Pages: 347-375

The article presents variants of reconstructions of wood-earth dwellings of the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age (VI millennium — 8th century BC), excavated in the taiga Ob’ area and the headwaters of the Pur River. Neolithic and Eneolithic dugouts did not have walls as such. Their deeper parts (excavations) were excavated in the sand to a depth of 0.6—1.8 m and complemented by a ceiling of the truncated-pyramidal shape. It was built from poles and thin logs, covered with moss, birch, sand and humus. The ceiling frame was supported by poles installed inside the room. Outside, such dwellings looked like earthen hills. At the beginning and middle of the Bronze Age, dugouts and semi-dugouts were replaced by ground frame and pillar structures with inclined walls and shallow (0.2—0.4 m) rectangular pits that occupied the main part of the room. At the end of the Bronze Age houses appeared without foundation pits and with self-supporting log walls, fortified vertical stakes, and also with walls of a log structure. The base of the walls was not installed in a wood-clad trench, but on a small (0.8—1.5 m) distance from it. Outside, it was fortified with soil, taken from pits, located around the sand mound — “zavalinka”. The areas of ancient dwellings usually ranged from 30 to 70 m2, and their height from the floor did not exceed 2.5 m. The largest single log buildings ranging from 200 to 650 m2, surrounded by ditches and protective walls, formed a special type of settlement-fortresses — “fortified dwellings”.

Keywords: Western Siberia, taiga, Neolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze Age, dwellings, reconstruction

Information about author:

Victor Borzunov (Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Ural Federal University named after First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin. Lenin Ave., 51, Yekaterinburg, 620083, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]