This is the opening of a layer of earth in order to study the monuments of the former places of settlements. Unfortunately, this process leads to partial destruction of the cultural layer of soil. Unlike laboratory experiments, it is not possible to repeat the archaeological excavation of the site. In order to open the ground, in many states a special permit is required. In Russia (and before that in the RSFSR), "open sheets" - this is the name of a documented consent - are drawn up at the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences. Carrying out this kind of work on the territory of the Russian Federation in the absence of this document is an administrative offense.

Basis for excavation

Land cover tends to increase in mass over time, resulting in a gradual hiding of artifacts. It is for the purpose of their discovery that an opening of the earth layer is carried out. An increase in soil thickness can occur for several reasons:

Tasks

The main goal pursued by scientists, carrying out archaeological excavations, is the study of an ancient monument and the restoration of its significance. For a comprehensive, comprehensive study, it is most preferable when it is fully opened to the full depth. At the same time, even the interests of a particular archaeologist are not taken into account. However, as a rule, only a partial opening of the monument is carried out due to the high labor intensity of the process. Some archaeological excavations, depending on their complexity, can last for years and even decades. Works can be carried out not only for the purpose of studying historical monuments. In addition to archaeological, there is another type of excavation, called "security". In accordance with the legislation, in the Russian Federation they must be carried out before the construction of buildings and various structures. Since otherwise, it is possible that the monuments of antiquity available at the construction site will be lost forever.

Research progress

First of all, the study of a historical object begins with such non-destructive methods as photography, measurement and description. If it becomes necessary to measure the direction and thickness of the cultural layer, sounding is done, trenches or pits are dug. These tools also make it possible to search for an object whose location is known only from written sources. However, the use of such methods is of limited use, since they significantly spoil the cultural layer, which is also of historical interest.

Ground breaking technology

All stages of the research and clearing of historical objects are necessarily accompanied by photographic recording. Conducting archaeological excavations on the territory of the Russian Federation is accompanied by compliance with strict requirements. They are approved in the relevant "Regulations". The document focuses on the need for quality drawings. Recently, they are increasingly issued in electronic form using new computer technologies.

Archaeological excavations in Russia

Not so long ago, Russian archaeologists published a list of the most important discoveries of 2010. The most significant events in this period were the discovery of a treasure in the city of Torzhok, and archaeological excavations in Jericho. In addition, the age of the city of Yaroslavl was confirmed. Dozens of scientific expeditions are equipped every year under the guidance of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Their research extends throughout the European part of the Russian Federation, in some parts of the Asian region of the country and even abroad, for example, in Mesopotamia, Central Asia and the Svalbard archipelago. According to the Director of the Institute Nikolai Makarov at one of the press conferences, during 2010 the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a total of 36 expeditions. Moreover, only half of them were carried out on the territory of Russia, and the rest - abroad. It also became known that approximately 50% of the funding comes from the state budget, revenues from the Russian Academy of Sciences and such scientific institutions as the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and while the rest of the resources intended for work related to the preservation of archaeological heritage sites, allocated by investors-developers.

Phanagoria research

According to N. Makarov, in 2010 there was also a significant shift in the study of the monuments of ancient times. This is especially true of Phanagoria - the largest ancient city found on the territory of Russia, and the second capital of the Bosporan kingdom. During this time, scientists studied the buildings of the acropolis, and found a large building, whose age dates back to the middle of the 4th century BC. e. All archaeological excavations in Phanagoria are conducted under the guidance of Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Kuznetsov. It was he who identified the found building as in which state meetings were once held. A notable feature of this building is the hearth, in which a burning fire was previously maintained daily. It was believed that as long as its flame was shining, the state life of the ancient city would never stop.

Research in Sochi

Another significant event of 2010 was the excavations in the capital of the 2014 Olympics. A group of scientists led by Vladimir Sedov, Doctor of Art History - leading researcher at the Institute of Archeology, conducted research near the construction site of the Russian Railways terminal near the village of Veseloye. Here, later, the remains of a Byzantine temple of the 9th-11th centuries were discovered.

Excavations in the village of Krutik

This is a trade and craft settlement of the 10th century, located in the forests of Belozorye, Vologda Oblast. Archaeological excavations in this area are headed by Sergey Zakharov, Candidate of Historical Sciences. In 2010, 44 coins minted in the Caliphate countries and the Middle East were found here. Traders used them to pay for furs, which were especially valued in the Arab East.

Archaeological excavations. Crimea

The historical veil of this territory is lifted largely due to the research work that often takes place here. Some expeditions have been going on for years. Among them: "Kulchuk", "Seagull", "Belyaus", "Kalos-Limen", "Cembalo" and many others. If you want to go to archaeological excavations, you can join a group of volunteers. However, as a rule, volunteers have to pay for their stay in the country on their own. A huge number of expeditions are carried out in the Crimea, but most of them are of a short-term nature. In this case, the group size is small. Research is carried out by experienced workers and professional archaeologists.

Archeology should have become a new profession in World of Warcraft, closely related to Way of the Titans. These two features were planned to be added to the game with the expansion. cataclysm, however, in the end, the developers decided to abandon the Path of the Titans, but left archeology. Instead of being a source of resources for the Path, archeology is now another secondary skill that brings additional fun to the game and provides an opportunity to get interesting and pleasant gizmos.

If you choose to ignore archeology, as you did with fishing or cooking you won't really lose anything. But if you love these simple skills, archeology will surely appeal to you.

We study

As usual, you must first visit trainer archeology to learn this skill. Since it is a secondary and not a full-fledged profession, All characters have access to it.(of those who bought Cataclysm and all previous expansions).

Professions tab

Move them to the action bar. Action Survey(explore) allows you to search for artifacts and dig them up. A button archaeology brings up the profession window. But let's start in order.

Digging

Immediately after studying archeology, you will see on the mainland map (not on the mini-map!) excavation sites in the form of small shovels.

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

global map

Obviously, these points indicate places where you should fly and dig. You will have 4 dig sites available for each continent at the same time ( Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, outland and Northrend). Naturally, low-level characters will have fewer dig sites available, while high-level characters will have 16 dig sites available at once.

As soon as you explore one of the excavation sites, it will disappear from your map, and a new one will appear in its place. Please note that unlike other resources, dig sites are individual for each player. That is, their total set is one, but you have nowhere to rush, no one will dig up your artifact before you. On the other hand, excavation sites do not renew themselves over time either. To get some new excavation site, you need to explore one of the existing ones. Exiting the game or waiting will not help here.

So we arrived at the excavation area. Opening the map of the area:

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Excavation site on the zone map

Excavation sites are marked in orange on the map. We go there and use the ability Survey(digging). Note that for archeology you don't need tools like a shovel or a pickaxe.

Theoretically, you can immediately dig up artifact fragments. But in practice, you will have to look for them. After using the “shovel”, a spyglass on a tripod will appear in front of you with a color indicator of red, yellow or green. The color of the light indicates the distance to the artifact: red - far, yellow - medium, green - close.

Also pay attention to the direction of the telescope. Imagine that you are looking into it (from the narrow end), this direction will show you the position of the object you are looking for. Keep in mind that the farther the artifact is from you, the less accurate the spyglass shows the direction. So sometimes you have to run back and forth until you find the right place. But usually it takes no more than 5-10 attempts.

In the end, you find the artifact itself, the appearance of which depends on its type. The screenshot below shows a troll artifact that looks like a tablet.

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

We are looking for an artifact: far

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Looking for Artifact: Medium

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Looking for Artifact: Close

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

We are looking for an artifact: found!

Three artifacts can be dug up at the same dig site before it disappears and a new dig site appears. When digging up an artifact, you can get an increase in archeology skill, and you also get experience for this, the amount of which depends on your level (roughly corresponds to the amount of experience for a quest at your level), while if you are in a rested state, this experience is also doubled!

Turns you into an "Kiraji beetle" for 20 seconds.

An analogue of the Stone of Return, the reload time is independent.

Archeology. Detailed guide

Bones of Transformation

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Blessing of the Old God

The list of awards is not final and will most likely be expanded in the future.

Keystones

Sometimes when excavating, you can get not only research points, but also cornerstones(keystones):

Troll Tablet (trolls)

Highborne Scroll (Night Elves)

Nerubian Obelisk (Nerubians)

Orc Blood Text (orcs)

Tol "vir Hieroglyphic (tol" vir)

Dwarf Rune Stone (dwarves)

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Foundation stone

Judging by their description, they should speed up the study of artifacts of the corresponding race. And indeed it is. But using them turned out to be not entirely intuitive. It turns out that if you have such an “accelerator”, a special slot appears on the screen for researching an artifact of the corresponding race to insert this item. When you click on this socket, the keystone is inserted there, which immediately adds the equivalent of 12 points to research:

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Research Acceleration: Disabled

Archeology. Detailed guide

Archeology. Detailed guide

Research Acceleration: Enabled

The increase is not significant, but still there. However, please note that these items are not personal. That is, they can be sold and bought, which includes archeology in the game economy.

Keystones will also come in handy in raids and allow advanced archaeologists to extract additional benefits in such a situation. Apparently, the game will have something similar to culinary feasts, only at the expense of archeology.

Reflections and notes

At the moment (end of September 2010) the collection of artifacts of dwarves, night elves, trolls and fossils is implemented in the beta. You can collect fragments of other races, but the artifact collection pages are not active.

Archeology will be beneficial not only in terms of obtaining nice items for yourself, but also in terms of earning money by selling "accelerating items".

To level up and use the profession, you will have to travel a LOT around the game world. Therefore, it is desirable to study archeology as early as possible.

The use of archeology is also very useful in that digging up fragments gives experience comparable to completing a quest at your level. And in a rested state, you will get twice as much!

official World of Warcraft fan site.

Ukrainian collectors of antique antiquities are waiting for new arrivals on the illegal antiques market. On July 31, not far from Serpent's Island in the Black Sea, unknown people plundered a Greek sailboat, which sank in the 4th century BC. About it reported the site "Odessa Mouthpiece" with reference to the head of the Odessa club of underwater archeology "Navareks" Alexander Tereshchenko, who in 2011 with a group of divers discovered a sailboat.

According to the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences, about a thousand archaeological sites are looted on the territory of Ukraine every year. It is not difficult to do this: out of 60,000 such objects, only 400 are protected by the state.

Kyiv collector Yuriy Pokrass says that the number of illegal finds has increased hundreds of times over the years of independence. “From the 1880s to 1991, archaeologists found three copies of coins from the times of Kievan Rus. They were considered the greatest rarity. More than 1,000 have been found in the last decade,” he cites an example.

