The history of Russia has been diligently destroyed by strangers for several centuries. They are trying to humiliate us, and by this, at least a little to lift themselves. However, we always have reasonable people who nullify all their efforts and attempts …
Introduction
We are accustomed to the fact that our land is a quiet province, a country of evergreen tomatoes, where it is cold 3 months a year and very cold 9 months.
Among those who are not engaged in historical research, and even among historians, there is an opinion that everything more or less significant in these places appeared only in the second half of the 20th century, and before that life was dull and hard.
As for the tomato and the cold - everything is correct, but otherwise I disagree. Our land keeps many secrets and mysteries. Among them, one of the most significant is the culture of ancient cities that are located on the territory of our region. Moreover, the point is not only in the very fact of their existence.
Nobody disputes the fact. Another thing is not clear - how they looked, what people lived here and, most importantly, who inhabited these cities? And the last question - why is all this not interesting to anyone except historians?
These four questions are all the more mysterious because they are not discussed by the press or the general public. They do not write about this in the newspapers, they do not speak on local television, and in the local history museum you will not see anything about the civilization of ancient cities.
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The topic is so extensive and interesting that it is impossible to fit it into the framework of one article. Let's first clarify the first 2 questions: what did those cities look like and how did they live?
Settlements and sites
So, on the territory of Udmurtia, Kirov region, Tatarstan and Perm region (hereinafter - Prikamye), many remains of fortified settlements were found. Most of them date back to the 10-13th century. In archeology, it is customary to call them “settlements”.
Before moving on, let's make it clear for ourselves that a settlement is just an archaeological term. It does not matter what the archaeologists have discovered: the ruins of a large city with stone walls or a fort fortified by a rampart and palisade, the excavator will write simply "settlement".
The same applies to the term "parking lot". The remains of settlements from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and earlier are called sites. This does not mean at all that our Neolithic ancestors wandered all the time, and stopped only to spend the night and scatter bones around. Long-term settlements are most often found.
Despite the fact that the terms "site" and "settlement" are constantly used by archaeologists, do not let them mislead you. Everyone should understand that absolutely nothing can be said about a specific discovered settlement with a sufficient degree of certainty until a variety of data have been collected about it, until they are generalized, and, finally, until a scientific reconstruction of this settlement is made.
And if the first and second are carried out, then reconstruction is a great rarity. And the fact that after all reconstructed by archaeologists on a whim, by intuition (for example, the settlement of Idnakar) does not stand up to criticism.
Technological reconstruction method
A. V. Korobeinikov in his book "Historical Reconstruction Based on Archeological Data" wrote about the imperfection of the existing principles of reconstruction, proposed new interesting methods. I, in turn, would like to show the possibilities of the "technological method" of reconstruction.
In the above article, Aleksey Vladimirovich noted that he was mainly interested in the military-defensive aspect during the reconstruction of ancient structures. And not least because of the author's experience in this area.
But I am an engineer-technologist, and within the framework of my knowledge and experience, it is completely wild for me to hear from people who are quite authoritative in archeology about the semi-dug-out houses that they have excavated on ancient settlements, whose inhabitants allegedly successfully engaged in casting metals into earthen molds, into composite forms, and using lost wax patterns, and in their free time from skinning and grazing, they allegedly produced mass-produced jewelry products by the method of chasing on special matrices.
Hence the "technological method" appeared. It's simple enough. So, during excavations, objects are found that were somehow made. Find various equipment and tools.
Often, archaeologists, not being specialists in any production technologies, and even new to the device of technical devices in general, are not able to correctly reconstruct these production and the preparatory processes accompanying them. But for a person with a technical education and practice behind him, all this is not a mystery.
It is known that a production technologist is given the task of developing a process for the manufacture of a part with a given productivity. At the same time, he must independently select the appropriate equipment, tools, materials, describe the sequence of operations (draw up a technological map), as well as create a layout for the production site and calculate the required number of workers.
The chain of these calculations is very straightforward, and it can be used (as it were, to unwind) in the opposite direction. That is, having seen a certain production site, the technologist can always determine which products can in principle be produced here, in what quantities and how many workers will be required when this production is fully loaded. A specialist can say a lot about individual elements - equipment, tooling and tools.
In archeology, we have both. Based on the found products, you can restore the production process, and based on the remains of the process elements, you can calculate its capabilities. This greatly simplifies the reconstruction and makes it scientifically sound and reliable.
It would seem that a modern technologist can say about such antiquities: other times, other technologies. However, many of the archaeologists would be very surprised to learn how far progress has gone, because even now many production processes, which originate in antiquity, exist almost unchanged, because they are based on invariable physical principles.
And the physiological parameters of people have not changed much since then. The myth that people used to be much more resilient and could push a huge stone uphill on skating rinks all day without "smoke breaks" and lunch is not confirmed by anatomy and physiology.
To say this is as foolish as to assume that an experienced welder could get used to regularly weld metal without a face shield and still be healthy. No, he would suffer from pain in his eyes and then go blind. Human laziness is one thing, but physiological capabilities are quite another.
In the end, a person can work at the limit of strength for a long time, but this will definitely lead to exhaustion of the body, and then to occupational diseases and early death. On a national scale, this means extinction. Nothing has changed in this matter since antiquity.
If this or that nation existed successfully and developed, then the conditions of its work were within the framework of the main current standards for labor protection, for these standards are dictated by the physiological capabilities of the human body, which, according to paleoanthropology, have not fundamentally changed over the millennia.
Application of the "technological method"
Is it possible to apply this method in practice? Let's try.
Since it is not always possible to obtain full-fledged materials on excavations, I chose a thick book with beautiful pictures and rather detailed field reports as an object for testing the new method ("Ancient Afkula: an archaeological complex near the village of Rozhdestvensk", AM Belavin, N. B. Krylasova, Perm 2008).
Geographically, this settlement was located on the banks of the Obva River, a tributary of the Kama. And dates back to the 13th century. The book contains many finds; this is an excellent sample for testing the described method.
It is reasonable to divide our research by industry:
Metallurgy (obtaining metals from ores, casting).
Metalworking (pressure treatment, machining).
Ceramic production.
Woodworking.
Metallurgy
The first thing that we know from the publication of archaeologists is that metallurgy was there. This is evidenced not only by the cast items found at the site (Fig. 1) (Belavin, Krylasova, 2008: 451, Fig. 186), but also by the molds for their manufacture (Fig. 2) (Belavin, Krylasova, 2008:. 285, fig. 141). So, these are products and tools, but where is the equipment itself?
