Osteological Materials from Ufa-2 Hillfort: Investigations of 2013 and 2016 Revisited

Abstract

t. Goals. The article discusses results of studies that dealt with osteological collections obtained during excavations at Ufa-2 hillfort in 2013 and 2016. Special attention is paid to the dynamics in livestock structure during the period of the monument’s functioning. Results. Analysis of the bone material distribution in the cultural layer of the once inhabited part of the monument makes it possible to clarify the consistent pattern revealed earlier through materials of 2017 excavations. The lower stratum of the cultural layer (stage 1) is dominated by bones of sheep and goats, while the upper ones (stage 2) witness a decrease in the share thereof accompanied by a gradual increase in the number of horse bones. Stage 3 identified in 2017 is not clearly distinguishable in the materials obtained in 2013, which might be due to a violation of the cultural layer integrity in the area and employed methods of osteological materials selecting. 2016 archaeological survey of the moat gave rise to a hypothesis that the fortification (moat) was built in the 3rd–4th centuries AD and functioned for one or two centuries only to be further repeatedly filled with soil taken from the inhabited part of the site. Conclusions. Analysis of osteological collections from undisturbed layers of the moat (backfilling stages 1 and 2) shows that chronologically stage 1 can be correlated to an increase in the amount of Turbasli culture and Romanovka type ceramics in the cultural layer of the inhabited areas. And stage 2 may have taken shape by the middle or end of the chronological period. Thus, the findings confirm and clarify the hypothesis proposed on the basis of the analysis of archaeological data conducted

Keywords

• livestock breeding
• early middle ages
• southern cis-urals
• archaeozoology
• bakhmutino culture
• kushnarenkovo culture
• turbasli culture
• romanovka type
• ufa-2 hillfort