Settlement structures and spatial land use in the post Sintashta-Petrovka period of the Late Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC) in the southern Trans-Urals (a case study in the Yandyrka-Akmula and Karagaily-Ayat River basin), Russia.

在欧亚大草原的北部边缘，南部的Trans-Urals代表了一种独特的文化景观，有着不同寻常的青铜和铁器时代的纪念碑--无数的库尔干田野和定居点。从公元前第三个千年开始，这一地区就成为经济发展和社会文化进程的中心之一。最突出的古迹是辛塔什塔-彼得罗夫卡文化综合体的设防定居点(图2)。公元前2000年左右(公元前2100-1900/1800年)。在设防聚落衰落后，居住结构演变为所谓的开放式聚落，具有排屋结构，没有任何设防。根据俄罗斯的研究，它们明显地被归类为后辛塔什塔-彼得罗夫卡时期，大约在公元前2000年中期，即青铜时代晚期(图1)。在我们的案例研究中，我们选择了扬德尔卡-阿克穆拉河流域和卡拉盖里-阿亚特河上游的微型区域，这些区域具有不同的青铜和铁器时代考古遗址(图2)。3)。该地区与我们关于设防定居点的第一个研究期(2009-2014年)在地理上重叠，该地区展示了来自不同时代和文化传统的各种考古遗址。我们的目标之一是以历时的方式看待聚落习惯的改变和景观的空间利用，将其作为动物放牧、居住和建造库尔干葬礼场所的经济基础。回答这些问题的途径和方法包括考古挖掘、地球物理勘探、物质文化解释，包括骨学和人类学遗迹，以及烧焦的植物遗迹。考古记录指出，青铜时代晚期的聚落结构以较小的单元为特征，主要是排屋结构，其中假设了不同类型的建筑。这使得可以假设这种类型的定居点是在较小的群体的基础上运作的，很可能是基于家族氏族。集中讨论的问题之一是关于从设防聚落过渡到开放聚落的原因，以及假定发生在第二磨坊青铜时代中后期的显著变化。公元前。

At the northern edge of the Eurasian Steppe, the southern Trans-Urals represents a unique cultural landscape with extraordinary monuments – numerous kurgan fields and settlements - of the Bronze and Iron Age. This area became one of the centres of economic development and socio-cultural processes starting already in the third millennium BC. The most prominent monuments are fortified settlements of the Sintashta-Petrovka cultural complex (fig. 1), which date around 2000 BC (2100-1900/1800 BC). After the decline of the fortified settlements the habitation structure changed to the so called open settlements with row-house structures without any fortifications. According to Russian research they are clearly assigned to the post-Sintashta-Petrovka period and are dated roughly around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the Late Bronze Age (fig. 2).In our case study we selected the microregion of the Yandyrka-Akmulla River basin and the upper Karagaily-Ayat River with different archaeological sites of the Bronze and Iron Age (fig. 3). The territory is geographically overlapping with our first research period (2009-2014) on the fortified settlements and the area is showing a huge variety of archaeological sites from different ages and cultural traditions. It is one of our aims to look in a diachronic way to the change of settlement habits and the spatial use of landscape as an economical basis for animal herding, living and building up funeral places with kurgans.The approach and methods used to answer these questions are archaeological excavations, geophysical prospections, and the interpretation of material culture, including osteological and anthropological remains, as well as charred botanical remains.The archaeological record points to a Late Bronze Age settlement structure that was characterized by smaller units, mostly row-house structures, in which different types of buildings are to be assumed. This allows the assumption that this type of settlement functioned on the basis of smaller groups, probably based on family clans. One of the questions intensively discussed concerns the reason for the transition from fortified to open settlements and the postulated striking change, which took place between the Middle and Late Bronze Age in the 2nd mill. BC.