Picture 1.
Figure 2.
The melting temperature of the bronzes is 950-1100 ° C, and the casting temperature of the bronzes lies in the range of 1100-1300 ° C, because fluidity must be ensured, otherwise the metal will not fill the mold. Therefore, a special oven is essential.
It is quite obvious that for continuous operation with a guaranteed result, the metallurgical furnace had to steadily maintain a temperature of 1300 ° C. Such ovens were known at that time. Archaeologists call them horns. Melting in such forges was carried out in crucibles (Fig. 3) (Belavin, Krylasova, 2008: 284, Fig. 140). On the excavated territory of the settlement, which is 2500 sq.m. (10% of the entire settlement), 3 forges were found.
Figure 3.
Among them, one is a potter's, and two are metallurgical. An arrowhead, fragments and whole iron knives, fragments of bronze jewelry were found in the first metallurgical forge, and only jewelry in the second.
Everything is clear with the bronze crowbar. Everything, except for the fact that archaeologists often confuse brass with bronze. This becomes apparent when you read in a field report or in a book about the discovery of a bronze wire.
Every engineer knows that bronze flows well, but its plasticity is very low. Therefore, it is simply unrealistic to pull the wire out of it through the gimp. Pulling through a plate with holes is now the main method of making wire, and then it was the only one.
But brass stretches well. Consequently, for the assessment of technological processes, one should, of course, distinguish between these alloys, because for melting and casting brass, a stable temperature of 800 ° C is sufficient, which is much easier and requires less energy.
Unlike archaeologists of the 21st century, ancient metallurgists clearly understood this matter. After all, they cooked brass for the manufacture of wire, and bronze for various spring elements. But we'll have to take the archaeologists' word for it.
It is also understandable how it all got past the crucible to the bottom of the furnace: before placing the crucible in the furnace cavity, it was loaded with bronze scrap and flux. However, it is not known exactly what the volume of the melt will be.
Even if it is strictly measured by weights, the exact yield of the melt by volume cannot be obtained, because the elements are burned out, something goes into the slag. Moreover, the chemical composition of the scrap is heterogeneous and correction is often required; the metallurgist must add more copper or tin during the melting process.
In addition, during casting, a marriage was obtained (and now for casting, 10% of the marriage is the norm), it was re-melted.
There is a more prosaic reason why the scrap had to be poured directly into the crucible, which was in the red-hot forge. If you fill up a full crucible with a hill with scrap, then after melting it will barely fill half of the crucible, and in order to effectively use the loading-melting-pouring cycle, the scrap was simply poured from above. Of course, something fell past. Metallurgists are doing exactly the same now. By the way, they have exactly the same crucibles, only they are heated with gas or electricity.
But what is there doing the scrap iron in the form of whole knives and fragments? Whole knives could be heat treated here (quenched and carburized). Why heat the debris?
The fragments could only be heated for refining or remelting. But for forging such a forge is extremely inconvenient to use, because it had a closed structure and was loaded from above through a small hole, which, perhaps, even partially overlapped to maintain the temperature.
And when forging, the product must often be removed, hammered, and placed back in the heating zone. For this, other furnaces are used, they are more open, but give a lower temperature, up to 900 … 1000 ° С.
There is nothing left but to suppose that this furnace could develop temperatures up to 1400 … 1545 ° С. Because only at this temperature is it possible to remelt scrap iron in a crucible. This is possible if there is a powerful blowing of air by bellows.
At these temperatures, refractory clay crucibles are required for reliable operation. It is very easy to determine from which clay the crucible is made, it is enough to determine the content of aluminum oxide in the material, and if it is 30 … 42%, then this is a refractory. But such clays are not found in our area. Where did they come from?
The method described in 1769 by Rychkov may also be useful here:
“A short distance from the village of Itskiy estuary, near the banks of the Kama River, there is a sandy mountain, which supplies many copper factories with excellent and rare sand, which breeders use for hearth bricks. They combine it with white clay to make square stones, which are usually dried in the sun. The benefit from it is that, being too strong, it carries away the most powerful flame of fire, so that the smelting furnace, inside which is laid out with this stone, can stand from twenty to forty days without fear of the cruelty of the flame that breaks the strongest stones … (Rychkov, 1769, p. 58).
Probably, here we are talking about quartz sand. The melting point of quartz sand is about 1700 ° C, and the corresponding mixture can be successfully used as a refractory.
Unfortunately, archaeologists are not puzzled by such analyzes. And we can only state the fact that a lot of crucibles have been found, and this is the foundry equipment.
Since the fragments of knives can only be regarded as a charge, this forge was used for crucible smelting not only of bronze, copper, silver, gold, but also iron (steel). Moreover, it is known that the crucible method produces especially high-quality steels to be hardened, as well as damask steel.
Thus, we can make a reasonable conclusion that the inhabitants of this settlement owned non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy.
This is confirmed by the found products. 100% of tools, such as ralniki (plow heads), hoes, axes, knives, scissors are made of an array of bladed (soft) iron with welded blades of crucible (hard) steel. This is understandable, because crucible steel was quite laborious to manufacture, it was cooked in small quantities, of high quality, and protected.
But the blooming iron, from which the base of the tools and a lot of all kinds of hardware is made, had to be smelted in much larger quantities. But the found horns are not helpers in this. For this, we used a different type of blowing furnaces.
In them, ore with fuel was loaded directly into the furnace cavity, where, at a temperature of about 1300 ° C, iron was reduced from oxides. In this case, the reduced iron was sintered into a spongy mass (kritz). The slags flowed down, and the hearth, as such, was not there.
The fact that archaeologists did not find such furnaces (blast furnaces) on the described settlement suggests two possible options. Either the locals bought the blistering iron, or simply the blast furnaces did not get into the excavation zone.
The first is unlikely, since we are dealing here with a higher technical level of crucible smelting. Anyone who knows how to do this will be able to smelt and blast iron. In addition, in almost all excavations of large settlements of that time, cheese-blowing forges are found. That is, they were ubiquitous. There are no obstacles to the implementation of this technology in this settlement. Rather, the second reason was at work: let us remember that only 10% of the settlement was excavated here.
In addition, one must clearly understand that the purchase of raw materials and components is not just additional production costs. Such cooperation means the strategic vulnerability of production and the settlement based on it.
In order to be confident in the reliability of supplies, you need to have a developed infrastructure (reliable transport systems), and not to wage constant wars. That is, to be part of a large developed political system (state).
