Pages: 345-357
The system with an inner wall and a ditch is one of the most common architectural solutions in fortification, as well as a wat to form artificial ecological niches or a symbolic cosmos. However, in archaeology, such systems are often interpreted solely as fortresses. On the basis of Sintashta-Petrovka Late Bronze Age settlements, we attempt to show that in some cases such system is not necessarily related to hostile social environments. Our data on local soils and results of GIS modeling suggest that adaptation to the environment can be another important factor contributing to building such refuges, and that not every archaeological source can witness in favor of a violent human nature. We believe that attempts to explain hillforts solely by an aggressive social environment will undermine heuristic possibilities of archaeological sources and will place all researchers on the Procrustean bed of skewed interpretations. We can obtain more or less plausible answers about purposes of such structures, as well as any other architectural forms, only if we consider all factors and check various hypotheses.
Keywords: Southern Trans-Urals, Late Bronze Age, Sintashta, fortified settlement, soils, geographic information system (GIS)
Information about author:
Igor Chechushkov (Pittsburg, USA). PhD, Candidate of Historical Sciences. South Ural State University (National Research University), the center of Eurasian research. Lenin Ave. 76-403, Chelyabinsk, 454080, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Artem Yakimov (Tyumen, Russian Federation). Candidate of Geographical Sciences. Tyumen Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Earth Cryosphere Institute. Malygin St., 86, Tyumen, 625026, Russian Federation; University of Tyumen, Institute of Geo-sciences. Volodarsky St., 6, Tyumen, 625003, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Gligor Dakovic (Pittsburg, USA). Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh.
University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, 3302 WWPH, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
E-mail: [email protected]