How much can you earn selling archeological monuments? Forbes wrote that the cost of ancient coins that have come down to us in the amount of several tens of thousands of pieces can start from 50 hryvnia. But the price of coins preserved in single copies can reach several million dollars. How rare the treasures from the plundered sailboat were is unknown.

Most often, black archaeologists use metal detectors as a tool. Mykhailo Potupchik, head of the cultural heritage protection sector of the Vinnytsia regional department of culture, says that in the early 2000s there were three metal detectors in the entire Vinnytsia region. “Now there are 2-3 detectors in every village with a population of 300 or more,” says Potupchik. According to him, today a simple device can be purchased for 300 hryvnia. More advanced models - within $ 500-1000.

Treasure hunters sell the bulk of their finds in Kyiv markets, in antique shops and via the Internet. There are favorite gathering places for rarity dealers in Kyiv. On weekends, lovers of antiquity gather in the park near the Nyvky metro station and in the Expoplaza trade and exhibition center of the Livoberezhnaya metro station. But the most valuable finds, of course, are not sold at such bazaars.

On June 8, at the International Exhibition Center in Kyiv, during the all-Ukrainian exhibition of antiques, which is held once a month, Forbes talked to one of the black archaeologists (“diggers”). “We have about 3,000 diggers in the Vinnitsa region,” says Vasily. “The villages are very ancient, if one person is digging at one end of the village, then another one is walking around with a metal detector at the other.” In a good year, earnings can be $10,000, but most make two or three times less.

After talking with 20 archaeologists, collectors and the leadership of the cultural and historical reserves of Ukraine, Forbes compiled a list of places that suffer the most from the greed of black archaeologists.

Crimea

Ancient and medieval necropolises

The most famous find: the Taraktash treasure (about 2000 coins of the 4th century), the Simferopol treasure (328 gold and silver jewelry).

Crimea is a real "breadbasket" for both archaeologists and their illegal opponents. According to the data of the Republican Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, there are 5600 archeological monuments on the territory of Crimea, included in the state register.

The pace at which black archaeologists “work” is amazing: only since the beginning of 2013 did they manage to plunder the burial grounds of the Middle Ages near the villages of Tankovoye, Zalesnoye and Khodzha Sala (Bakhchisarai district), and the Taurus burial ground near the village of Rozovoe (Alushta).

with. Malaya Kopanya, Transcarpathian region

burial grounds

The most famous archaeological find: Torques - a gold necklace weighing 0.5 kg.

The popularity of the Malokopansky Dacian burial ground is explained by two reasons - poor security and an "assortment" of choice for black archaeologists. This burial ground is located on five hectares of land, there are dozens of graves in which archaeologists have found weapons, pottery and jewelry.

The huge area makes it difficult to protect the burial ground, moreover, there is a high probability that it is possible to find burial places that have not yet been excavated by "white" archaeologists.

with. Gordeevka, Vinnytsia region

ancient burial grounds

The most famous find: gold jewelry from the Gordeevsky burial ground.

In 2008, a scandal erupted in the Vinnytsia region: two men tried to sell dug up jewelry - a bracelet, gold upholstery for a bowl and a necklace worth about 1 million hryvnias. They said that they dug up the valuables in the grandmother's garden.

The examination showed that the decorations are identical to the finds from the Gordeevsky burial ground - an archaeological complex of more than 40 burial mounds, one of the main historical and cultural monuments of the Vinnitsa region. After the arrest, the men dramatically changed their testimony: they inherited valuables. From the same grandmother. "Koparey" was not only released, but also returned the valuables, regardless of the outcome of the examination.

By the way, in Vinnitsa itself on the pediment of the Southern Bug hotel on August 5, a banner still proudly hung, offering metal detectors for rent.

Chernihiv region

Burials of the times of Kievan Rus

The most famous find: objects from the Black Grave mound.

Chernihiv region is also popular with illegal diggers. According to Sergei Laevsky, director of the Chernihiv Historical Museum. Tarnovsky, across the region in all places where one can even assume the presence of values, hundreds of micro- and full-fledged pits have now been punched.

And if micropits are not so bad, then full-fledged ones destroy the cultural layer and destroy the very possibility of learning about the origin of many objects, not to mention material damage.

vicinity of Slavyansk, Donetsk region

The most famous find: a tombstone with cult symbols, a settlement from the time of the Khazar Khaganate.

There are more than 8,000 burial mounds in the steppes of the Donetsk region. The average age of burials is about 3-5 thousand years. In such burial grounds one can find not only samples of ceramics, but also funeral gifts, as well as jewelry and household items made of valuable metals. All this makes the mounds a tasty morsel for thieves.

Most recently, near one of the mounds in the Leninsky district of Donetsk, black archaeologists were found at work, but before they managed to get to the burial itself. True, there are few such cases: as a rule, many excavation sites are already looted.

Excavations without an open sheet are prohibited by the Law on the Protection and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments.

When excavating settlements, the main goal remains the most complete study of the historical process. The best way to solve this problem on the example of an ancient settlement is to open its entire area. But the complete opening of the area of ​​the monument in most cases is a promising task, often impossible during the life of one researcher due to its complexity and laboriousness. Therefore, bearing in mind the excavation of the entire area of ​​the settlement, the archaeologist must develop a specific work plan (for a certain period and for a given season), the main goal of which should be to clarify the nature of the settlement with the least expenditure of funds and in the shortest possible time.

Such a plan should provide for the sequence of work performed. The primary task is to clarify the principle of planning the settlement, its chronological boundaries and fluctuations in the size of the area. If the settlement is large, then at this stage of the study, one should try to determine the nature of the strata in its individual parts and the chronological framework for the existence of these parts and the settlement as a whole. The tasks of the first stage of work also include excavation of the territories adjacent to the settlement and identification of their relationship. The clarification of all these questions only to some extent illuminates the historical fate of the settlements, but basically it has the character of preparatory work for a comprehensive historical study.

In solving these problems and in subsequent work, the archaeologist is always faced with the task of historical research in the full scope of the problems and questions included in it. At the same time, with the help of excavations over wide areas, the development of the productive forces of a given society, its way of life, culture and other aspects of its life are being studied. The next narrow specific task may be to fill in some gap in our knowledge about the monument, to eliminate one of the “white spots”.

General requirements for excavation of a settlement. The reliability of the information obtained by excavations largely depends on the methods of research. The technique of opening the cultural layer is diverse and is not uniform even within the same object. First of all, it is determined by the degree of preservation of the monument, the cultural layer of which can be well preserved, but can be spoiled by plowing, washing out, or completely blown out. The presence or absence of pits and excavations also influences the methods of studying the cultural layer; they depend on its thickness, differences in soil (for example, the methods used to open loess strata are inappropriate when excavating sandy or ash strata), the degree of its moisture content, and other reasons.

The excavation technique must be considered in advance. It is necessary to know at least approximately the conditions that influence the choice of excavation techniques. From this it follows that without a thorough examination of the monument, its detailed exploration, it is impossible to start excavations.

As mentioned, the types of monuments and the conditions of their occurrence are very diverse, but it is still possible to single out general requirements that must be observed during excavations of any of them.

The first requirement is the obligatory study of all layers of this monument. An excavation that has been started cannot be abandoned, it must certainly be brought to the mainland. Without a complete study of the cultural layers up to the mainland, it is impossible to achieve complete coverage of all periods of the life of a given settlement. The archaeologist does not have the right to give primary attention to one layer or another, for him all layers must be of equal importance, otherwise gaps may appear in his work, which will be impossible to fill.

The excavation area should be large enough to include structures of various types. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the thicker the cultural layer, the more difficult it is to increase the area of ​​the excavation in the process of work (as they say, “to make a cut”), the greater the danger of turning this excavation into a pit at a known depth. However, it should be remembered that with very large excavations, the possibility of continuous observation over the sections, over the stratigraphy of the layers, is lost, since the excavation walls move away from each other, which opens up the possibility of a significant change in the stratigraphy between them. It is impossible to lay an excavation of such a size that any structure would enter it. The most rational excavations are from 100 to 400 m2, and their dimensions are determined for each specific case, since they depend on a number of factors (the thickness of the cultural layer, the nature of the strata).

Preliminary study of stratigraphy. The choice of the excavation site depends on the level of knowledge of the stratigraphy of the site, since without knowledge of the order and chronology of the layers, the archaeologist digs blindly. Profiles, i.e., the view of the excavation wall or the edge of the edge, obtained by cleaning out the outcrops, and later by cleaning the walls of the excavation, characterize the layers, their order, reveal the environment in which things, structures and complexes lay. Hence the special significance of the profiles, which are, as it were, the passport of this monument. Therefore, excavations most often begin from the place where the cultural layer is exposed, which makes it possible to navigate the stratigraphy of the site.

Pit holes and trenches. But sometimes there are no such outcrops on the site, so its stratigraphy has to be studied by laying a pit or trench that cuts through all the strata. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that both pits and trenches are only the first sections of future excavations that will be cut to them in the right direction, as soon as the stratigraphy of strata is studied. K when the cultural layer in the pit is completely dug up or not found at all. A single pit, and even more so a series of abandoned pits that have not been deployed in an excavation, spoil the monument and lead to its death.
In some cases, it is convenient to pre-mark the entire future excavation, a certain part of which should be taken away for research by a pit or trench. After that, the cultural layer is opened throughout the excavation. The dimensions of the pits and trenches depend on the specific conditions: in a loose and deep layer they can be larger, in a dense and shallow layer they can be smaller. The stratigraphy of the cultural layer 20 - 30 cm thick can be found in a pit with an area of ​​1 sq. m, but for layers with a thickness of 4 - 5 m, the dimensions of the pit increase to 64 - 80 sq. m. The width of the trench is usually not less than two and not more than four meters.

When laying a pit or trench and during their excavation, all the rules of ordinary excavations are observed, but with one significant amendment: the structures included in the pit

or a trench, in no case are destroyed, since with the small size of the area being opened, they cannot be more or less fully studied, even their nature cannot be reliably identified.

On monuments, the cultural layer of which is saturated with architectural remains, pits and trenches are strictly prohibited (for example, in ancient cities, in multi-layered monuments of Central Asia). To clarify the stratigraphy of such objects, excavations are laid on them, often called stratigraphic. The disadvantage of such an excavation is that it digs even before the nature of the layers is clarified, the advantage is that it has dimensions sufficient to study not only the order of strata and other issues of stratigraphy, but also the structures included in it.

