The origins of urbanization in the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia

Описание: A huge archeological material testifies that the origins of urbanization in Western Siberia should be associated with the formation of ancient fortified settlements – fortresses that appeared on this territory in the Bronze Age and protocities formed in the early Iron Age.The first simple fortifications in the form of stockades or fortified dwellings in the forest-steppe zone of Trans-Urals are fixed on the materials of the Bronze Age monuments (the II millennium BC). During this period their number was insignificant, the bulk continued to be unfortified villages.The increase in the number of fortified settlements was greater in the transition period from bronze to iron (the 2nd quarter of the 1st millennium BC). They were round-oval in shape towns with area up to 4 hectares.
There were major suburbs around them. The citadels of the time were poorly fortified fences. The appearance of first fortifications is connected with the destabilization of the political situation in the region as a result of the influx of migrants from the North of Western Siberia. Then the strengthening of the village with a palisade or a fence was not defensive but probably ideological in nature. The aim was to preserve their cultural traditions within phratry.In the early Iron Age (the middle of the 1st millennium BC – the middle of the 1st millennium AD) the number of settlements increases. In the forest-steppe zone of Trans-Urals they number more than 100. One-third of excavated settlements are multicultural, from 15 to 20 fortified settlements belonged to carriers of certain traditions. Within this period the dynamics of fortification is well traced. Fortifications of early stage continue the tradition of the transition from bronze to iron time. Archaeologically they are fixed in the form of small grooves on the perimeter, holes for posts, charcoal and traces of burnt wooden structures in the embankment of the earthen rampart. They are reconstructed as a hedge of stockade fence around the residential area. Most of them could not perform a defensive function. Already at that
time there is specialization of fortified settlements as centers of metalworking, import, exchange, cooperation of multicultural
population.By the 5-3 centuries BC increasing complexity of fortifications is recorded. The number, height and power of the earthen ramparts with wooden fortifications in the form of the palisades, fences, walls, crates, towers and surrounding ditches are increased. There is not only a general tendency to strengthen the fortifications, but also to the complexity of their structure: double-, triple area settlements are emerging. The search for new forms, combinations of known elements and structures to enhance the overall defense capability is noted. The materials of some fortresses recorded import items of Chinese and Central Asian origin indicating them as centers of trade and exchange. The fortresses became the centers of origin and transmission of cultural innovation, and the process of urbanization and the resulting changes in the ancient and medieval societies to the greatest extent determined the development of the region.

Author - Tsembalyuk, Svetlana, Institute of problems of devepment of the North, Tyumen, Russian Federation (Presenting author)
Co-author(s) - Anoshko, Oksana, Institute of problems of devepment of the North, Tyumen, Russian Federation
Co-author(s) - Berlin, Svetlana, Institute of problems of devepment of the North, Tyumen, Russian Federation