Therefore, those who talk about the savagery of the then life, constant mutual raids and robbery, should forget about medieval cooperation and developed industrial trade. Occasional trading of a few luxury goods is one thing, but daily and large-volume imports of basic raw materials is another.
Even in a stable political environment, imports of basic raw materials would make production highly dependent and vulnerable. But this would prevent the settlement from developing and prospering, as can be seen from its size and the skill level of its artisans.
The final point in this question is put by the discovery of fragments of iron bars, which makes no sense to trade in such a raw form. Obviously, it should be recognized that the settlement also owned a raw iron smelter.
So, we can say with confidence that there was a complete metallurgical complex at the Rozhdestvensky settlement, from ore to finished product. Minimum 2 metallurgical forges for crucible smelting, one for smelting iron.
Each was served by at least 2-3 metallurgists in each shift, because constant blowing with furs is required. Workers should replace each other. In total, 6-10 metallurgists. You should not fantasize that underage teenagers were sitting on the blower. There was enough for teenagers and other, less hard work, but 6-10 healthy men worked fully here.
But we also need related production. The same ore itself will not crawl out of the ground and will not fill the forge. It must be found, removed from the ground, ignited on a fire and chopped. Then the ore needs to be delivered to the city, sometimes over a long distance. And this is its own large-scale work that requires skill and skill. If the metallurgist himself was doing this, then his furnaces would be idle most of the time.
Therefore, in Russia, the profession "digger" has long been known (not holes, but ores). In the 16th century, ore mining was also carried out separately in the Urals. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account that these people also participated in the process. And since metallurgy was both non-ferrous and ferrous, different ores and deposits were used. This means that there were a sufficient number of miners - at least 2 per one "deposit". In our case, at least 4 people.
In addition, metallurgy used then and now uses dolomite and other fluxes, which also need to be mined, processed and delivered. At least 1 person was involved in flux mining.
The smelting was carried out on charcoal. A huge amount of it was consumed. With the daily work of at least 3 found forges, at least 3 cubic meters would be burned. meters of charcoal. The real demand of the entire production, taking into account the unidentified raw-blown forges and processing plants, should have reached 10 cubic meters. meters per day.
This was done by charcoal burners. They burned coal in the pits. This work is dirty and hard, but does not require any special skills. This job requires a minimum of 4 people. But in order to get 10 cubic meters of coal, which is about 2 tons, you need to prepare 15-16 cubic meters of birch. This means that you need to dump about 15-20 birches with a diameter of at least 30 cm at the base, spread them on logs, and pull them apart into the holes. This is a team of loggers of at least 10 people.
Population calculations as a first approximation
Let's summarize. The metallurgical industry employed at least 15–20 people. These people, I'm sure, had families. Traditionally, even taking into account the high infant mortality rate, the family had an average of about 5 children. And our ancestors did not throw old people off the cliff either. Means - plus 2 old men. It turns out 15-20 men, plus 15-20 women, plus 75-100 children, plus 30-40 old people. Total: 135-180 people living mainly on income from the metallurgical industry.
Of course, all of them had no reason to live in the city. Miners, loggers, and charcoal burners were more likely to live close to their place of work. I am not suggesting that the loggers lived in the woods directly under the tree. No, they were just a rural population. But if we take the minimum figures, then there were at least 54 people or 6 households who definitely lived in the city. The villagers involved in the process - 81 people or 9 households.
If I were sure that in the settlement, apart from metallurgy, they absolutely did not do anything, I would boldly multiply these indicators by 10 and get 540 urban residents or 60 households, and 810 rural residents or 90 households. After all, only 10% of the territory has been explored.
To this should be added the social superstructure in the form of authorities and guards, which at that time was probably on the order of 5-10%. Let's take an average of 7% and get an additional 38 city dwellers and 4 households. A total of 578 urban residents or 64 households, respectively.
In addition, they all consumed food. Consumed but not produced. And who produced it? These are additional villagers who are not involved in the production process. Moreover, it is known that with agricultural technologies of that time, in order to feed 1 household engaged in production with food surpluses, at least 3 farms were required.
This means that 4164 farmers should be added to the rural population, which will make 4974 rural residents or 552 rural households. Already at this stage, you can create a reconstruction. However, uneven employment of workers in other sectors can significantly adjust the calculations.
Metalworking
Here we do not expect to find equipment in the form of mechanical devices, machine tools (perhaps, forge forges) and we mean manual processing. Therefore, we are primarily interested in the tool and the products themselves. Metalworking processes take up much less space than metallurgical ones, and are interesting primarily from the point of view of reconstruction of everyday life and the appearance of city residents. I think that all of the above allows us to speak about the city.
The most common metalworking process then was forging. For the equipment of the forge, you need: a forge, an anvil and a quenching and cooling tank. In our climate, this is a covered log building with a minimum size of 3 by 4 meters. Long-term work of a blacksmith under a canopy or in the open air, as artists usually depict according to archaeologists, taking into account seasonal temperature fluctuations, is simply out of the question in our region: this is a direct road to a hospital bed. The quality of the products will also suffer - the workpiece will cool faster and the productivity will decrease. I think in order to avoid such problems, it was worth working with an ax. Moreover, it will be shown below how high the level of carpentry and joinery was among the townspeople.
A minimum of 2 people must work in the forge. We do not know how many forges were there, but we can reasonably believe that one metallurgical forge worked for 1 forge. If there are 3 forges, then this is a triple capacity, which means that it is 3 times larger in size or 3 separate forges. In any case, at least 6 blacksmiths. They consumed about 2 cubic meters. meters of coal per day.
And what, in fact, can be produced in this forge?
At a forge equipped in this way, it is possible to forge bars to remove non-metallic inclusions and obtain critical iron. Without hammering, the crust is a spongy, loose mass, and is not suitable for anything. This was done here unambiguously. You can also forge ironmongery, nails, staples, horseshoes, bolts, door hinges, mechanism parts from bladed iron; break iron into sheets, strips, rods; pull wire from iron, copper, silver and gold (however, it is likely that silver and gold were dealt with separately). Among the items found on the site are all of the above. Also, at such forges, forge welding is performed, soldering with hard (copper, brass) and soft (tin) solders. When welding and brazing, borax-type fluxes were used without fail. They were mined by those who dealt with fluxes for metallurgists.
Here we do not expect to find equipment in the form of mechanical devices, machine tools (perhaps, forge forges) and we mean manual processing. Therefore, we are primarily interested in the tool and the products themselves. Metalworking processes take up much less space than metallurgical ones, and are interesting primarily from the point of view of reconstruction of everyday life and the appearance of city residents. I think that all of the above allows us to speak about the city.