In monuments with an architectural skeleton, the excavation serves as a support for archaeological research. Architectural remains can be connected in a series of successive stratigraphic stages, and the task is reduced to the construction of these stages, their dating, characterization, etc.
In the study of multi-layer monuments that do not have an architectural skeleton, the entire sequence of strata, and hence the entire history of the settlement, cannot be understood without observing sections of cultural layers - profiles. The profiles serve as the basis for dividing the strata into layers, for identifying some structures, their connection and other details.

contour trench. In the case of dense soil, giving stable vertical walls, and in case of poor preservation of the tree, as a first step in the study of the settlement, the method practiced by A.P. Smirnov during excavations in Volga Bulgaria can be applied. This method consists in the fact that the excavation begins with a trench laid along the contour of the excavation. The trench is brought to the mainland, and its profiles give a detailed description of the strata of this site, which makes it possible to determine the order and nature of the cultural layers along the entire perimeter of the excavation and conduct excavations in strict accordance with the stratigraphy of this site. At the same time, the rule is not to destroy the structures found in the trench until they are completely opened in the excavation.

The shape and orientation of the excavation. The shape of the excavation and its orientation are not strictly defined and may vary depending on the conditions. As a rule, each excavation is rectangular at the beginning, since this form is most convenient for fixing things and structures. This, of course, does not mean that the contours of the excavation must necessarily be rectilinear, they can be broken, but the corners of the breaks are usually straight.

If the orientation of the excavation is not determined by the features of the site, terrain or other reasons, it is most convenient to orient it along the sides of the horizon, using a compass or a compass. In practice, this orientation occurs most often. At the same time, it should be noted that the compass gives an accurate orientation away from modern settlements, while within the latter it is better to use the Adrianov compass, with a sight.

Excavation layout. The excavation technique is as follows. At the selected site, the grass is mowed and the boundaries of the future excavation are determined by eye. In the corner that is located at the highest point, a peg is hammered, a compass or compass is placed on it and the directions N - S and 3 - B are sighted, marking them with pegs and twine. The correctness of the resulting right angle is checked by the "Egyptian triangle": if between the points located 3 m from the corner stake on one side of the future excavation and 4 m on the other side, the distance is 5 m, then the angle is straight (3 × 3 + 4 × 4=5×5).

Fig.54. Checking the correctness of the breakdown of the right angle by the "Egyptian triangle"

The lines drawn with the help of a rail and level are divided into horizontal segments, two meters each, following the straightness of the breakdown with the help of diopters of a compass, compass or two already provisioned pegs.
Then the compass is transferred to the last stake of each of the marked lines and the directions N - S and 3 - E are sighted again. The intersection of these lines gives the fourth corner of the excavation. The correctness of all three obtained angles is checked by the "Egyptian triangle". The third and fourth sides of the excavation planned in this way are also divided into two-meter segments.

Corresponding pegs of the opposite sides of the excavation are connected with strings, and the intersections of these strings, as well as the ends of two-meter segments, are leveled in relation to the highest point of the excavation (that is, it is determined how much lower these points are in relation to the highest). This subsequently makes it possible to determine the depth of any structure, spot or find from the surface. But for the convenience of readings, a conditional zero point is chosen, from which all depths are measured. This is usually the highest point on

Rice. 55. The device of a temporary and permanent benchmark: I - conditional zero point, marked with a peg; II - a permanent benchmark, consisting of a concrete pillar or boulder buried in the ground, the upper point of which is leveled, and a stake touching it and coming to the surface, and also leveled; III and IV - temporary benchmarks from stakes hammered into the wall of the excavation and leveled

excavation outline. Thanks to the general leveling, conditional readings can be easily converted into readings from the surface level at a given location.
The temporary stake marking the zero point may be lost, so it must be duplicated by driving control stakes in two or three places, carefully leveling and recording their level, taking measures to protect them from damage.
If the excavation is laid right next to the old one, it is necessary to connect their zero points, i.e., to determine how much higher or lower one of them is.

The excavation site is marked on the local plan and on the map.

Since the conditional zero point does not reflect the true height of the area above sea level, it is desirable to determine this ratio. For this “binding”, it is most convenient to use a leveling, polygonometric or trigonometric sign located nearby, and it is not necessary to know its absolute mark, you can limit yourself to its number. For example, “a conditional zero point is 317 cm above the leveling mark No. 427, located in such and such
direction and at such and such a distance.

But such a geodetic mark is not always available near the excavation. Therefore, the zero point often has to be tied to some detail of a monumental building located nearby, to the top of a hill marked on the map, etc. If these objects are also absent, then a concrete column is buried in the ground to a depth of 1-1.5 m (at worst - a large stone), the surface of which is taken as zero in all subsequent archaeological work in the area.
The position of the benchmark is accurately marked on the plan of the monument.

Eyebrows and "priests". With little knowledge of the stratigraphy of a given section of the settlement, as well as in the case of large excavations, especially with a strong pitting of the cultural layer, in order to clarify the nature and order of the layers in different parts of the excavation, additional profiles are often resorted to, obtained by leaving control walls (brows) that divide excavation into two parts or more. Sometimes, as was the case during the excavations by V. I. Ravdonikas of Staraya Ladoga, “priests” (untouched earthen pillars) are left instead of brows, which make it possible to visualize the stratigraphy of this excavation. And the walls and "priests" are subsequently sorted out in layers. The frequency of profiles depends on the degree of knowledge of the stratigraphy of the site, to which they are in inverse proportion: the less studied the stratigraphy, the more profiles it is desirable to obtain. For example, when excavating one-layer Trypillia settlements, additional profiles are rarely resorted to, since wall profiles are sufficient to study the stratigraphy of these settlements. During the excavations of Vshchizh, B. A. Rybakov used a frequent grid of mutually perpendicular control walls located every 2 m. 5 m

However, in the process of excavation, the edges and “priests” clutter up the excavation and, expanding downwards, increasingly reduce its area. Therefore, it is sometimes convenient to draw

profiles after deepening, say, every 40 cm or 1 m, after which the drawn part of the edge is disassembled. This system allows unloading the excavation area and maintaining its unity.
Grid of squares. For the convenience of describing and fixing structures and material, the excavation is divided into smaller sections, otherwise it is difficult to determine in which part of it the given shards or bones were found, and it is difficult to find this or that thing on the plan of finds. Usually the excavation area is divided into squares with a side of 2 m. The grid of squares is broken even before the removal of the ballast layer, for example, waste rock at some Paleolithic and Neolithic sites. The square grid is oriented along the sides of the horizon, and its position is rigid, i.e. the corners of the squares should not move horizontally, otherwise the possibility of fixing the places of structures, spots and finds will be lost. To lay out the grid of squares, one string is stretched horizontally, passing through the middle of the excavation at a distance that is a multiple of two (meters), and the second, perpendicular to it. The intersection point of the strings is checked

sew and mark with a peg. Then, sighting with the eye the direction N - S in the alignment of the stretched string and the peg, stakes are hammered in on both sides of the latter every two meters. The line 3 - B is hung in the same way. In both cases, the hammered stakes must be located strictly in a straight line, and the perpendicularity of the base lines of the grid of squares obtained is checked by the "Egyptian triangle". The remaining corners of the squares are marked by the sequential construction of the "Egyptian triangle" from each stake of the base lines.

Checking the correctness of the position of the square grid is carried out as it deepens, at least after the removal of each second layer in the same order as when laying out the square grid. From frequent use, the end stakes of the base lines, located at the very edge of the excavation, loosen and fall out. In order to avoid this, it is recommended to hammer in strong duplicate stakes at a distance of 1 m from the edge of the excavation (and with a thick cultural layer at a distance of 2 m) and, when checking the correctness of the grid, use them, and not the main ones.

Each square receives a number (in Arabic numerals), and a certain system should be observed in the numbering (always from north to south or from west to east). Further fixation of the finds occurs by squares (see Ch. 5). Using a numbering system in which the line of squares running from north to south is indicated by letters, and the line from west to east - by numbers, as experience has shown, is less convenient. If the grid of squares breaks on the surface of the excavation, the vertices of all corners of the squares must be leveled.

Excavations by layers. It is desirable to excavate in layers, but the boundaries of the layers are not known in advance. Sometimes accurately dated stratigraphic stages can be identified within a layer. For these reasons, archaeological excavations are carried out in horizontal layers. The smaller the thickness of the layer, the more details of the structure of the monument are revealed, the more accurate the archaeological fixation, but the slower the excavations. Often archaeologists dig in layers of 20 cm, but in cases where fixation must be more accurate, the thickness of the layer should be reduced. The thickness of the layer accepted at this excavation must be exactly maintained (for example, exactly 20 cm, and not 19 cm and not 21 cm). It is forbidden

allow the formation to be dug up incompletely or - even worse - to a greater depth than it is established. In order to avoid "shortage" or "brute force", it is possible to make a notch on the thickness of the layer on the stakes marking the squares, and hammer the top of the stake flush with the surface of the layer being removed. In addition, it is necessary to level more often in the process of digging each layer. This, of course, does not mean that all 20 cm should be removed with one movement of a shovel, the layer can be removed with sweeps, but the accepted thickness of the layer remains the main unit of archaeological fixation. It is better if the layer does not reach 2 - 3 cm, which will be cut off during stripping.

Excavations by layers make it possible to fix finds within a narrow framework of depth marks, and then distribute them not only in layers, but also in tiers, if they can be distinguished.

Identification of finds. In order to reveal finds lying in the cultural layer, a digger must dig the earth in thin vertical sections, carefully examine it, and only then throw it on a stretcher. In conditions of wet or soft soil, diggers work in pairs: one digs, the other rubs the ground with his bare hands (without mittens, not with a stick). Every lump of earth is ground to know where the object found by hand is found. This effective method, unfortunately, is only possible with soft ground; the filling, for example, of the garbage dumps of ancient cities cannot be rubbed, since clods of earth cannot be kneaded by hands.

Horizontal excavation surface. Since the bed is usually (though not always) horizontal, the surface of the excavation should be leveled. This is done by removing one or more layers, the upper surface of which is inclined and the lower surface is horizontal. However, such leveling is impossible and harmful with a thin cultural layer (up to 60 - 80 cm), as well as with a strong slope of the terrain. In the first case, the layer is cut parallel to the excavation surface with stripping less than 20 cm. In the second, the excavation is divided into 3–4 sections and excavations are carried out with a “ladder” or (for example, in the ancient cities of the Northern Black Sea region) along the slope with non-horizontal layers of normal thickness.

If different soils are found within the same layer, then in order to reveal their nature and origin, excavations are carried out on soils with a decrease in the thickness of the cut: first, the upper soil is removed everywhere, then the lower one. In cases where the thickness of the soil is greater than the layer, its excavations are carried out in layers. If the soils can be dated, then the later layer is removed first, and then the early layer.

