Cultural Layer of the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages Hillforts in the River-Heads of the Volga And Western Dvina (Runa-Zaborovka, Zaborovka-Likhusha, Voroshilovo, Verkhmarevo Archaeological Complex)

Abstract

The cultural layers of five hillforts located in the upper parts of the Volga and Western Dvina rivers (Tver region) were studied according to the descriptions of prospecting shafts and core samples. The cultural layers of the hillforts are represented by dark sand with a thickness of 0.4–1 m, satiated with charcoal. The characteristics of the cultural layers of the hillforts allow authors to refer them to the Archaeological Dark Earth. The cultural layers of the hillforts differ in thickness, degree of homogeneity, coloring and concentration of charcoal. Radiocarbon dating of 19 charcoal samples suggests that the period of maximum economic activity at the hillforts of Zaborovka-Likhusha, Voroshilovo and Verkhmarevo-1 fell on the period of the Early Iron Age (3 century BC – first centuries AD). According to the finds of pottery and some attributive objects, these sites can be related to the Dyakovo and late Dyakovo cultures. The main stage in the formation of the cultural layer for Runa-Zaborovka and Verkhmarevo–2 hillforts corresponds to the Early Middle Ages.

Keywords

• archaeology
• pedoanthracology (soil charcoal analysis)
• radiocarbon dating
• urban paleosoils
• dark earth
• dyakovo culture