The most common metalworking process then was forging. For the equipment of the forge, you need: a forge, an anvil and a quenching and cooling tank. In our climate, this is a covered log building with a minimum size of 3 by 4 meters. Long-term work of a blacksmith under a canopy or in the open air, as artists usually depict according to archaeologists, taking into account seasonal temperature fluctuations, is simply out of the question in our region: this is a direct road to a hospital bed. The quality of the products will also suffer - the workpiece will cool faster and the productivity will decrease. I think in order to avoid such problems, it was worth working with an ax. Moreover, it will be shown below how high the level of carpentry and joinery was among the townspeople.
A minimum of 2 people must work in the forge. We do not know how many forges were there, but we can reasonably believe that one metallurgical forge worked for 1 forge. If there are 3 forges, then this is a triple capacity, which means that it is 3 times larger in size or 3 separate forges. In any case, at least 6 blacksmiths. They consumed about 2 cubic meters. meters of coal per day.
And what, in fact, can be produced in this forge?
At a forge equipped in this way, it is possible to forge bars to remove non-metallic inclusions and obtain critical iron. Without hammering, the crust is a spongy, loose mass, and is not suitable for anything. This was done here unambiguously. You can also forge ironmongery, nails, staples, horseshoes, bolts, door hinges, mechanism parts from bladed iron; break iron into sheets, strips, rods; pull wire from iron, copper, silver and gold (however, it is likely that silver and gold were dealt with separately). Among the items found on the site are all of the above. Also, at such forges, forge welding is performed, soldering with hard (copper, brass) and soft (tin) solders. When welding and brazing, borax-type fluxes were used without fail. They were mined by those who dealt with fluxes for metallurgists.
The result of applying these technologies, we observe among the finds (Fig. 4). Almost all iron products are made using welding. Many of them are made in the form of a three-layer package, or with a welded steel blade. 60% of all found knives were made according to the three-layer package scheme. Welding of steel blades is also used in the manufacture of scissors. These were products of excellent sharpness and durability, and their variety is so great that even absolutely modern-looking table knives with rounded ends are present.
Interestingly, poor quality knives are almost never found. The ones that we use to scrape vegetables in the kitchen today are not close to being compared in terms of steel quality. Even the hoes of that time are so hard and sharp that archaeologists doubt if it was adze for a tree. But the plow heads are of the same quality, and they obviously did not cut anything with them.
Now agricultural and household tools of this level of quality are not only very expensive, they are actually not produced. This means that the presence of such tools testifies to the high quality of life of that time and the facilitation of manual labor. Anyone who has mowed with a firm, well-broken and straightened scythe knows that less effort is expended than any other electric trimmer. Such a scythe is much lighter, it can be easily brought to a distant mowing, and if it is made using the technologies described above, then it will be extremely rare to become blunt.
Mechanical processing, most likely, was carried out both in the smithy itself and in special locksmiths and jewelry workshops. Of the metal cutting can be called grinding. Many whetstones have been found. Among them there is even a grinding wheel that is quite modern in shape. On such a circle, you can get very smooth sanded surfaces. The same knives, scissors can be processed no worse than modern ones.
It is also impossible to manufacture products of this quality without filing. Indeed, files were widespread then. For example, the files of the 13th century from the Raikovets settlement and Vyshgorod do not differ at all from the modern ones. In the figure (Fig. 5) (a) - Vyshgorodsky, (b) - Raykovetsky. Under the letter (c), pay attention to the variety of profiles of ancient files. There is no oval under the letter (d) among the profiles of modern files. It says something. In our case, no files were found, but the fact that filing was used in the manufacture of the found products cannot be denied.
In addition, the metal was processed by pressure. These are cutting, stitching, notching, bending, riveting, embossing, stamping on dies. Found matching tools and products. Of interest in this respect are cast openwork matrices, which made it possible to emboss repetitive metal plates from the sheet (Fig. 6). It turned out very nicely, neatly and efficiently. A huge number of them have been found (Fig. 7).
In general, we can say that the inhabitants of the city owned all the methods of locksmithing. Except, perhaps, drilling and sawing metal, which they replaced with piercing and cutting. Having found the tools, it was possible to make almost any mechanical thing, even a Faberge watch. Only for this, of course, it was necessary to master specific calculations.
The most common mechanisms that urban artisans made were padlocks. A lot of them were found (Fig. 8). The lock consisted of a case with figured grooves and a cavity, as well as a bow with leaf springs fixed at its end. It latched on automatically and unlocked with a curly key. When closing, the bow was inserted into the holes in the case. In this case, the springs were automatically compressed and straightened only when they were in the closed cavity of the body when the bow was completely closed. Thus, they, resting their ends against the body, securely fixed the bow. Only a narrow figured slot on the bottom of the case led into the closed cavity. Opening the lock without a special key was very difficult. To open the lock, the corresponding key was inserted into the slot and, with further longitudinal movement, compressed the springs,allowing the bow to be removed from the case.
I think the readers are far from thinking that the inhabitants locked sheds, huts and semi-dugouts with such reliable locks. Apparently, it's time to talk about good-quality wooden doors, log houses, reliable ceilings with heat-insulating backfill and non-leaking roofs. After all, there is little point in a lock on the door, if you can easily enter the house by scattering straw or splints on the roof.
It is safe to say that the life of the city residents was not painful. If jewelry crafts are developing, then they are in demand. And the fact that people can afford not just good-quality, but beautiful, exquisite things, speaks of prosperity. In addition, such decorations are found in local burials so often that there is no reason to speak of them as something elite. These things were available to ordinary citizens.
To figure out how this production might look like in reality, it is enough not to lump everything together. Do not assume that the same blacksmith was rushing between the anvil and the wire thread, and then, not having time to wash his hands from the scale, he minted silver. There is no need to invent anything, because we know how the division of labor according to trades was objectively formed historically.
The fact that here in the 13th century the division of labor into crafts has already occurred is beyond doubt. This is evidenced by a high level of skill, a rich set of processing methods and a very diverse toolkit. I understand how unpleasant it is for some to admit it. But of course, because the same thing happened at that time in Europe. We, in the history books, wrote that there were only trees and wolves then. However, the finds testify to an earlier and more interesting history of our region.
There was definitely a separate jewelry workshop. There were chasing, stamping, riveting, carving, grinding, polishing, silvering, gilding. There they also pulled brass, silver, gold wire through a gimp, and made chains and other jewelry from them, which were found in abundance.
