Complex Studies of the Scythian Mound and Reconstruction of the Natural Environment of the Don forest-steppe in the 4th century BC

Abstract

The aim of this study is reconstruction of the conditions of soil formation and the natural environment based on a comparative analysis of the surface and buried soils under the mound of the Scythian time, as well as spore-pollen data. Materials and methods. A comprehensive study of the soils of mound 3 of the barrow groupDevitsa-V in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh oblast was carried out. The properties of buried soils, soils of the mound, as well as surface soils close to the mound were analyzed. Methods of soil chronosequences, laboratory analysis of soils, micromorphological method of studying soils, method of archaeological dating, palynological method of studying soils and sediments were used. Results and discussion. According to paleosol reconstructions, at the place where the mound was created, for quite a long time (about 20 years) there was a flooring-platform made of oak half-beams tightly fitted to each other. Oak flooring was intended for ritual purposes related to the functioning of the burial mound. The soils buried under this platform reflect the environmental conditions at the time the platform was created. Later, an earthen embankment of the mound was created, under which the oak flooring-platform and adjacent soils were buried. The soils under the flooring-platform and those buried next to the flooring-platform differ in pH values, content of carbonates, exchangeable sodium and magnesium. In the palynological spectra soils from the period of the mound's creation contain pollen of plants, which are indicators of arid climate conditions: Ulmus in the composition of woody vegetation, Ephedra in the composition of shrubs and Artemisia in the composition of herbs. Conclusion. It has been established that during the period between the time of the creation of the flooring-platform and the mound, the climate directionally changed towards aridization. The obtained results confirm the assumption about the Scythian-Sarmatian arid episode in the history of forest-steppe landscapes, which began in the 4th century BC.