Early Iron Age and Medieval Sites in the Southern Ural Region: Context of Sources (Forest and Forest-Steppe)

The author examines the geography of settlements of the early Iron Age finale (Glyadenovo culture) - early medieval period (second half of the I Millennium BC: Mazuninо/Bahmutino, Lomovatovo, Nevolino, Polom/Cheptza, Kushnarenkovo/Karayakupovo cultures) in the Kama River and the Cis-Ural regions. As shown by statistics collected through archaeological studies on these settlements, the proportion of such sites among the general masses of sites from published maps is very small. That, in turn, questions a number of aspects related to the characteristics of these crops. Firstly, the time these settlements functioned: their density, as shown on the published maps, their distribution per square unit, does not allow us to think that these settlements could exist simultaneously. Second, identification of various local-territorial variations of these archaeological cultures, in the context when settlements are not sufficiently and equally studied, will inevitably be just a formality and will hardly reflect the real cultural-historical situation in the region during the studied period. In view of the above, the author suggests scaling-up the approach used to study the Polom/Cheptza culture and developed by M.G. Ivanova and her colleagues to cover the whole territory of the Kama and Cis-Ural regions. Otherwise, the author maintains that any further study of this era in the region is doomed to generation of various meta-constructions and meta-histories to the detriment of archaeology as a source-based science.