For work on gilding, silvering, as well as jewelry brazing, you need your own oven, high-temperature (up to 1000 ° C), but very small. Archaeologists might not have recorded it at all. It is very irrational for a jeweler to run to the metallurgists' neighbors and get confused under their feet with their little crucibles. And without heating, he can't even cast a wire drawing blank. Most likely, precious metals were also smelted for casting products on the same furnace, which has not yet been found. Instead of a furnace, a blowtorch of a special design, which by that time were known in Central Asia, could be used. Nothing of the kind has been found here yet, so you should focus on the oven. However, this has little effect on our constructions, only slightly reduces the technological capabilities.
The specificity of the jewelry craft is that everything there is small and quite expensive. Therefore, the volumes are small and they try to reduce losses. On a large furnace, both fuel costs and losses are always inevitably high. Therefore, a sufficiently voluminous bronze casting has always existed in a separate process.
Thus, the jewelry workshop was a closed room at least 3 by 4 meters, like a forge. There was a small furnace for melting, gilding and silvering, a workbench and a lot of tools. Among the devices, there should have been dies (gimbals), small rolling rolls, and an anvil. 1 person can work there. Coal consumption is low.
We have a forge and a jewelry workshop. The mechanical workshop of that time could hardly be combined with a forge. It had to be separate, where only grinding, fitting and assembly work was done. The same blades could be forged in a forge, and this is only 1/3 of the work, and grinding, assembly of handles and scabbards could take place in another, more adapted and comfortable room.
The second assumption should be accepted as a common practice in the craft centers of the time. Grinding and assembling products is really impossible in a forge. For high-quality grinding, you need at least good lighting.
In the smithy, on the contrary, the lighting was always semi-dark. This is important for determining the degree of heating of the forging. Its blacksmiths even today determine by the color of the hot metal. If it is not heated, then the metal will crack during the forging process, if it is overheated, then defects will also appear. In natural, daylight, the tints of the hot metal are simply not visible.
Thus, the mechanical workshop stands out. It is the same size as the forge, an enclosed space equipped with a small anvil, a workbench, a hand-powered grinder, good lighting and many tools.
Grinding, polishing and fitting is a laborious, time-consuming and highly skilled process. What a blacksmith can do in a day, a grinder will be able to finish in at least 3 days, since his work is less productive. However, it should be noted that some of the products of the blacksmith production come out in finished form. These are mainly hardware products. Therefore, it can be assumed that at least 2 people worked in the mechanical workshop.
Ceramic production
Everything was in order with ceramics in the city under study. It was produced a lot and of fairly high quality. I would risk invading the archaeological site of shards here. Using these shards, they illogically try to divide a culture that is completely homogeneous in all other indicators into many small, separate and, allegedly, hostile. I will not dwell on this especially. It is only incomprehensible why local scientists are pouring water on the immature theory of the neighboring "Bulgarism". Did the grants from the neighboring subject of the federation reach here too? Somehow unpatriotic.
Judge for yourself. They find here high quality ceramic vessels, beautifully ornamented, and they say that these are vessels of the Bulgar type (60% of them). They also find vessels that are made coarser (40% of them), and they say that these are vessels made by local artisans. It is obvious that the allegedly Bulgar vessels were produced here, after all, pits were found for preparing the corresponding clay dough, and those vessels that were not completely burnt in a collapsed pottery forge. What is Bulgarian in them? But the professors-archeologists Belavin and Krylasova persist and put forward the assumption that a Bulgar branch worked here. Why not just conclude that local craftsmen knew how to make pottery products no worse than Bulgar?
There is one more point, which for some reason was hidden from the authors of archaeological monographs. All vessels from among the rough, in shape and purpose, belong to pots that were used for household purposes, including for cooking over an open fire. And all supposedly Bulgarian, by designation, let's say, are more ceremonial. Here is the answer to this big secret. Porcelain dishes are still not used for slops. It is clear that this is a matter of ordinary practicality. Who will decorate the pot to smoke it right there? So why bother with neighboring branches here?
Following a similar logic, crudely made pots, which are likely to be found in the Bulgar Bilyarsk, should immediately be declared brought from the northern regions. Or it can be recognized as made here, but in the "Christmas" branch by the inept hands of our townspeople. And the castles found here in the "Christmas" city, about which it was written above, should be called Kiev (very similar), and also designate the Kiev branch. Directly some kind of "free economic zone" …
So, judging by the finds, all types of traditional ceramic dishes were produced at the Rozhdestvensky settlement, as well as ceramic stove plates and bricks. One potter's forge was found from the equipment. The forge could theoretically stand under a canopy or in the open air, but the preparation of products for firing was definitely carried out indoors. Otherwise, as I already described above, the extinction of the potters' clan from chronic colds is inevitable.
Firstly, in the summer at +10 ° C (this often happens in our country), working with raw clay with your bare hands means that you can get arthritis and neuralgia in a maximum of 2 years. And in winter in the cold it is generally impossible.
Secondly, if all the above-described artisans worked under sheds and in the open air, then for 6 winter months they would simply have to parasitize. And what to live with? Therefore, no matter how many local industries I have not seen, all of them, except for mining and logging, were located in the premises. And not only modern ones. For example, here is a reconstructed image of the Ural blast furnace of the 14-15th century (Fig. 9). We see a metallurgical furnace, and a house has been carefully attached to it, just like what I described as production facilities. I think that from the 13th century to the 14th, little has changed, because then progress did not make leaps and bounds.
1 person can handle the work of a potter. But stove masonry will also have to be attributed to pottery work. High temperature furnaces often require repair and are complex in design. Since there were a decent number of such stoves, at least 1 person should be allocated as a stove-maker.
Of particular interest is the discovered ceramic stove plate. The use of such stoves can only speak of one thing - the residents of the city did not live in chicken huts, but had stoves with chimneys. Only in such furnaces it is required to insulate the firebox. If it were an open hearth, then using a ceramic stove between the fire and the pot would significantly reduce cooking efficiency. After all, the thermal conductivity of ceramics is several times less than that of cast iron, from which stove plates are made now.
To be honest, this finding does not surprise me. The townspeople who knew how to make furnaces for melting metal clearly had an idea of furnace draft. And knowing the secret of stove draft and having just clay under your feet, you can make any stoves - heating, cooking, bath, bread. Even the most complicated Russian stove, which is a compact complex of all four listed, could have been made by them.
In order to build stoves, you need to know several principles.
