Specialists of the state historical and cultural reserve "Arkaim" have opened a new archaeological field season.
The expedition this year will conduct new research on the multilayer settlement of Levoberezhnoe (Sintashta II). It is located near the village of Komsomolsky, Bredinsky District. At the moment, this site is considered one of the most interesting archaeological sites of the so-called "Country of cities" of the Bronze Age.
Archaeologists have already taken out to the area, marked out, fixed and completely cleared a new site of the archaeological monument from modern small metal debris and vegetation. This is necessary for his remote research using modern natural science methods. Earlier, on the area of 700 square meters, geophysicists carried out micromagnetic mapping. It makes it possible, without disturbing the surface of the archaeological site, to discover the main remains of ancient structures located underground. This scientific method this time made it possible to determine the boundaries and distribution of the remains of the bypass and inner ditch, the outer wall and the foundation pit of an ancient dwelling located underground in this area of the settlement. There is reason to believethat the discovered objects can be dated to the time of the existence of the settlement of Arkaim (end of the third millennium BC).
Archaeologists are planning to lay one more excavation this field season. They intend to study it in parallel with the first excavation, on the materials of which scientists have been studying the remains of ancient structures and the preserved cultural layer in another part of the settlement since last year.
Reference. Sintashta culture is an archaeological culture of the Bronze Age (late III - early II millennium BC). At present, 22 fortified cultural settlements have been found in the Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions. Most of the settlement sites of the Sintashta culture are located near the rivers of the Ural and Tobolsk basins. In the South Urals, in particular, such settlements have been discovered as Arkaim, Bersuat, Kamenny Ambar, Kuysak, Sintashta, Ustye, Stepnoye, Kizilskoye, Alandskoye, Sintashta II and others. The burial grounds of Sintashtinsky, Bolshekaragan, Krivoye Ozero, Bulanovo, Stepnoye VII, Tanabergen II, Bestamak and others have been discovered and studied.
Elena Nikolaeva