Landscape, architecture and economy of the Southern Trans-Urals in the Bronze Age: The fortified settlements of the Karagaily-Ayat river valley

Приведены результаты археологического исследования ландшафтов, архитектуры и хозяйства Южного Зауралья в эпоху бронзы.The article briefly presents some aspects of the Russian-German project on the study of the fortified settlements in the valley of the Karagaily-Ayat river with particular emphasis on the Kamenneyi Ambar site. The results of the palaebiological research showed that in the valley, between 2400 and 1600 BC there was the warm and relatively humid climate. The palaeobotanists reconstruct the landscape as feather-grass steppes, alternating with some forests. Their high biomass productivity and plant diversity could contribute to the Sintashta settlement appearance and economic system that corresponded to settled mode of life. Farming was not practiced. The detailed multidisciplinary studies of the settlements illuminated various aspects of economy and lifestyle of their inhabitants. Analysis of planographic, stratigraphic and chronological data revealed that in the north-western sector of the Kamennyi Ambar settlement there were at least three building phases, which can be conditionally correlated with different types of ceramics: Sintashta, Sintashta-Petrovka and Srubno-Alakul. The houses were constructed according to some standards but each settlement had some specific features. The degree of the deviation from the standard increased over time. The pastoral stock breading with emphasis on the cattle constituted the economic basis of the local societies. It can be assumed that the proximal operating area may have been about 5-7 km in radius and included pasture, some forests, close mineral deposits, as well as water sources. The needs in metal could be a factor of the extension of inhabited space, the development of which would expand interaction with other groups