The first is that in the clay massif before firing, you can create passages, cavities and partitions of a given configuration using wooden blocks lined with clay. Then, after putting the fuel into the furnace, you should burn it. In this case, the inner blocks burn out or are removed before firing, and an adobe furnace is obtained. This is how, according to archaeologists, the forges were built in the 13th century.
Nowadays, adobe ovens are built using a complex technology, stuffing the oven into the formwork, drying it for 5–6 days without heating, then removing the formwork, after drying on a small flood with complete cooling for 5–7 days, then the hottest heating for 3–5 days. Moreover, it should be noted that this complex technology is known and applied only in our country. It is possible that the inhabitants of the city under study used something similar.
Second, the furnace should be limited to a certain volume, then the fuel that has filled most of the furnace will simultaneously release a large amount of heat in one closed volume during combustion, and the temperature in the combustion zone will exceed 750 ° C. In this case, the combustion process is more efficient. To limit the volume of the furnace, and not so that the coals do not fly, a furnace door is made. Open it at the moment of burning and the temperature in the firebox will immediately drop.
Many people think that a fireplace heats worse than a stove because its chimney is large and blows out all the heat. This is not true. It is the high efficiency of fuel combustion in the stove that puts it head and shoulders above the fireplace and open hearth. This principle also applies to forges.
Third, hot smoke rises up, just like water flows down. If you make a kind of “channel” for it, only turned upside down, it will flow like a stream, forming waterfalls, rifts and eddies, only from smoke and from the bottom up. The bell-type furnaces work on this principle. It also allows you to understand how to efficiently make chimneys in reversible furnaces.
Fourth, the height difference creates stove draft. Working with forges, it was hard not to know this. Therefore, you can not only allow the hot smoke to rise up the chimney, but also drag it down in a falling stream along a short section, as water flows over the siphon elbow under your sink. This allows more oven volume to be heated and less heat is emitted into the chimney.
Knowing the first and second principles, it is not a problem to build heating stoves with a chimney. By being able to apply the third and fourth principles, it is possible to build multifunctional furnaces with extremely high efficiency. But in order to melt and forge iron, one must also know the fifth principle. It consists in forced air injection into the combustion zone. Oxidation processes are accelerated in this case. Much more heat is produced per unit of time, but the walls of the furnace do not change their thermal conductivity, and its surface does not have time to give up all the incoming heat. The temperature in the firebox rises.
Thus, archaeologists-"patriots" who believe that the inhabitants of such settlements in the 13th century lived in semi-dugouts and chicken sheds, can only excuse their complete ignorance in the above issues.
Woodworking
Woodworking was undoubtedly present in the city under study. It should be divided into carpentry and joinery.
Many axes of various shapes, adzes, slabs, scrapers, chisels, drills were found from carpentry tools. Saws were not found during excavations, but it is known that in the 13th century saws were widespread throughout the Russian plain and Siberia. Despite this, they were used to a limited extent. It was believed that the surfaces obtained by sawing are unstable to decay, cracking and short-lived.
Thus, saws were a minor tool in carpentry. The main role was played by axes and cutters, as well as chisels, scrapers and knives of various shapes. With such tools, you can harvest timber, remove bark from logs, get rectangular beams from round timber, choose longitudinal and transverse grooves of various shapes, split round timber lengthwise into blocks (flat, semicircular and quarters), receive boards and shreds (as roofing material), connect the elements into grooves and tenons, drill holes and groove the joints of the elements.
Particularly interesting for the technologist are cutting lines. This is nothing more than a plane. The staples discovered by archaeologists represent a staple-shaped knife, 6 to 9 cm wide. It was fixed in the wooden case by means of a wedge. The overhang of the cutting edge beyond the plane of the body was regulated by installing a wedge. This means that it was possible to adjust the thickness of material removal from the coarse to the thinnest. This makes it possible not only to level the hewn and chipped wooden surfaces, but also to achieve high surface cleanliness (smoothness). That is, thanks to the tools used by the carpenters of the city under study, the listed technological operations for processing wood became quite affordable in terms of labor intensity. A great success for us is the carpentry tradition that has survived among the Old Believers since the Middle Ages.
“Many descendants of Old Believers live in the villages of the Upper Ob region, those who in the 17th – 19th centuries. mastered the Siberian lands. Many elements of their spiritual culture speak of the preservation of ancient traditions that existed in medieval Russia. The study of the peculiarities of the material culture of the old-timers-Old Believers in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, carried out by the author of the article over the past few years with the support of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation, shows that this trend was very strong in housing construction too … "[1]
In the cultural space of the Kama region, the process of exchange of cultural achievements was very intensive. For example, the life of the Finno-Ugric Komi people, even at the time of his baptism by Stephen the Great (1375), differed very little from the traditionally Russian. We know about this from the life of the saint, written a year after his death by Hierodeacon Epiphanius the Wise who personally knew the saint, which is replete with details. But from the Great Ust-Yug (now Ustyug) to present-day Perm there are more than half a thousand kilometers of impenetrable forests. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to believe that the city under study did not fall out of the general cultural space of the Kama region, and its carpentry traditions have common features with the traditions of the Old Believers that have survived to this day.
Let's try to reconstruct a typical residential building of the 13th century according to the information we have, using comparisons with the traditions of the Old Believers. Let's start at the bottom. In their reports, archaeologists do not reveal the presence of stone foundations of buildings, but a lot of pole pits are described. There is an interesting explanation for this:
“The basic technological methods of construction, starting with the laying of a house and ending with roofing, basically coincided with those that existed in medieval Russia. Houses were built exclusively log houses. If the soil was not dense enough, they first made the base of the house - they dug holes, lowered wooden racks there, sometimes pre-burnt or oiled with tar to prevent them from rotting in the ground. If the soil was dense, then stones were simply substituted under the corners of the hut, covering them for waterproofing with two layers of birch bark. In that case, when the racks were brought out high, the houses were made with "embankments". In the Suzun villages, some of the owners of the kerzhaks filled the dumps with earth by winter, and by the summer they dumped the land for "blowing". On racks, stones or on compacted soil (in areas with sandy soil), a flap was laid,and then set the crowns to the desired height. Making the wood more waterproof, the frame was smeared with tar or resin, which we cooked ourselves. In this case, the foundation racks were not placed, and the first crown was laid directly on the compacted soil."
It turns out that medieval carpenters had options for different soils. In our case, the soil, judging by the results of the excavations, favored the variant with stands. All of the above was completely within the framework of the previously determined technical capabilities of the carpenters of the city under study. Moreover, these are not just opportunities, but the technologies they actually use. The tools found unequivocally testify to this. After all, a person who lives in a hut simply does not need a plane.
