Пам'ятки скіфського часу на Сеймі [Scythian time sites on the Seym river basin]
Creators: name: Bilynskyi, Oleh
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430101
subject: Archaeological science

description: Bilynskyi O. O.Scythian time sites on the Seym river basin.-Qualifying scientificwork on the rights of manuscripts.Dissertation for the degree of candidate of historical sciences (philosophy doctor)in speciality 07.00.04 “Archaeology”.—Institute of Archaeology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 2019.<br><br>The territory of the Seym Basin is the northern boundary of the forest-steppe zoneof the Dnipro Left Bank, which coincides with the spread of the sites of the forest-steppepopulation of the Scythian time. The ecotonic position of the region compelled the localpopulation to adapt the forest-steppe economy to different natural conditions and tomake contacts with the neighboring forest population. A few monographs and articleshave highlighted the results of studies of individual sites, but the work of combining thisinformation has not been done. The uniqueness of the region as well as the views on thecontacts of societies with different economy and genesis, make this topic very relevant.The study of the Scythian period of the region began about 80 years ago. Duringthis time, several major expeditions werein the Seym region, which significantlychanged its perception. Ivan Lyapushkin was one of the first researchers to drawattention to the Scythian time sites there. His investigations in the Seym basin led him tobelieve that their appearance dates back to the IV century B.C. Around the same time,Varvara Ilinskaya conducted a study of the Western Seym region at the Shiryaevo hillfort. Her excavations at the Shiryaevo hillfort have become the only professionalstudy on Scythian culture of in the Western Seym region for more than half a century.The situation changed drastically in 1962, with the publication of Anna Alikhova’sseven-year research at the Kursk region. These sites differed from the Shiryaevo hillfortin the Western Seym region, which created the idea ofthe Eastern Seym region as anarea ofsolely Yukhiv culture. Later Anna Puzikova concluded that there was asignificant number of the sites of the local Scythian forest steppe farmers similar to thepopulation of the Dnipro Left Bank and theDon regions, set the time of their appearanceto the late VII-VI centuries B.C. and suggested that population changed around the Vcentury B.C. In recent years, expedition of Dmytro Karavayko provided mass materialfrom a large number of Western Seym sites and facilitated the exploration of theShiryaevo hillfort.Since the publications of Anna Puzikova's works, theoretical studies of theScythian period of the region were based mainly on rethinking the already obtainedmaterials. The exact area of sites, their number, chronology and economy have not beenfully established. To address these and other issues, this work took an approach ofcombining both conventional archaeological research methods with statistical andgeographical methods.The mapping andcataloging of the sites made it possible to accurately determinethe number of known objects and their distribution area. An analysis of the topographyand fortifications made it possible to divide the sites by topographic position and type offortifications. Accurate mapping and GIS analysis made it possible to divide the regioninto Eastern and Western Seym. In addition to the location of the sites, their resourcezones were also analyzed, which showed a predominance of different topographies ofstructures and, consequently, of different types of economy that the local populationengaged in. To clarify the latter, an analysis of osteological material from the sites wasperformed, a comparison of which showed that the sites had different types of animalhusbandry and the different role of hunting. Large excavations of several sites made itpossible to analyze the traditions of housebuilding of the population and to compare itwith neighboring societies, and the presence of stray findings of human bones on somesites gave ground for speculative theories about possible burial practices of thepopulation. A significant amount of published material from the sites has allowed toconduct a statistical analysis of the ceramics of the region. In general, it can be said thatalthough the material complex of the Seym region has unique features, it can beconsidered common for the forest-steppe area. The differences are mainly manifested inthe ceramic traditions, which was influenced by the previous societies and contacts withthe forest population, and the tradition of construction of small but numerousfortifications