When digging a layer, it is necessary that the cut of the dug up earth be clean, not clogged with earth that has fallen from a shovel, i.e., the cut profile must be visible. Observation of the profile prevents the destruction of construction residues and other objects, as well as the skipping of layers and interlayers that have not been observed before.
To identify soil spots, which may turn out to be traces of decayed wood or bones, a covered utility pit, the remains of a fire or fire, the sole of each layer must be carefully cleaned with a light horizontal scraping with a shovel.

The excavation must be kept neat. Its walls should be straight, even and sheer, the sole should be horizontal (it can also be stepped). In the excavation there should be no uncleaned waste land, and even more so extraneous debris (paper, shavings, etc.). If the soil is wet, then the water from the catchment pits must be pumped out in time.

Features of the cleaned surface of each layer are recorded on a separate plan. The plan should give a picture of the location of construction remains and finds, as well as fix the boundaries of any significant stains and deposits.

Before the appearance of structures and soil spots, the registration of finds occurs in squares. With the advent of spots and structures, registration is often carried out within them (see Chapter 5), although the squares are preserved.

When the cultural layers are already known, work is carried out taking into account these layers, but within each layer by layers. Although the layer is a mass, chronologically almost unified, it can be divided into more fractional horizons, so it is impossible to remove the layer at once for its entire thickness. Opening the cultural layer to its full extent is also unacceptable because layers and interlayers that have not been previously identified may appear in it, and in this case they will not be able to be detected and studied in time.

When digging up the reservoir, the remains of all structures do not budge, they are carefully cleared and fixed. Such remains include: masonry, log cabins, collapsed logs and boards, pavements and pavements, bedding, flooring, water pipes, drainage systems, blockages, etc. It is convenient to give each such structure a number under which it appears in diaries, drawings and other field documents. The insignificant thickness of the cultural layer implies the necessity of detailed reconnaissance, without which the monument can easily be spoiled.

It is better to start excavations from the outcrops of the cultural layer. If it is thin, the layer thickness should be reduced to 10 cm or less. Even when removing the turf, it is sometimes possible to establish whether the monument was inhabited at a later time: this is evidenced by ceramics, which are often enclosed by a turf layer. However, one should not think that this monument was inhabited continuously until the very time, which corresponds to the ceramics found in the turf. Firstly, it could only be people visiting this monument at a later time. Secondly, even if this pottery corresponds to the residential layers, the continuity of the settlement in a given place is often spoken against by sterile layers that divide the cultural layer into unrelated horizons. Therefore, for the timely detection of sterile layers, it is important to take into account any change in the color or structure of the cultural layer in time. It should be remembered that not every layer is sterile. The nature of the interlayer must be determined exactly.

Dugouts and semi-dugouts. The term "dugout" usually includes buildings sunk into the ground to the roofs or partially sunken into the ground, or even dwellings with a deep floor. More precisely, all these are semi-dugouts. Semi-dugouts are perhaps the most common type of dwellings.

The most difficult moment in the study of semi-dugouts is their search, especially if they are located in the cultural layer. In these searches, the color spots, the difference in the structure of the filling of the semi-dugout and the surrounding land, and the differences in the composition of the finds are also a guideline. Semi-dugouts cut into the mainland are easily traced. For example, such dwellings in Borshchev were discovered by a dark spot of filling against a light limestone background of the mainland. Each of them was a pit about 1 m deep, into which a frame was inserted, as it were, and the space between the frame and the walls of the pit was packed with small gravel or clogged with clay. Massive pillars stood at the corners of the log house. The relatively good preservation of the tree contributed to the discovery of the details of the structure of this semi-dugout. If a semi-dugout partially enters the mainland, its contours are marked with a light strip of earth taken from the mainland. This layer stands out against the dark background of the cultural layer.

The Polish archaeologist Golubovich was the first to notice that crockery shards are more common near dwellings. Putting each shard on the plan, you can identify the place of this dwelling.

Best of all, the semi-dugout can be traced in the profile, so it is cleared either in half or in more fractional parts. The semi-dugout has a characteristic "navicular" section, which distinguishes the dwelling pit from the grain pit. All items at the bottom of the semi-dugout are first cleared in draft, which ensures their safety. Then, when all the filling of such dwellings is taken out, its bottom is finally cleared, including the objects found, the fixing of which is given special attention. Steps carved into the ground or cultural layer could lead to the semi-dugout.

Rice. 59. A - spot dugout (above); B - profile of the same dugout. (According to N.V. Trubnikova)

Clay dwellings. According to T. S. Passek, the clearing of the remains of adobe dwellings lying in soft ground occurs in the following order. After identifying in general terms the contours or, as they say, the “spots” of the occurrence of the building, excavations with a shovel are stopped and proceed to clearing the open monument. Clearing gives the appearance of an adobe dwelling at the time of its complete destruction. It allows you to understand most of the most important details of the construction, reveals the walls, the construction plan, finds out the construction periods, the purpose of individual rooms, the specifics of the inventory in each of them, etc. Clearing should not disturb a single piece of plaster, not a single shard - everything is left in place.

The opened monument is fixed. Sketch each piece of plastering, the remains of the building, inventory. In this case, a drawing grid is used (see p. 245). Since the remains of adobe dwellings in Trypillia are often multi-colored and bright, colored pencils are used when sketching them. It should be noted that some parts of the dwelling have a specific color. So, in Trypillia dwellings, the coating of the foundations of walls and partitions is yellow, slightly burned, the slab coating of the floor is brick-red, the slagged coating of the collapsed vaults of furnaces is purple, with a greenish tint.

The discovered remains are not only sketched, but also photographed many times, both in general and in detail. Dwellings are leveled, paying special attention to the leveling of its individual parts, and sometimes each piece of plastering. Finally, the diary gives a detailed description of the discovered complex.

Next, the disassembly of the opened object begins. It is the last stage of familiarization with the monument, a means of finally clarifying its design features, layout, purpose of each component, nature of inventory, etc. Dismantling gives the exact dimensions of the building as a whole and in its individual parts, it finds out how the partitions were built, there were whether there are pillars in them, in how many layers it was built under the furnace. Dismantling confirms or refutes the correctness of the observations made in the process of uncovering the site and clearing it. Of course, all these observations are recorded in the drawings, sketches and records.

Before starting disassembly, it is necessary to establish its order. Many solutions are possible here, depending on the nature of the monument. The dismantling of adobe remains is not carried out in horizontal layers or geometric areas, since such a method would mix various complexes, the structure of which is precisely to be clarified. To clarify the general nature of the ruins, their disassembly is usually carried out in complexes.

T. S. Passek recommends starting the dismantling of the adobe dwelling from the stoves - this is a pile of slagged plaster of lilac tones with imprints of wood and vines, lying above everything. When disassembling, you need to monitor the nature of the removed coating. To understand the design of the furnace, for its reconstruction, it is important to examine each fragment, to establish its position in the dwelling, to determine where the imprints of the tree are facing, what the collapsed roof of the furnace, its walls, etc. directly lie on. Similar observations are also important when disassembling the vessels. It is important to know where the vessels were stored - on the floor or on a dais, what was stored in them, etc.

After dismantling the vaults of the furnaces, they dismantle their tiled hearth, which is often multi-layered. First of all, it is necessary to identify the boundary between the hearth and the floor, with which the floor often merges. There are signs that distinguish under and floor, so you need to pay attention to the nature of the hearth plates, their thickness, color, degree of firing. The floor slabs are not touched, since the floor structure is clarified after dismantling the ovens, hearth, plastering, various elevations, plastering the altars and removing the vessels.
It is necessary to find out the basis of the walls and transverse partitions, in which the remains of the lower parts of heavily charred pillars are not uncommon. Of great interest is the device of inputs and threshold.

The Tripolsky house had from two to five rooms, each of which had a hearth, since such a house was inhabited by several families. In the process of dismantling, they decide whether to disassemble sequentially, within each room, or in layers, immediately over the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe dwelling. Such a disassembly means that in all rooms the collapsed vaults are first removed, then under the stoves, then the elevations are simultaneously dismantled, etc. It is impossible to dismantle the dwelling within the same elevation (same level). It is produced according to the functional purpose of certain complexes.

The construction technique of adobe dwellings and the materials from which they are built are diverse. Wood and clay were used in the construction of the building. Clay was used in the construction of walls and partitions, in the construction of a hearth and floor, and in each case this clay has a special appearance, and sometimes a special color due to the different firing to which the dwelling was subjected. Therefore, observations should also be made on the nature, uniformity and degree of firing of the clay coating.

Of significant interest is the foundation of the walls of the building made of adobe rollers. You can start disassembling it after removing the tiled floor of the dwelling, which covers it in 2-3 rows. Blocks of wood were laid at the base of the walls of the dwelling, the prints of which are found after removing and turning over the roller base and all large pieces of plastering.

All removed remains are laid out on a dismantling site. At the same time, it is recommended to break up large pieces of the coating, since it is often possible to detect imprints of straw, leaves, branches, acorns and grains in them.

When dismantling the building, records are continuously kept, sketches, photographs are made, drawings are made. It is impossible to confine oneself to drawing up any one plan; there must be several of them. For example, a construction plan is drawn up after clearing, after removing the first tiled floor, a plan for the location of the roller base. All these plans are complemented by cuts.

There are also post houses, a variation of which are huts. The frames of these houses are poles traced by the holes left by them. Pillars and stakes were braided with vines and coated with clay, which was sometimes fired. Spots of burnt or soaked clay mark the remains of these walls.

log houses. Houses are known, the walls of which consisted of a continuous row of vertical pillars (for example, in the Kamensky settlement). Their foundations were located in ditches, which can be traced during excavations. But more often the walls are made of horizontal logs, since the logs, by their weight, reduce the cracks that form when they dry. The remains of burnt structures are best preserved in the cultural layer. In this case, lightly burned and completely charred logs can be traced along the coal layers. The direction of the walls and the entire layout of the building are restored along these layers. However, one must be careful in judgment here, as the logs could have rolled away during the fire.

The blockage of the burnt building requires careful clearing and careful study. It is the only material for the reconstruction of this structure.

It is much more difficult to investigate the remains of a decayed building, from the lower crowns of which, at best, wood decay (dust), and more often only strips of darker earth against a light background, has been preserved. Nothing can usually be traced in the chernozem soil.