So far, our assumptions about the relevance of analogies have been confirmed. Let's continue. Nobody is against the existence of log structures in the study area in the 13th century. Therefore, I would like to focus on the floors and ceilings. This is in order to use our method to reasonably prove the applicability of these structures for the construction of residential premises and in the future, assertions about the residents of such cities living in semi-dugouts, should be considered scientifically unfounded.
Let's figure out how the Old Believers did the floors
“The floor was laid from wide planks along the 'transitions' (beams). Plakhs for the floor were very carefully cut. Old-timers-Old Believers sometimes made the floors two-layer - the lower one was rough, poorly processed, the upper one, which was laid directly on the “black”, “clean”, well-cut, tightly pressed. The floors were not painted, but they were kept very clean - not only washed, but also scraped with mowing knives."
This is clear. Nothing out of the ordinary. They could make such floors in the city under study. Did they need it? To figure this out, let's find out what the floor is for? Is it just for beauty?
Functionally, there are 3 main functions of the floor: the formation of surfaces for unimpeded movement, the creation of thermal insulation from the ground and the provision of hygiene. These are seemingly obvious things from the category: "The head is to think." But sometimes they need to be remembered in order to remove social stereotypes. And then some people to the question: "Why do you need a head?", Already begin to answer: "I eat it." And we, of course, laugh, because the shift in priorities is so obvious here. Why do not such distorted ideas about the life of the inhabitants of Prikamye make us smile?
Let's put everything on the shelves. How would you like it if your home had pits, ditches, bumps and inclines on the floor? Anyone will answer that this is not acceptable. Why is it unacceptable? Few will give an exhaustive answer to this question. The correct answer is this: because a regular and long stay in such a room threatens residents with loss of health in terms of disorders of the musculoskeletal system, as well as a disorder of orientation systems and the vestibular apparatus. Like this, not because it is ugly. Pure physiology. Easier to say - you will break your legs, constantly stumbling. And, seeing all the time in front of you curved surfaces and furniture tilted in different directions, you will lose your sense of proportion, straightness and directions, which will make your existence difficult. This is to some extent akin to seasickness and the famous gait of sailors.
The effect of the second factor is not so obvious, but it is very stable and long-term, and, in the end, can lead to cultural degradation. To avoid these problems, they try to level the floor, be it earthen or wooden. Any premises have always had a relatively flat floor - living, industrial, household. The city under study is no exception. This is the first and foremost function of the floor.
Thermal insulation is the second important function. In our climate, in winter the temperature drops to -35-40 ° C. If the floor is not insulated, then much more fuel will be needed to maintain a comfortable room temperature. After all, you will have to warm up a large array of soil under the building. Thermal insulation from the ground, it would seem, is provided by shoes, but even the warmest traditional shoes - felt boots, fully protect the feet from hypothermia only when walking. This is suitable for utility and industrial premises where a person is forced to constantly move. In the case of living quarters designed for passive relaxation, this is not an option. If this issue is not resolved, then living in such conditions leads to disease and extinction.
In the cultures of the Far North, they got out of the situation with the help of a continuous multi-layer floor covering from warm skins. The same was done in the steppe regions. The floors in the yurts were covered with felt, carpets and skins. However, both those and others did it forcibly, due to the need to lead a nomadic lifestyle. These floors are far from the best in terms of cost, hygiene, maintenance, durability. But these are the best portable floors. The inhabitants of the city under study were clearly sedentary and did not need more inconvenient, expensive portable floors. So on what grounds do archaeologists, without hesitation, deny them the right to use efficient, inexpensive (for the forest zone) and technologically advanced wood floors? There are simply no such grounds.
Providing hygiene is the third most important function of the floor, and it is important mainly in living quarters. There is no need to prove that lack of hygiene leads to disease and extinction. I wonder what kind of floors can be considered hygienic in our natural environment? Take Egypt for example. In the conditions of Egypt, a leveled, rammed, swept earthen floor covered with mats is quite hygienic. Only when it rains will this coating turn to mud, which is rare in Egypt.
In the Kama region, mud and mud is a very common phenomenon. This option is not suitable here. The skin cover is hygienic both in the steppe (laying on a flat area with grassy sod) and in the far north (laying on the snow). Where would you like to lay the skins in the Kama region, on clay mud in a semi-dugout? If you put them on a bed of spruce branches, for example, you will fall through and stumble when walking, this is good for a tent, not for a house. The only option is to put the skins on a wooden flooring made of blocks, and this is already, albeit inferior, but the floor. Only he will constantly rot and spread dampness, which is unacceptable from the point of view of hygiene. To avoid this, it is enough to raise it above the ground and provide ventilation, and so that the wind does not blow into the cracks, drive it tightly and wedge it.
Like it or not, but with sound reasoning, you come to the traditional construction of a wooden floor. It is optimal in the Kama region. The last point in this matter is put on the remains of a floor in the form of wooden blocks found on the territory of the city under study: “Here, at a depth of 0.95-1.05 m, the remains of a floor in the form of dark sandy loam with a significant admixture of coal, partially burnt wood, wood decay and large pieces of semi-burnt wood blocks up to 4 cm thick, up to 0.6–2.0 m long, 0.15–0.24 m wide. All samples of wood blocks taken for samples, as shown by the definition of the Department of Botany of PSPU, are represented by spruce. Plakhs were located rather haphazardly, but on one site they retained the appearance of a partially docked floor …"
Having devoted so much time to the floors, I would not like to dwell on the ceilings in detail. The main function there is thermal insulation, and it is extremely difficult to achieve a good result in other ways, besides traditional ones. To illustrate what has been said, I will give a description of the ceiling construction according to the traditions of the Old Believers:
“The upper crown of the hut was called“cranial”,“quarters”were taken out in it, grooves in a quarter of a log, and a ceiling was laid, also made of blocks, which were laid" in a run "(" overlap "," overlap "), when one of the blocks a few went to another. After the roof was installed, the ceiling was insulated by throwing the earth on top of 2-3 quarters (the size of a palm), or smeared with clay and covered with a layer of humus. To insulate the ceiling, they also sometimes used clay, crushed with chaff, which was used to coat the seams from the side of the attic ("tower"), but this method was one of the later and was considered the worst. The oldest method of insulation was considered to be covering with straw, which was laid in a thick layer in the attic."
From simple roofing materials, boards and shingles were used. It is also known to use straw (more in the southern regions), and birch bark. You can get an idea of the ceremonial ways of the objects of wooden architecture in Kizhi, all these are very old technologies.
