Akberdino-3 – the Great Migration Period Manor in the Forest-Steppe Zone of Southern Pre-Urals

Abstract

The present study is based on materials obtained during archaeological excavations at the Akberdino-3 site in 2009. The site is located on the right bank of the Belaya River in the forest-steppe zone of Southern Pre-Urals (modern Iglinsky District of the Republic of Bashkortostan, 15 km southeast from the Ufa-city). It is shown that a single thin cultural layer of this small settlement site contains Imendyashevo, Turbasly ceramics, and ceramics with a mixture of both these traditions, and can be dated to the 4th century AD (most likely from the middle to the end of this period), but this manor existed for a very short time. The studied osteological sample was compared with data on 18 zooarchaeological samples from Southern Ural and bordering territories. Multivariate analysis of this dataset has shown that at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD there was a significant transformation in the composition of herd, held by local population.

Keywords

• archaeology
• southern ural
• forest-steppe
• the great migration
• zooarchaeology and paleopedology
• economic structure
• cultural interaction