In those cases where the color of the remains of a rotten tree merges with the background of the earth, in some cases it can be traced in photographs taken with various filters. This once again indicates the desirability of the greatest possible use of photography during excavations. Sometimes layers invisible to the naked eye can be seen through sunglasses. In this case, it is better to have several pairs of glasses with glasses of different thicknesses and colors. (In order not to return to this issue, it should be noted that such glasses allow you to better see the earth layers in the profiles, which is important when sketching them.)

It happens that a log dwelling for 2 - 3 crowns was deepened into the ground. The daytime surface of the time of its death, as a rule, is determined by the level of traced crowns, and in the case of the death of this dwelling in a fire, by the level of the fire layer. Finally, the daily surface, taking into account the short duration of existence of each of these dwellings, can be determined from ceramics by the Golubovich method.

Some of the dwellings had mounds that are difficult to trace, especially if the building was built on a cultural layer. Sometimes this can be done if
the dwelling burned down: in the presence of a blockage, only the inner side of the adjacent log burns. From a burnt building, if the monument is at least 1000 years away from us, it is necessary to take samples of coal for their dating according to method C (see Appendix).

Traces of buildings in the mainland. A number of dwellings and other buildings can be traced only by traces left by them in the mainland. These are pits of dugouts, often almost entirely going into the mainland, stains from pillars, along which sometimes it is only possible to trace a pillared building or a building with a roof resting on pillars. Therefore, exposing the surface of the mainland is an important task, especially in settlements with a thin cultural layer, in which the buildings left almost no traces. Thus, the constructions in the ancient settlement of Bereznyaki were traced by P.N. Tretyakov along depressions 4–5 cm deep. Therefore, when entering the mainland, the cultural layer must be separated mathematically accurately, avoiding damage to the surface of the mainland.

Roof. When reconstructing a dwelling, it is most difficult to restore the type of roof. It is possible mainly by supporting pillars that are opened inside the dwelling, more precisely, by the holes (spots) left from them. When determining the purpose of such a pillar, it is necessary to carefully compare all the exposed parts of the dwelling, since these pillars can turn out to be supporting pillars not only for roofs, but also for partitions. With the poor preservation of the tree, it is difficult to restore the features of the roof from their blockages in the form of poles and boards, precisely because these poles are not preserved. You can also mention that the blockages of the roof and the blockages of the floors are difficult to distinguish. The roofs of medieval huts usually rested not on pillars, but on males or on rafters, and therefore did not leave traces in the ground. This means that such roofs can only be traced by their rubble.

Hearth. One of the most important parts of the home is the open hearth. Large stones were placed in the recess where the fire was made, serving as a heat accumulator. The design of such a hearth is very interesting and requires a complete study by accurately fixing the stones and other elements that make it up. When clearing the hearth filling, it is possible to find shards, bones and other household remains, which make it possible to determine the purpose of the hearth in this dwelling. Clearing hearth

pit gives you the opportunity to get her profile. Finally, it is important to find out the degree of calcination of the soil under the hearth, which makes it possible to indirectly judge the duration of the hearth functioning. In a similar way, open fires that are not buried in the ground are cleared and fixed, which could only be in the center of the dwelling.

The oven may have a different design. There are stoves made of cobblestones (“heaters”), adobe stoves with a frame made of rods, in some places stoves made of raw bricks are known. It must be borne in mind that chimney chimneys are not known until the late Middle Ages. In all cases, for the correct reconstruction of furnaces, it is important to determine the order of their destruction. For convenience, the owners of the furnace were often placed on hills, or a hole was dug near the mouth of the furnace. When disassembling the furnace, the same requirements must be observed as when disassembling the hearth. In addition, it is often possible to trace the remains of its supporting pillars in the base of the furnace. To the east of the Volga, medieval dwellings sometimes had canals - clay chimneys that ran horizontally below the walls and served as benches.
When studying dwellings, the question often arises about their simultaneity or difference in time, which can be solved by tracing the profile connecting these objects. In the simplest cases, semi-dugouts of different times can cross one another.

It is necessary to strictly take into account the nature of the finds in each of the discovered dwellings, since these finds are important material for determining many aspects of the life of their inhabitants.

Household pits. Household pits, usually grain pits, are often found both inside and near dwellings. Quite often, the sizes and even designs of grain pits are similar to the sizes and design of a semi-dugout pit, so they must be able to distinguish them. If the pits are dug in the mainland, then due to the drying of their filling between the mainland and the walls of the pit, sometimes a crack is formed with a width of 1 - 2 mm to 1 cm. , which is the filling of the well. Grain pits are usually pear-shaped. In the early times, the walls of the pits in ancient settlements were lined with small stones, in later times they were coated with clay and lightly burned from the inside. Coating the walls of the pit

clay mixed with straw is found not only in ancient monuments. If such pits were dug in the cultural layer, then their upper part could not stand on its own, as in the mainland. In such cases, the upper part of the pit with a narrow neck was laid out of stone. This crown is usually found collapsed down. Often, huge vessels were inserted into the pits - pithoi, from which the lower third is usually preserved.

Pits in the cultural layer may not be distinguished either by color or by structure; sometimes they are only revealed by the composition of the finds. Pits must be chosen especially, before the removed layer into which it goes. The filling of an open pit is selected by layers - first from one half of it, then, according to the sketch of the profile, from the other.

When clearing a pit, it is important to establish its nature, i.e., whether it is artificial or natural, to identify what it was intended for (grain, garbage, water tank, dwelling, deepened hearth, etc.) and how it was used (for example: abandoned grain pit turned into a garbage pit). Therefore, the excavated land is carefully examined. At the bottom of the pit, it is often possible to find the remains of grain, straw, which are taken and packed in a special way.

Production residues. In some cases, there are metal slags, crucibles, metal ingots, iron crackers, and even the remains of a blast furnace or furnace. So, during the excavations of Old Ryazan, V. A. Gorodtsov found a pit 0.5 m deep, 1 m long, 0.7 m wide. It was filled to the top with pieces of iron slag, and it was surrounded by black soil, “almost like coal.” This pit could not be a primitive metallurgical furnace (the so-called "wolf pit"), because the process of melting iron required air blowing, no traces of which were found here. Most likely it was a foothill pit, in which slag and coal accumulated.

Nozzles for blowing air are an infrequent find. But even where there are many of them, they still do not testify to the proximity of raw furnaces. Two houses were opened by A.L. Mongait in Staraya Ryazan. Their underside consisted of cobblestone, not bonded with mortar, and the walls and the entire top were clay. Both furnaces were in enclosed spaces, one - in the ground, the other - in a semi-dugout.

The remains of production facilities, as well as traces of production - cracks, slags, nozzles - are recommended to be left on the "priests" until their relationship is fully clarified. This, of course, refers to the remains of not only metallurgical, but also any other production, as well as accumulations of any objects that can illuminate new features in the characteristics of the settlement.

Pottery kilns, rare in Russian antiquities, are better known in ancient settlements, where they are characterized not only by the remains of ceramic furnaces, but also by fragments of molds for making terracotta figurines, stands for firing vessels and, of course, manufacturing defects - vessels and figurines damaged during firing.

In ancient settlements, there are remains of wineries, which are areas covered with lime mortar, on which grapes were crushed with feet (and later with a stone press). Next to the sites there are huge stone boxes - tanks, the walls of which are also covered with a layer of mortar. These tanks were used to collect grape must.

Rectangular cisterns made of stone, also smeared on the inside, were found - fish-salting baths. They differ sharply from the pear-shaped plastered water tanks.

Of the production complexes found in ancient settlements, we should mention flour mills, recognizable by millstones, first rectangular, then round.

Wooden pavements. In the wet cultural layer, the tree is often preserved. These are wood chips, individual logs and even wooden structures. Wooden pavements are especially typical for Russian cities, although they are also known abroad. They are an object of paramount importance and when clearing them, all the rules for clearing wooden structures must be observed. Since the surface of even a well-preserved tree is fragile when the earth is removed from it, it is better to use the back of the knife. In this case, the clearing should be carried out not across the fibers, but along them. Finally, the tree is cleared with a broom, and then with a hard hair brush.

Much attention is paid to the study of bridge design. The latter usually consist of planks laid flat side up on three (very rarely - on two or four) longitudinal logs. In order for the chopping blocks not to swing, cuttings are made in them according to the lags. The ends of the blocks usually lie freely, but sometimes they are fixed in the grooves of the extreme logs. Such a construction is rare and, if found, then in the early layers. It is necessary to pay attention to the wear of the pavement surface, which may indicate the busyness of traffic along the street. Usually, a new pavement was laid over one that was not yet worn out, as soon as the cultural layer grew along its sides, and it grew rapidly. Dirt from the pavements was scraped off on both sides, so there is usually little cultural layer between the pavements, but if it exists, then the things found in it are important for dating the pavement.

Paved ramps often led from street pavements to houses and estates, which helps to establish their connection. Their simultaneity can be established by the common layers underlying or covering the remains of the house and the pavement. The complex of such structures and the cultural layer related to them is the building layer.

Drainages. Drainage devices were used to remove excess moisture. Their beginning was the catchment barrels, which are found during excavations under the remains of

buildings. The water collected in these barrels was discharged with the help of pipes, which were halves of a log hollowed out inside and connected to each other. Wooden pipes were known in Roman times, but they were especially popular in Novgorod. Pipes from two or three neighboring houses were connected together in one wooden catchment well, from which the main pipe ran, or these pipes were directly cut into the main pipe without the help of a well. This system of draining the soil existed in some towns until the 19th century, but later chimneys were made from planks rather than hollowed-out logs. Pipe joints were isolated from the ground with birch bark or in some other way.

When studying the drainage system, in addition to design features, it is necessary to determine the slope of the pipes by leveling their ends and try to trace the pits in which these pipes lay. These two circumstances are the criteria that make it possible to distinguish the drainage system from possible water pipes. Water pipes should be inclined towards the dwelling, drainage pipes - away from it. Water pipes are buried below the freezing line of the soil; for drainage pipes, the depth does not matter.

Log cabins. Soil moisture precluded the possibility of constructing semi-dugouts, so only log dwellings are known in a settlement with a high standing of groundwater. The number of opened log cabins is very large, some of them are the remains of dwellings, others - outbuildings. Logs for log cabins were taken with a diameter of 20 - 25 cm, since it would be cold in a house with thinner walls. The log house was first erected next to the old dwelling, which was then dismantled and a new log house was transferred to its place. In order not to confuse the crowns during its transfer, they were marked with notches, which are sometimes traced on logs. The sizes of log cabins fluctuate considerably, but the most common are log cabins with an area of ​​15 - 20 square meters. m. In the log cabins discovered by excavations, the method of felling in the oblo prevails, in which the upper log is placed in a specially cut recess at the end of the lower log. In this case, the small ends of the logs protrude outward, which does not happen when cutting into a paw, when the ends of the logs are hemmed into four faces and connected by these expanded ends. Other methods of logging are possible, but they are very rare during excavations.

