Pages: 309-324

According to archaeological data, the Albanian-Sarmatian period is characterized by a weak population of the territory of Dagestan. In the mountainous part of the region there is an almost complete population decline to the turn of the era, which began in the early Iron Age and is associated with a recorded cooling in the mountains in that period. In the 3rd century AD, there was an active growth in the number of settlements, the emergence of a hierarchy of settlements, including early urban centers, which reflected the cardinal socio-economic transformations in society. Since that time, the Iranian-speaking nomads began their mass migration to the Caspian Dagestan, which was due to the climatic factor and political events in the region. Population growth and density in the 3rd—5th centuries AD and the reverse settlement of the mountain zone, obviously, was a consequence of the socio-economic development of society against the background of climate improvement. The observed climatic changes were recorded according to the results of paleobotanical studies of the ancient peatland in Mountainous Dagestan, which showed the relationship of migration and demographic processes with the natural and climatic situation. The deterioration of the military and political situation in the Caspian plain in the 6th—8th centuries AD was the reason for the termination of the functioning of many settlements on the border of the plain and foothills and caused back migration to the mountains.

Keywords: Caucasus, Dagestan, Sarmatian period, Early Medieval period, demographic processes, migrations, paleobotanical studies

Information about authors:

Murtazali Gadjiev (Makhachkala, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of Daghestan Federal Research Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences. M. Yaraghski St., 75, Makhachkala, 367030, Republic of Dagestan, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Marat Bakushev (Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. “Archaeological Society of Kuban” Ltd. Chekhov St., 62, off. 5, Rostov-on-Don, 344000, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Alexander Borisov (Pushchino, Russian Federation). Candidate of Biological Sciences. Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Institutskaya St., 2, Pushchino, 142290, Pushchino municipal district, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation
E-mail: a. [email protected]
Natalia Ryabogina (Tyumen, Russian Federation). Candidate of Geology and Mineralogy. Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Tyumen Scientific Center, Institute of Problems of Development of the North. Malygin St., 86, Tyumen, 625003, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]