form can be considered as a sustainable urban form tailored for further analyses of informal settlements of cities of the global south.

Fluid–Solid Coupling Numerical Analysis of Pore Water Pressure and Settlement in Vacuum-Preloaded Soft Foundation Based on FLAC3D

There are few calculation methods for the design and construction of vacuum preloading to strengthen soft foundations. Based on the FLAC3D, a calculation model was established for the vacuum preloading project of the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway. Through calculation and comparison of measured values, the following results were obtained: (1) The top surface of the reinforcement area and the sand drain can be regarded as the load boundary, which can be realized by assigning the node pore water pressure. (2) After 30 days of vacuum action, the settlement rate at each depth decreased significantly and the deformation gradually became stable. It is reasonable to design the vacuum preloading time as 2–4 months. (3) The negative pore water pressure has different transmission times and uneven distribution, which makes the consolidation time and degree of soil on the same level uneven. After 30 days of vacuum action, this uneven phenomenon will be transformed into a uniform phenomenon. (4) The change time of pore water pressure under vacuum preloading is about 30 days. After that, the pore water pressure at different depths will tend to have different constant values. The influence depth of vacuum preloading can reach 16 m. These works can make up for the deficiency of vacuum preloading calculation methods.

Settlement Analysis in Potentially Liquifiable Soil at Kretek 2 Bridge Area

The Kretek 2 Bridge is one of the important infrastructures built on the southern coast road of Java. Referring to the Map of Indonesia Liquefaction Vulnerability Zone in 2019, Kretek 2 Bridge was identified as a high liquefaction susceptibility zone. The result of liquefaction potential analysis on the slab-on-pile section indicates that the soil layer has potential to liquefy if an earthquake occurs. Based on the Liquefaction Severity Index, the slab-on-pile section of the Kretek 2 Bridge has a high severity index at BH-10, moderate severity index at BH-11, and low severity index at BH-01 and BH-12. One of liquefaction effects is a ground settlement. Settlement due to liquefaction is a vertical soil deformation in the soil layer caused by compaction due to the earthquake. This study was conducted by calculating the settlement of sand deposits in slab-on-pile section using an equation proposed by Zhang et al. in 2002 and Yoshimine in 2006. The results of settlement analysis using Zhang’s method to predict settlement in the study area, BH-10 having the most significant settlement at 29.803 cm. Using the settlement analysis method by Yoshimine, the highest settlement found in BH-10, which is 30.401 cm.

Effect of Contoured Surface, Excavation and Fill Construction to the 3D Settlement Analysis

Settlement analysis is commonly done by assuming a horizontal soil surface with homogeneous soil layer. This assumption may no longer applicable when construction is conducted on mountainous area where there are a lot of hills or sloping area. Not only due to initial stress is no longer uniform throughout the entire construction area, excavation and fill activities which are required for the land preparation change the stress state of the soil. These problems are aggravated by the fact that soil layer in most of the mountainous area is not horizontal. In this paper, the effect of contoured surface and construction activities such as excavation and fill will be described by using a parking lot building project constructed at the mountainous area. The analysis is carried by using finite element analysis through MIDAS GTS NX. The result will then be compared with the finite element analysis without considering contoured surface and construction activities. The result shows that excavation and fill activities highly affect the settlement profile. For the area where excavation activities are carried, there will be less settlement which is expected due to an increase in over consolidated ratio. On the other hand, fill area experience more settlement due to lower fill modulus an increase in effective stress around the fill area.

