The article deals with the economic aspect of the ethnic-cultural characteristics of settlements of the VI–III centuries BC, belonged to the Scythoid and Gorodets cultures. The landscape features of the Don basin have been considered, that led to the location structure of hillforts and settlements in the forested valleys of the main rivers of the region. While the steppe interfluves remained unpopulated during that period. Information on specialized tools for soil cultivation and harvesting has been systematized. A set of cultivated and weed plants is characterized by grain and seed prints detected on pottery. These data indicate the agricultural orientation of economic systems in both settled communities of the region. The population of the Scythoid culture was engaged in plow farming, the Gorodets one – in mainly slash. Agricultural needs explain the development of the first typical forest-steppe southern territories, the second – more wooded northern ones.
In 2019 and 2022, the International Turkic Academy and the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences began to conduct joint archaeological studies and the first excavations in 9 ancient memorial complexes of the ancient Turkic era in the Nomgon valley of the Khashaat sum of the Arkhangai aimag of Mongolia. During the excavations carried out in the Nomgon-2 memorial complex, it was found that this complex was dedicated to Kutluk-Kagan (Elteris-Kagan), the founder of the II Turkic Kaganate, who ruled in 682-692, the father of the famous Bilge-Kagan and Kultegin. The head and lower part of a stone statue of a kagan, two parts of a head of a stone statue, two statues of a ram, statues of a lion with two cubs and a number of other artifacts, such as clay roof covering, bricks, a cubic stone with a hole in the middle, and kagan tamga "eshir" (ashina) on balbals were found in the complex. A special news for turkology world is the discovery of a stele with inscriptions. There, during archaeological excavations, for the first time was discovered the upper part of the stele with the image of two wolves and floral patterns, as well as the lower part with fragments of ancient Turkic texts written in runic, Sogdian and Brahmi alphabets.
The author discusses the structure which is stone mound. Inside it the remains of a campfire were found containing a complex of finds. The object was found on the hillfort near the village of Gora Uslan, located on the left bank of the Upa River, within the boundaries of the city of Tula. Due to the absence of human remains, this complex does not belong to burial sites, but is associated with memorial rites. On the basis of analogies, the complex of finds can be dated to the second half of the 7th–8th century. The buckle from the campfire has analogies in the mordovian burial grounds. The find of a miniature handmade jug is connected with the steppe antiquities. The handmade vessel found at the foothill of the mound is close to “Sakhnovka” type materials. Similar objects on the territory of the Oka-Don watershed and adjacent regions are not known. Structurally and functionally the most similar constructions are known in nomadic antiquities of the Samara Volga region of the 7th–8th centuries. The cultural syncretism of the published complex demonstrates of complicated the ethno-cultural situation in the region during the second half of the 7th –8th centuries.
The article presents the results of studies carried out in the south-eastern part of the Bolgar fortified settlement in 2013. The Golden Horde objects belonging to different periods have been identified here. Since early coins make up more than 10% of the numismatic collection, this suggests that the site began to be developed already in the 2nd half of the 13th century. The pits in the southwest corner of the excavation can be attributed to this time. Unique are the finds of two dinars of the 12th century and the middle of the 13th century, belonging to the initial stage of the development of the area. А wooden house (structure No. 2) with a kang was built on the site within the period from the 2nd half of the 13th century to the 1230ies. Probably, the construction of three pits with large poles is related to the time of the wooden house, as well as, perhaps, a stockade. The building was destroyed by a fire. The next construction period is associated with a stone building (structure No. 1), soon erected on the place of the burned house. According to the coins found here, the stone building with a kang was built here no earlier than in the 1340s and functioned until the 1360s. The horizon of the building of a stone house is marked by layers of construction debris that filled the most of the pits on the excavation. The stone masonry of the building was almost completely taken and used as building materials, most likely already at the beginning of the 20th century, but the well-preserved contours of the foundation trenches, densely filled with lime and stone fragments, allow us to restore the layout of the building. The portal of the building, located on the north side, was decorated with two pylons, that were the base of the arched entrance, and a square construction, probably a turret, sided with the western one. The uniqueness of the building consists in an amazing combination of features of private residential and public architecture. After the 1360s, the site became desolate, and this wasteland was used as a cemetery: near the remains of a stone building the burials with fragments of its architectural details in the filling were found. The studied estate was related geographically with the quarter of the "Mongolian administration" at the Small Minaret, where dwellings with kangs were concentrated.
The modern theory of cultural layer is based on idea of indissoluble links of processes of formation and destruction of a layer of the cultural remains. The cultural remains could accumulate both in the sub-aerial and in the sub-aquatic environments. Horizons in the sub-aerial deposits are the most diverse. The equally important features, that demonstrate the current state of cultural layers, depended on scenarios of destruction of the cultural remains horizons. Processes of syngenetic and epigenetic (post-genetic) deformation proceeded differently; syngenetic destruction has been substantially connected with anthropogenic influence unlike the subsequent natural processes of destruction of a layer. The most of cultural layers of the Stone Age sites, which are located in the south of East European Plain, are the result of soil and loessial deposits. A standard epigenetic deformation of horizons was determined by cryogenic and biogenic processes and moved up and down of objects in a burial cultural layer. The degree of such deformation ranged from moderate to highly significant. The method of linking the details of the flint applications makes it possible to confidently diagnose the original stratigraphic position of the cultural layer and, in some cases, reconstruct the topography of a surface of habitation. Weak destruction of sections of the cultural layer with a dense (pressed) mass of cultural remains is noted.