This is, in short, everything that the reconstruction of the carpentry craft in the city under study provides. There was a lot of carpentry work, but most of this work could well be done by non-specialists. To maintain the carpentry craft and perform complex work, a carpentry team of 3-5 people is enough. The work was carried out in open areas.
There was also carpentry in the city. Small planers (planers), chisels, chisels, drills, cutters, carpentry knives were found from carpentry tools. The set of tools is similar to carpentry, but these crafts have a significant difference. The products are small and work is carried out indoors. It takes such a careful approach to window frames, doors, furniture, wooden utensils and all kinds of household utensils.
Although, for obvious reasons, the carpentry products have practically not survived for 800 years (only fragments of dishes), we assume the presence of this craft in the city under study. Nowhere at that time carpentry and joinery did not exist one without the other. The only thing we cannot say was how high the skill level of the local carpenters was. Carpentry requires at least 1 joiner and 1 household.
In general, it is clear that there were windows, not only in residential but also in industrial premises, otherwise the high quality of the products cannot be explained. They were glazed with glass or tightened with a treated peritoneum, it is not yet possible to establish. After all, local glass production, if it existed, did not get into the excavation, and we do not know the possibilities of import. However, the first option is preferable for reconstruction, since glass was quite widespread at that time, and the city under study does not give the impression of a poor settlement.
Reconstruction
Now that we have decided on the minimum set of crafts and know how it all looked, we can proceed to a more reliable reconstruction.
At the first stage, we place structures on the site of the city, in accordance with the excavation data. We focus on the position of the “foci”. In reality, the calcined areas show the location of the stoves, not just bonfires on the ground. The fact is that, according to the tradition of making an adobe oven, it is not placed directly on the ground. Under it, you need to prepare a foundation, which is brought out to floor level. These are the sites that archaeologists find. They are just raised above the ground by about 40 cm. Stuffing with layers of clay, they were also calcined in layers. Thus, a foundation was obtained that was capable of carrying operational loads from the mass of the furnace. Then a wooden base was cut from thick beams. An empty space was left there. On top of this stand, on a thick wooden base, the oven itself was stuffed with blocks. After natural destruction from time to time, such a structure is very difficult to restore, how exactly the furnace. It should look more like a cluster of shapeless pieces of fired clay.
As a result, at the site of excavation No. 1, we received a metallurgists' yard containing 2 forges, a production room with sheds for storing roasted ore and coal, as well as a house with outbuildings.
At the site of excavation No. 2, in accordance with the position of the “hearths”, we have two households.
Excavation No. 3 is adjacent to Excavation No. 2 and contains traces of raw-blown metallurgical production and residential buildings. We have a raw-fired forge with sheds for storing roasted ore and coal, as well as a household.
Excavation No. 4 contains traces of a pottery workshop. We have a pottery forge there, as well as a production building with a shed, and a corresponding residential building with outbuildings.
Excavation No. 5 is being reconstructed according to the finds, as a workshop. We have a production facility and a household there.
Excavation No. 6 revealed 2 “hearths” and pits. We have a dwelling house with outbuildings and a production building there.
We have received a reconstruction of the first level of confidence (Fig. 10), based only on information about the found remains of buildings and finds.
Everything that we reconstruct further is probabilistic. The city could have one or another relative arrangement of buildings and their somewhat different appearance. However, there is undoubtedly a need for this. It is imperative to supplement the reconstruction with households of all workers who were involved in the found industries. The metallurgical and foundry production required a minimum of 4 workers. Add the corresponding households around it. And so in the area of the 1st and 5th excavations we have a "town of metallurgists".
The pottery and smelting workshops correspond to our calculations. We cannot tie two workshops to a specific production, we do not know the number of employees, and should not, accordingly, supplement with households.
Thus, we received a reconstruction of the second level of reliability (Fig. 11), supplemented by information about the necessary buildings for the maintenance personnel of the found industries.
Next, it is required to show the presence of all industries identified in the city. Blacksmiths - 3 forges and 6 households. Mechanical workshop - we conditionally take the excavation zone No. 6 for it and add one household. Excavation zone 5 is also conventionally taken as a jewelry workshop. You don't need to add anything there. Carpenters' dwellings - 3 households. Carpenter's dwelling and carpentry workshop.
So, we received a reconstruction of the third level of reliability (Fig. 12), supplemented with information about the required buildings for the service personnel of all identified industries.
At this stage of reconstruction, the diagram includes 21 households, 9 production facilities and sites. Superimposed on a scale on the territory of the city, they occupy only one third of the entire embankment area. Thus, our calculation in the first approximation (64 households) almost coincides with the detailed reconstruction.
In order to expand the reconstruction, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of urban construction. This is the presence of streets, a central square and a sufficient distance between houses. Next, we simulate the central street running north-south from the intended gate to the square, and the streets diverging from the square.
Now we have received a reconstruction of the fourth level of reliability (Fig. 13), which, nevertheless, contains the most valuable information about the possible size of the city.
Since 61 households were quite freely located in the city, and the average family size was about 9 people, this indicates a nominal population of 61 x 9 = 549 people.
In addition, we obtained 15 production facilities and sites by the multiple increase method. We have reliably identified only 9 of them as specific production requirements. It would be correct to admit the possibility of the existence of other, not specified by us, industries, such as leather. Also among those found there is a trading inventory. It is logical to assume the existence of warehouses and shops. The important thing is that all of them will find a place in our reconstruction.
Conclusion
All reconstructions created, despite varying levels of confidence, are necessary. The principle of splitting into confidence levels is also necessary. The first level is interesting for detailed in-depth analysis. For statistics and popularization among the general population - the fourth. For dynamic correction and clarification - intermediate levels.
Now archaeologists and historians are going to extremes. You cannot get a word out of them, if it is not three times confirmed by facts and not rechecked. And then suddenly they begin to construct reconstructions using an intuitive-visual method, so freely that one is amazed.
Of course, I understand that the superficial work done above does not give a complete picture. There are no religious buildings, no fortifications. The difference between buildings in terms of social status is not reflected. There is a huge amount of work. But it, nevertheless, gives an idea of the possibilities of the technological reconstruction method.
Thanks to the trial application of this method, we managed not only to objectively describe the cultural level and variety of life of the city under study, but also to embody its scale in illustrations, while statistically predicting its size. This creates a basis for further research not only of the city itself, but also of the infrastructure of its life support that existed then …
Author: Alexey Artemiev