Analysis of Ground Settlement during Shield Tunnel Construction in Soft Soil

Analysis of Ground Settlement during Shield Tunnel Construction in Soft Soil

Settlement analysis of ground treated with granular piles using natural and recycled aggregates

Scarce land availability forces humans to build on soft soils, prone to long-term deformation and lacking sufficient shear strength, resulting in potential structural damage. Granular piles (GPs) are suitable for treating soft clay, providing increased load-bearing capacity, reduced settlements, faster consolidation, liquefaction risk elimination, and improved stability for natural slopes and embankments. Traditionally natural aggregates are used as granular material in pile construction, whereas the present study aims to analyze the effect of replacing natural aggregates with some recycled waste aggregates. The main objective of the present study is to numerically investigate the settlement resistance and load-carrying capacity of weak soils by incorporating granular piles made of unconventional aggregates. This numerical analysis considers various granular materials for piles, including natural aggregates (NA), crushed concrete (CC), crushed brick (CB), and industrial waste aggregates like crushed marble (CM) and crushed sandstone (CS). According to the findings of the current study, the use of crushed concrete (CC), crushed brick (CB), and industrial waste aggregates such as crushed marble (CM) and crushed sandstone (CS) in the formation of granular piles led to a notable enhancement in the settlement characteristics and bearing capacity of soft soils. In the current study, some experimental models of locally available sandy soil treated with granular piles are prepared and tested in California bearing ratio (CBR) moulds to investigate their settlement behavior. Granular pile models are prepared of natural & recycled aggregates (CC), and the effect of incorporating cementing agents like - cement and flyash on the settlement behavior of reinforced ground is also investigated. Experimentally, the sandy soil treated with granular piles made of natural and recycled aggregates shows higher resistance towards settlement compared to untreated soil. The resistance towards settlement increases marginally with the incorporation of cementing agents. The optimum value of CBR (80%) is observed for sandy soil treated with a granular pile of natural aggregates with cementing material (3% cement + 6% fly ash) cured for 7 days (TNCF7).

Spatial Difference Studies and Driving Force Analysis of Rural Settlements in the Northwest Sichuan Plateau

The scattered, isolated, and closed nature of rural settlements in northwest Sichuan is a constraint on the high-quality development of rural areas. Determining the spatial differences and driving forces of rural settlements in this area is the essential prerequisite for promoting rural revitalization. In this paper, the methods of the nearest neighbor index, the Voronoi diagram, and the Geodetector are used to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of rural settlements and explore the driving factors of their spatial differences. The key findings are as follows. (1) The rural settlements exhibit the feature of “an extensive dispersion with localized concentrations”. The spatial distribution is in the shape of dots, strips, and branches along the river valley. (2) The number and land use scale of rural settlements decreases from east to west. The spatial differences in settlement morphology have a clear feature that the settlement morphology along the river and road is more complex, while the settlement morphology in the plateau area and the river valley is relatively regular. (3) Mountain disasters and arable land resources have the greatest impact on the spatial differences of the settlements. The location and form of the settlements are greatly affected by the altitude and accumulated temperature, and the settlement scale is significantly affected by the traffic conditions and the scenic spots. The mutually reinforcing role of the driving factors is remarkable, especially the reinforcing effects of the enhancement between the arable land resources and other factors. The research results provide data support for the reconstruction, improvement, and high-quality development of rural settlements in this region.

Analytical analysis of settlement and interaction - floating granular piled rafts, single and group of two units with the effect of partial stiffening

ABSTRACT Analysis of granular piled raft (GPR) foundations that involves interactions between the pile, the soil, and raft is very challenging and an interesting area of research in geotechnical engineering. The present study pertains to the analysis of a single and group of two partially stiffened floating GPRs where the material in the top region of the granular pile (GP) is stiffened by using geosynthetics, which has better engineering properties. Analysis has been conducted by assuming the soil to be linearly elastic continuum and using the solutions due to Mindlin and Boussinesq for a point load acting in the interior and on the surface of the soil medium for estimating the stresses and displacements at any point in the soil medium. Computations were performed to assess and report the normalized shear stresses (NSS) at the granular pile – soil interface, fractional load shared by the raft and the same shared by the granular pile along its shaft and base (FLSR, FLSP, and FLSB), the distribution of normalized contact pressure (NCP) beneath the raft. The results have been reported in a non-dimensional form suitable to be used for design.