The daytime surface of the time of the death of the house is usually the level of the upper log of the log house, since the crowns, covered with a cultural layer, were preferred not to be excavated. In the event of a fire, the level of the day surface at the time of the death of the house is determined by the layer of coal, the burntness of the crowns protruding from the ground, etc. Finally, the day surface at the time of construction is determined by the level of the floor, the foundation or its substitutes, etc.

For thermal insulation, the house was necessarily caulked, usually with moss. In some cases, the house was plastered with clay.

Furnaces. Soil moisture in some cases led to the construction of huts on basements (with a low ground floor). The basement was used as a barn, and sometimes as a barn. The need to heat the room led to the need to fold the stove in the residential upper floor. The stoves located on the lower floors had supports - furnaces, which were not made for stoves on the second floor. Furnaces, as a rule, were adobe. If the house was not dismantled, but burned down, then the stoves can be traced in the form of clay stains. In pre-Mongol times, furnaces were occasionally made of plinths - thin slab, almost square bricks. Usually stones were used in the construction of furnaces. It is important to find out the structure of the hearth of the furnace, its arch and hood. The stoves did not have chimneys and were heated in black.

Windows and doors. The location of doors and windows is difficult to trace. The place of the doors can sometimes be marked by a preserved threshold or a pavement leading to it. Judging by the excavations in Brest, the threshold could be located very high, and the door was low. As for the windows, especially portage windows, their place can only be judged on the basis of ethnographic analogies. From the red (large) windows, platbands are sometimes preserved - boards decorated with carvings.

Stratigraphic stage. The complex of structures that existed at the same time, together with the cultural layer that grew during their existence, is usually called the stratigraphic stage (or, in Novgorod terminology, simply the stage). To establish the simultaneity of structures, i.e., to identify a tier, can only be carefully traced (in plan and in profile) by linking

their layers, pavements, individual logs, boards, etc. Therefore, one should not rush to remove the cultural layer adjacent to the structures. It must be remembered that the cultural layer is not a hindrance, but a means of studying the monument.

The basis for the construction of tiers are most often pavements and pavements lying one on top of the other, connecting a number of buildings. Pavements are common in ancient cities. In Russian cities, wooden pavements play such a role. Each pavement serves as a basis for distinguishing a particular stratigraphic stage. This means that the number of tiers cannot be less than the number of pavements. At the same time, sometimes during the existence of one building, the cultural layer can grow, so the building will correspond to two or three pavements, i.e. this building will correspond to several stratigraphic tiers. The concept of a tier is not a concept of a plane or surface; it also embraces a certain uneven thickness of the cultural layer.

The stratigraphic tier does not correspond to the removed horizontal layers, but to the ancient terrain. A certain tier at one end of the excavation corresponds, for example, to the 20th layer, and at the other end, to the 25th. Therefore, it is important to take into account all layers, the position of all logs and boards, including pavement logs. The depth of both ends of these logs and boards and the depth of the surface of each layer are measured. Only on the basis of such soundings can each stratigraphic stage be accurately reproduced.

When constructing a tier, one should take into account the level of various buildings, taking into account the terrain and the possibility of a terraced location of the settlement. Buildings belonging to the same stratigraphic stage usually have the same material, texture, construction technique, and construction time. However, some buildings were durable, such as stone temples, palaces, etc.
As a result of this kind of observations, the surface is established, on which the most diverse structures existed, connected in a single complex - tier. Since the removed layers do not correspond to the tiers (they either cut two or three tiers, or fit inside one), these simultaneous complexes are restored primarily on paper. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the surface of the tier cannot be absolutely even, just as any terrain is not even; natural depressions and elevations must be taken into account when constructing the tier.

Each stage can be dated by a shorter period of time than the layer in which it is included, so the stages provide a more accurate chronological scale than the cultural layers of a given excavation.

It is almost always possible to build tiers; the possibility of such a construction should not be missed.

Stone and brick buildings. Stone and brick buildings in antiquity and in Ancient Russia were sometimes placed directly on the mainland or on the cultural layer, which was the reason for their fragility due to the uneven settlement of the walls. In order to avoid such a settlement, the walls began to be placed on the foundation, and the foundation rested on substructures - special artificial bedding. So, in Olbia, a foundation ditch dug to the mainland was traced, covered with alternating layers of clay and earth, and each of these layers was saturated with ash.

The foundation of the building could rest at different depths. Since the frozen ground warps, it is necessary that the foundation pit breaks out below the line of winter freezing of the soil. This was not recognized immediately. Often the foundation lay at a depth of 40 - 60 cm and consisted of small stones held together with clay. A building on such a foundation could not be strong. But structures with a powerful deep foundation are also known.

The foundation was laid out a little wider than the stone and brick walls standing on it, at the transition to which there is a small ledge. The stone blocks of the foundation were either not processed at all, or they were hewn, but less carefully than the stones from which the wall was formed.

The material for the walls could be cobblestone, torn and hewn stone, burnt brick (its ancient Russian variety is plinfa), in the southern regions - raw brick.
In Greek times, masonry was done dry, without a binder solution. At the same time, the stones were carefully adjusted to each other, and sometimes fastened with iron braces. Laying on clay is less common. In Roman buildings, lime mortar with various impurities was common. Alternating layers of crushed stone and mortar have received the name of Roman concrete in archeology.

The thickest walls of antiquity had two carapaces of hewn stone, the space between which was filled with stone rubble (cobblestone and stone fragments). Such masonry was also known in Ancient Russia, and the quarrystone was fastened with opium (lime mortar with

various additives). To achieve a visual effect, laying was used from alternating rows of stone, mortar and brick.
The floors in ordinary ancient dwellings were adobe, in rich ones they were paved with stone slabs or covered with a mosaic pattern. In ancient Russia, the floors in houses are usually plank, and in stone buildings they were often lined with tiled tiles.

The walls of stone and brick houses are rarely preserved to a great height. There are few cases when it was possible to trace the remains of the second, and even more so the third floor. One has to judge the upper floors by the signs observed in the lower floor. Such signs can be powerful foundations, as well as the remains of stairs and window casings, since windows were not arranged in ancient houses on the ground floor. Ceilings survived mainly in Roman buildings.

Sometimes, especially in cases of frequent stone structures, for a complete picture of the ratio of uncovered objects, earthen pillars - “priests” are left under the cleared remains and dig between them. The “priests” should have sufficient area so as not to fall, but at the same time their area should be minimal so as not to clutter up the excavation. Over time, the area available for excavations becomes insignificant and it is necessary to dismantle certain “priests”, having previously dismantled the structures left on them. At the same time, later, less preserved and less important objects have to be sacrificed for more preserved and more important ones. Demolished "priests" are disassembled in layers, if they are small, and if they are large, in layers. However, in a number of cases, for example, in Russian cities, all the remains of wooden structures are dismantled and they are not left on the “priests”.

In order to better imagine the general view, layout and nature of an open structure, it is necessary to draw not only its plan (often even many plans), but also one or more sections.

The discovered blockages of stone and brick structures are cleared as usual, and then, depending on

blockage values ​​make one or more cuts perpendicular to its direction. These cuts allow you to establish the mass of the blockage, which helps restore the original height of the collapsed wall.

Conservation of architectural remains. Sometimes the degree of importance of the object does not allow destruction and the object is not dismantled, and the ground under it is not dug up. For the safety of the building, wooden supports are constructed for masonry that threatens to fall. A good way to save masonry is to inject mortar into all of its cracks, first washing out the earth located there. At the end of the work, the building is either covered (preferably with river sand), or a canopy or case is built over it to protect it from the action of the sun and precipitation. So, a number of crypts in the Crimea were filled up, the remains of ancient Russian churches in Kyiv, Smolensk, Tmutarakan were covered up, and a protective building was built over the sextant of Ulugbek's observatory in Samarkand; the remains of the observatory have been turned into a museum.

In a number of cases, cultural layers and tiers can be established at the end of the excavation by tying together separate structures that were unearthed at different ends of the excavation. This reveals their sequence and the individual links reveal the entire chain of layers.

Dating of structures. Already during the excavations, the revealed structures and their combinations can be dated. First of all, they find out the relative date: which of
two structures (sometimes located at the same depth) are ancient. This can be done by observing, for example, that one of these structures is covered by a layer on which another is located, that the pavement leading to the porch of one house is blocked by a pavement that goes to the porch of another, that the remains of one structure cut the remains of another (for burials - one grave cut the second grave). This is a stratigraphic dating method, repeatedly verified by written sources. So, the excavations of A. V. Artsikhovsky in Novgorod uncovered a stone defensive wall 3 m thick. During its construction, a layer of clay and rubble remained. Thus, the surface of the time of the wall's construction was determined. Everything that was found below this layer was older than the 14th century, since there were no longer glass bracelets above it. This means that the wall was built somewhere in the middle of the 14th century. The exact date was given by the chronicle, which tells about the construction of a defensive wall by the posadnik Fyodor Danilovich in 1335.

The absolute date is established by ceramics, objects whose existence time was established earlier, by coins, etc. It should be noted that a single item does not give the correct date even if the cultural layer is not disturbed by excavations. This is due to the long existence of some things and especially applies to single coins, which sometimes exist for 200 - 300 years. But the combination of things, especially coins, gives the exact date. The time of burial of a coin treasure is determined by the time of the latest coin included in it.

According to the established dates of the structures, the chronology of the cultural layers outlined during the excavations is checked and finally established. Upon completion of earthworks, it is necessary to check the correctness of the stratigraphic conclusions made during the excavation, that is, to check the correctness of the breakdown of strata and structures into cultural layers and stratigraphic stages.

These are the general techniques that are possible when excavating a settlement from different eras under the appropriate specific conditions.

Mechanization of excavations of the settlement. We should dwell on the possibility of mechanization of some excavation processes. There are still no machines that could be used in the very process of opening the cultural layer. The machine will not be able to report on the remains of structures encountered, on changes in the composition and color of the layer, to distinguish unnecessary stones from beads made from this stone, birch bark letters from empty birch bark, to protect things from breakage, and all this is extremely important in the process of archaeological research. Therefore, the opening of the cultural layer is possible only manually. Moreover, every lump of earth thrown from the digger's shovel must be broken and checked for things.