Analysis of instantaneous surface settlement during tunnel construction in composite stratum

It is important for shield tunnelling safety to predict and control the instantaneous surface settlement. Particularly, the complex geological condition can make accurate prediction more difficult. To adapt to the stratum distribution, a semi-analytical method is established by introducing the finite layer method into tunnel mechanical analysis. Firstly, based on the elastic solution of the finite layer method, the horizontal flexibility coefficient of tunnelling and the surface settlement are obtained by applying effective thrust to the excavation face. Secondly, two influencing factors are analyzed, including the penetration of shield tunnelling and the Poisson ratio of geotechnical parameter. The relationship formula between the measured value and the theoretical value of the maximum settlement is derived through data fitting. Finally, the settlement prediction method of tunnelling is proved to be practical, which provide a new ideal for the mechanical analysis of tunnels in composite strata.

Investigation of excessive settlement involving recycled asphalt pavement in highway embankment

Recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) refers to unprocessed (e.g., milled) or processed (e.g., screened) asphalt mixtures obtained from roadways or other resources. The use of in-situ RAP is a sustainable practice that potentially could contribute to reduced greenhouse emissions and costs as well as accelerating the construction process. However, it has been reported that some pavements that utilize RAP as embankment/fill material experienced excessive settlement soon after construction. In order to investigate this issue, a comparison between RAP samples from five sources in Illinois and two conventional soils was conducted. Laboratory experiments included basic soil/RAP characteristics, gradations, moisture-density relationships at different temperatures, permeability, and pilot drainage, one-dimensional consolidation tests, and settlement analysis. The results indicate that RAP, considered as a permeable material, should not be used directly underneath the pavement drainage layer, as it can act as a reservoir and saturate the underlying embankment soils, which leads to excessive settlement of the embankment. Results show that the increase in the temperature of the RAP increases the one-dimensional compression. Also, it is recommended that the settlement analysis during design stage should consider the potential settlement of embankment soil from as-compacted condition to saturated condition.

FEATURES OF CONSERVATION OF ABANDONED BUILDINGS AMONG THE TRIBES OF THE MAYKOP-NOVOSVOBODNENSKAYA COMMUNITY (ON THE MATERIALS OF NOVOTITAROVSKOYE-14 AND TUZLA-15 SETTLEMENTS)

The article aims to introduce the material on the new Maykop settlement Novotitarovskoye-14 and, to provide the description according to archaeological data of the conservation of the Maykop semi-dugout pits, as well as to discuss the construction of a portable hearth at the settlement Novotitarovskoye-14. The materials are compared with the finds at the Maykop settlement Tuzla-15. The methodology involves the description of the source, the analysis of finds and analogies, the definition of cultural affiliation and chronology. The article also provides the results of radiocarbon dating of materials from the Tuzla-15 settlement and osteological analysis of materials from Kurgan 12 of the Novotitarovskoye-14 group and the Tuzla-15 settlement. The Novotitarovskoye-14 settlement was discovered in 2014 by N.F. Shevchenko, the Tuzla-15 settlement was excavated by S.N. Korenevsky in 2012-2015 and described in a monograph. On both settlements, semi-dugout pits filled with pottery shards, animal bones and small tools in the form of pebbles, fragments of grain grinders were uncovered. At the settlement of Novotitarovskoye-14, the adobe furnace hearth, as well as a large fragment of the brazier were recorded. These findings prove that the Maykop population might have used portable hearths, which were lit outside their buildings. In both settlements, in the filling of abandoned buildings, a layer of ash from a fire that burned outside was recorded. The analysis of osteological findings clearly reflects that the majority of bones belong to large and small cattle. Single horse bones were found at Novotitarovskoye-14 settlement. The settlement of Novotitaroovskoye-14 belongs to the Maykop variant of the Maykop-Novosvobodnenskaya community, and the settlement of Tuzla-15 belongs to the similar Psekup variant of the Maykop-Novosvobodnenskaya community. The date of the first settlement cannot be determined precisely within the framework of the existence of the Maykop sites. The date of settlement of Tuzla-15 belongs to the final stage of the Maykop-Novosvobodnenskaya community.