But it is possible and necessary to mechanize the ejection of the scanned land from the excavation. The mechanization of this process makes it possible to save at least half of the working time, and sometimes more.

The most economical and convenient earth lifting machine is the belt conveyor with an electric motor. During the excavations, conveyors with a boom 15 m long are used. The boom lift of these conveyors allows throwing earth to a depth of 5 m. The conveyor easily moves along the excavation and in most cases does not interfere with the excavation process. The conveyor is installed at the site of the excavation at the beginning of work, and moving it from place to place, soil is selected throughout the excavation area. The worked out and examined land is fed by a stretcher to the conveyor. If the excavation is very large, then you can set up a chain of conveyors, transferring the earth from one to another until it comes up. The use of small conveyors (10 and 5 m) for ejection of the earth is unprofitable due to the small boom lift. At the end of the excavation, the removal of the conveyor is not difficult, since it is disassembled into two or three parts, each of which is lifted from the excavation separately.

The earth thrown up by the conveyor can also be moved away from the edge of the excavation by the conveyor. The bulldozer and scraper destroy all objects in the cultural layer, so these machines are not used to remove the cultural layer. But it is advantageous to use them in order to move the ejection away from the edge of the excavation (at the same time, in order to avoid a collapse, they should not come closer to the board than 3 m). These machines remove ballast during excavations of loess Paleolithic sites (see p. 208), they are used to clean the surface of the monument from shrubs and debris, sometimes from turf (only with a thick cultural layer). In a number of expeditions, these mechanisms are used

used when laying exploratory and stratigraphic trenches (for example, when searching for burial grounds and even when exploring defensive ramparts).
Another type of mechanism is the skip hoist, which is convenient when the excavation depth is more than 5 m, when the conveyor cannot throw out the earth, if it does not stand on a special “priest” or on scaffolds, which are sometimes built specially. The skip hoist consists of a box ("skip" - a box) with folding sides (like a car) with a capacity of 1.5-2 m. The box moves on rollers along a special log overpass. Iron strips are fixed on the overpass - rails with limiters for the skip rollers. The box is lifted along the overpass by an electric winch. The flyover can move and lengthen as the excavation deepens. The skip is loaded by conveyors, which receive the earth from the stretcher.

It is very difficult to mechanize work in small excavations, because machines clutter them up. In this case, the excavations themselves become impossible. To avoid this, for small excavations of great depth, a lift with a bucket of the Pioneer type can be used.

Installed at the corner of the excavation, it easily lifts a bucket up to 0.5 m without cluttering the excavation.

All of the above mechanisms require that the sides of the excavation be free from the ground by 1.5-2.0 m from the edge, which is also necessary in order to prevent collapse.

An archaeologist sometimes has to deal with pumps. With low soil moisture and a shallow excavation, you can use a frog-type pump, which is installed at the edge of the excavation, and its hose is lowered into the excavation. At a depth of more than 4 m, the use of such a pump is difficult, and then an electric pump has to be used. In both cases, care must be taken to prevent clogging of the pump with chips, pebbles and earth. This is achieved by enclosing the suction end of the hose in a box with gaps in the plank walls.

When using mechanisms with electric motors, a number of rules must be observed. The energy authorities have the following requirements for power wiring. For a power line, a pole must be installed near the excavation site, on which there is a switchboard that includes input fuses for each phase, a common switch and output fuses also for each phase.

The switchboard must be enclosed in a box, upholstered on all sides with waterproof material (for example, roofing paper). The door of the box during non-working hours should be locked, and during working hours there should be a person on duty at the box for emergency switching off the current if necessary. Wiring from the switchboard to the motors is carried out with a four-core cable (three power cores, the fourth is zero) in PVC insulation (VRG type). The cable is laid on poles, without sharp bends. The frames of the conveyors and pumps are connected to the ground, the reliability of which is checked by the energy management technician. Each mechanism must have a starter (switch). The entire wiring system is checked by an energy management technician. The power supply to the pole is carried out by energy management fitters. The expedition must have its own materials and equipment.

Safety. In some cases, the excavation walls threaten to collapse. Walls made of sand, construction debris, ash, etc. are especially unreliable.

puff in a solid wall creates a danger of collapse. Therefore, with unreliable walls of the excavation, all the logs that need to be removed should not be cut down, but cut out. From such walls it is necessary to remove protruding stones that create a danger to workers, etc. If the wall threatens to collapse, it is necessary, having drawn its profile, to make bevels.

Narrow trenches, which examine the shafts, can be fastened with wooden shields, lining opposite walls with them and hammering spacer logs between them. However, this technique does not work with sandy soil, when the soil "creeps out" from under the shields. In this case, the trench has to be expanded.
In addition to general methods suitable for excavating objects of the same type in settlements of different eras, one can indicate a number of methods for excavating monuments of each era, although all the options and cases encountered in this case cannot be indicated, enumerated, or foreseen.

Paleolithic settlements. Plain Paleolithic settlements include artificial dwellings made of mammoth bones and other structures, storage pits, hearths and other objects, the specificity of which determines the methods of excavation of these sites. In the process of excavation, the archaeologist faces three tasks: firstly, detailed reconnaissance of the settlement, secondly, the study of the cultural layer in plan and profile, and thirdly, the study of the base of the cultural layer, including the search for another layer and various pits.

The area of ​​Paleolithic settlements is relatively large (up to 40,000 m2) and unevenly saturated with finds. To identify the boundaries of the settlement and its most important areas (dwellings, tool-making sites, fires), detailed reconnaissance is carried out using pits and trenches that pass through the thickness of the loess, but do not cut through the cultural layer. The cultural layer of the Paleolithic sites does not differ in color or structure from the overlying and underlying rock and can only be identified as a horizon of finds. Therefore, pits and trenches are brought to the upper level of the finds. The flint and bones found at the bottom of the pit must be cleared away, and in order to protect it from drying out, cover it with grass or paper and sprinkle it with earth. Thus, data are obtained on the level of occurrence and on the saturation of the cultural layer in different areas of the site, which makes it possible to get an idea of ​​its layout. Now you can break the excavation.

When removing the ballast (loess covering the site), great difficulties are created by the removal of the rock, which should be removed outside the distribution of the cultural layer. Since loess sites are often adjacent to ravines, it is most convenient to pour ballast into them with a bulldozer; sometimes the excavation is connected to the ravine by a trench. Such a rough survey of the rock by machines stops, not reaching 30-40 cm to the upper level of the cultural layer.

After the end of the rough shooting of the ballast, the cultural layer is exposed to the level of tall objects (they are usually large bones). When the cultural layer is exposed, they study the rocks that covered it, objects taken out along the molehills, and also monitor whether there is a cultural layer of a later time on the settlement.

Clearing is carried out in thin vertical cuts in one line along the entire length of the excavation. The verticality of the cuts reduces the possibility of scraping off

aching bones, which are often very soft and moist. Clearing in one line allows you to see the moving section of the strata and be guided by it and the things and complexes opened during clearing.
When studying the cultural layer, the boundaries of its distribution in the plan are specified, the lower boundary is probed both in places of accumulation of cultural remains and on its outskirts. When dismantling the cultural layer, the ancient surface on which the settlement is based (the floor of the settlement) is not disturbed, which is the object of study at the next stage of the study of the site. In the process of dismantling the cultural layer, large bones, stones and other things are cleared and left in place for their subsequent study and documentation of their position. The level of the floor of the settlement is determined by the level of occurrence of things found outside the accumulations of cultural remains, for example, far from dwellings, where there are few finds at all.

Since at the bottom of residential depressions in Paleolithic settlements there is a cultural layer, often colored with ocher or saturated ash, its presence makes it possible to catch the dugout in plan and easily find its bottom. Bones were often dug along the walls of the dugouts, which served as the frame of the roof, and sometimes the walls. The clearing of dwellings must be carried out in the same way as the clearing of any recesses, that is, in parts, in order to obtain two or three cuts. To do this, for example, first one quarter of the dugout is cleared, then the others in succession. You should not make an incision immediately to the bottom - you can miss the opportunity to make other, more important incisions. Found things, and they are usually located at the very bottom of the dwelling, are first cleared in draft, and in detail - only after sampling the entire filling.

Among the things found in the dwelling, it is most difficult to single out those that got there after it was abandoned by its inhabitants. Random things like this, if left undetected, can create a misleading impression of an open dwelling. When dismantling Paleolithic dwellings, they act according to a method similar to that proposed by MP Gryaznov for the study of stone enclosures of mounds (see p. 158). In such dwellings, first of all, objects that have fallen from their place are removed, leaving undisturbed things and bones in place. This technique allows you to get a view of the dwelling before its destruction.

Dismantling of storage pits and accumulations of hearth mass completes the study of the cultural layer. Storage pits are located in the dwelling, they stored food supplies and valuable items. It is more convenient to look for pits when finds have been removed from the dwelling (except for those related to its construction). If the pits were located near the fires, then the ash that fell into them colored the filling, and it stands out as a colored spot. Pits located outside the boundaries of the painted layer can be detected only by objects located at the bottom, some of which (for example, animal bones) protrude slightly above the floor of the site. Often the upper part of the filling of the pit is almost no different from the mainland. In this case, when clearing the pits, you first need to find the filling of the bottom of the pit, where there are more cultural remains, and only then look for the walls. When clearing pits, A. N. Rogachev recommends, firstly, not to remove well-cleared and stratigraphically defined finds without urgent need, which is important for clarifying the overall picture through comparisons; secondly, do not disturb the mainland edges of the pit (this way it is easier to identify its filling); thirdly, do not rush to make cuts in the pit to its entire depth, so as not to miss the opportunity to make other, more important cuts.

To elucidate the history of the settlement, it is important to study the ratio of the discovered complexes. Among them may be dwellings, bonfires, accumulations of kitchen, industrial waste, etc. It is important to find out whether these dwellings existed at the time when tools were being produced at a given place, whether fires burned in the dwelling and outside it at the same time, or in different ways, whether all the fires burned at once or in turn, etc. All this can be established by tracing the overlap of some things on others, the location of things on the ash layers and vice versa, that is, using the methods of distinguishing a tier (see p. 196 ). As a result, the site can be divided into 2 - 3 tiers, corresponding to 2 - 3 successive settlements. Inside these tiers, individual structures (for example, dugouts) turn out to have existed for a longer time, during which a number of complexes were replaced.

All found objects, even the smallest ones, must be left in place until the whole picture is fully revealed, protecting them from drying out. After clearing structures, complexes and individual objects, a description of the excavation is made and its general plan is drawn up (usually on a scale of 1: 10). Each hole, accumulation of kitchen waste, dwelling or other object receives its own description. When drawing them, it is convenient to use the drawing grid.

Only after the description and drawing on the plan, it is possible to make a selection of things and their packaging.

The cultural layer is better preserved at the bottom of deep pits. Here it is most convenient to study the conditions for the formation of a cultural layer in a settlement.

When all items are removed, the entire excavation area must be dug to a depth of 20-25 cm; moreover, the dug-up rock is removed, and the exposed surface is cleaned, as a result of which several more storage pits may be found that were not previously distinguished by color. In addition, they also find objects dragged into burrows by animal shrews.

For the final check, a network of control grooves is laid (to the depth of the iron part of the shovel) at a distance of one and a half to two meters from each other.

Most of the sites have undergone major changes since they were abandoned by people. Therefore, in the process of excavations, it is necessary to collect as much data as possible, which would make it possible to restore the former appearance of the settlement and the landscape surrounding it. The reconstruction of the landscape for the Paleolithic is of particular importance, since the natural environment of this era was very different from the modern one. Reconstruction can help data from geology, paleozoology, paleobotany, chemical analysis of the soil. It is important to identify the disturbances of the cultural layer by water and wind. In a number of cases, it is possible to establish that the site lay in the permafrost zone. This conclusion is led by the observation of the characteristic loosening of the cultural layer. Sometimes the layer was partially swollen in the direction of a slight slope of the terrain, and some sections of the site moved. Often there are cracks that were once filled with ice (the so-called ice wedges). For these observations, it is necessary to expand the excavation beyond the distribution of the cultural layer, as was the case, for example, at the Avdeevskaya site.

The Paleolithic sites of the Crimea, the Caucasus and Central Asia are characterized by the absence of artificial dwellings, which, perhaps, is explained not only by the location of the settlement in caves or under a rocky canopy, but also by the absence of mammoths in these areas.

Complex stratigraphy is typical for cave sites. Usually, cultural remains are mixed with stones that have fallen from the roof, arranged randomly, and sometimes forming a certain horizon within the layer. In some cases, a powerful collapse serves as the boundary of a settlement adjoining it from the outside, and sometimes from the inside. In the latter case, the slope of the layers is directed towards the inner part of the grotto. In the cultural strata, there are layers washed up with water, for example, by the nearest stream, which occasionally flooded the settlement. In some caves, the floor was originally, as it were, stepped, but over time, these steps were leveled by the cultural layer that had grown on them.

These examples show the complexity of the stratigraphy of cave settlements, the clarification and study of which is possible only with frequent profiling.

Excavations of cave sites in some cases begin with a pit measuring 2 × 2 m for a preliminary clarification of the nature and alternation of layers. Often, excavations begin with a trench 1-2 m wide, running along the cave, i.e. from its entrance into the depths. Excavations are carried out in square, horizontal layers. After studying the entire thickness of the cultural layer in this trench, a new trench of the same width is cut to it. Thus, before the researcher there is a section of the cultural layer along the entire length, which makes it possible to judge the conditions for the deposition of cultural strata, and hence the things in them, as well as to observe, clear and fix the complexes encountered.

With a thick layer, the cave settlement is dug in ledges. In this case, the initial trench is brought to the depth of some horizon (for example, a characteristic collapse at a depth of 4–5 m), and cuts to it are made only to half of this depth. Then the original trench is successively deepened and cuts are again made along the former boundaries of the trench.

Two sections are distinguished in the cultural layer of cave sites. The first is protected from damage by a canopy, and the stratigraphy here is reliable. The second comes out from under the canopy, it is often washed out by water, the order of the layers is broken. The excavation should cover both sites. It is impossible to draw conclusions only on the basis of layers with preserved stratigraphy or, on the contrary, without checking the conclusions for a site with an undisturbed order of layers.

Water usually seeps through the canopy to the far wall of the grotto and brings dissolved lime with it. Here, this lime precipitates and is deposited at the boundary of the far wall and floor, enveloping bones and flints. Therefore, during excavations, such lime streaks must be broken.

Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. Most of the sites of the Bronze Age are close to the Neolithic alluvial and dune sites in terms of their occurrence, which determines the commonality of their excavation techniques.

Excavations are preceded by leveling of the surface of the site, which may reveal some features of its layout. Since the stratigraphy of the strata serves as a guiding thread in the process of excavation, it is best to start from the sites of outcrops of the cultural layer. If there are no such outcrops, then a series of pits should be laid at the site, which will make it possible to determine the boundaries of the cultural layer, its thickness and character. The role of profiling is also determined by the fact that only rare Neolithic structures can be traced in plan. The laid pit should be considered as the first section of the trench, and not as an independent section.

coccyx. Therefore, it is desirable to at least preliminarily outline a grid of squares.
When excavating Neolithic sites and settlements of the Bronze Age, one cannot limit oneself to profiling individual sections, one must have a moving profile in front of oneself. For this, movable trenches are most convenient. The basis of such a trench is two pits laid on opposite sides of the parking lot. By connecting them, a primary trench is obtained, the main task of which is to identify the stratigraphy of the site. Sometimes they are not limited to one trench and break the second, perpendicular to it. The width of the trenches is equal to the side of the square, i.e., two meters (half-width is also possible, i.e., 1 m), its length is limited by the intended dimensions of the excavation, i.e., the trench must cross the entire site.
After sketching both profiles, standing in the opened trench, with horizontal sections of the cultural layer, a second trench of the same width is cut to it. At the same time, the rule of removing the cultural layer by layers is observed, but the thickness of these layers should not exceed 10 cm, otherwise you can miss a number of essential details in the trench and the layout of the settlement.

After opening the second trench, after sketching a new profile, the third trench is cut, then the fourth, and so on, until the entire planned area of ​​the excavation is opened, or, bearing in mind a small area of ​​Neolithic sites, the entire site. Thus, no matter how large the excavated area, no eyebrows are left.
The cultural layer in the Neolithic settlements is sometimes covered by a small layer of sterile layers - ballast. Its thickness is small, not more than 1 m. Usually the layer has a characteristic black color and reaches a thickness of 0.3-0.6 m. The preservation of organic matter in it may be different. Most often, neither the bones nor the wood are preserved, only traces remain of them. In some cases, in the absence of a tree, bones are preserved (Volosovo). Sometimes a tree is preserved, but the bones completely decay (Gorbunovsky peat bog). The cultural layer of dune sites preserves ceramics and, of course, stone.

During excavations, small finds (for example, fish scales) are found in abundance, requiring careful analysis and fixation of both group and single finds.
It is very difficult to trace the holes in the plan, they are usually detected in the profile. Dugouts are so large that if the excavation is insufficient, they do not fit in it. The dugout found in the profile after removing the ballast is cleared in sectors, if it is round, and in sections, so that its profile is visible, if it is rectangular; otherwise it is easy to lose its boundaries.

When scooping out a dugout, observation of the profile is important, as it makes it possible to see deviations from the correct shape of the pit. If the profile is neglected, it is possible to "create" geometrically correct dugouts, as has happened more than once.

The clearing of things found in the dugout is carried out first rough, and finally - after it is completely scooped out. The arrangement of things is drawn and described.
Sometimes in the Neolithic dugouts there are simultaneous burials. Their clearing and fixation are carried out in the same way as when opening a burial in
ground grave. Burials are also not uncommon in the parking area.

Each recess encountered in the profile or when removing the next layer is cleared and profiled.

Peat sites. The most difficult excavations are peat sites, where the work is hindered by the abundance of groundwater. A. Ya. Bryusov, who developed methods for excavating peat-bog settlements, recommends starting them by digging a well to pump out water. For a well, a place is chosen in the lowest part of the impermeable layer, through which subsoil water flows into a river or lake. Under a layer of peat, this place can not be found immediately. The well should be large, for example 2x2 m. When digging a well, it is difficult to follow the usual rules of excavation, so this area has to be sacrificed for the sake of the settlement as a whole. A large well cannot be excavated without a smaller well located inside it, approximately 0.6 X 0.6 m in size, from which the abundant inflowing water is continuously pumped out or scooped out. A large well must be deep. Water can be pumped out of it with a “frog” pump, after expanding the valve opening so that liquid dirt does not clog it. This pump weighs about 100 kg, and if it cannot be left at the excavation, it is easier to bail out water with buckets.

Excavations are carried out in small areas (10 - 20 m), located first at the well, and then moving away from it towards a hill, so that the well serves as a water collector. Starting to dig a new area, it is necessary to leave a wall of 60 - 70 cm separating it from the old one. The earth is thrown into the old excavation, close to the left edge, as a result of which an earthen dam is formed, protecting the new site from flooding. So you can dig even near the river, leaving a jumper of 1.5-2 m and pouring earth to it from the side of the river.

When excavating peat sites, it is dangerous to bulge the walls of the excavation saturated with water and its bottom. Both of these occur due to the pressure of heavy soil on the place freed from the earth. When the walls bulge, it is sometimes possible to plug the holes formed in them. In the event of a collapse of the walls, the excavation must be expanded. But when the depth of the excavation is 1.5-2 m, the buckling threatens the lives of the workers, and then the excavation has to be abandoned.

When the bottom bulges, you can try to fill up the spouting holes, but if it continues, the excavation is abandoned, as the workers may fail.

To avoid sinkholes, large excavations are not recommended. Small areas are more rational, between which gaps of 2–3 m are left. In order to foresee and distinguish between real and imaginary dangers, one should know the process of swamp formation. Since the parking lot receded from it when the water level in the river rose, the oldest part of the settlement is usually located near the water. Therefore, before starting excavations, it is advisable to lay a long trench perpendicular to the river bank, which facilitates the choice of excavation site.

Due to the fact that when excavating peat sites one has to work ankle-deep in mud, horizontal cleaning is impossible. The study of profiles also gives a little.

It is especially important to take layer-by-layer samples of peat, as well as the underlying rock. There are a lot of types of peat, and their determination is possible only in laboratory conditions. The data obtained help to determine the age of the site and reconstruct the landscape. It is also necessary to take a sample for pollen analysis.
Samples are taken of the corresponding layers and interlayers available at the site, for example, lacustrine loam, sapropel. The time of their formation (climatic period) is determined by pollen. This data is transferred to the corresponding parking layers.

The transition from the lacustrine to the marsh phase is clearly recorded in sections of peatlands.
In view of the fact that the cultural layer in the settlements is somewhat mixed (at least with the feet of people), this sample must be taken not only at the site itself, but also outside it. A. Ya. Bryusov took samples even 8 km from the site from a simultaneous swamp with undisturbed strata. Comparison of these samples allows us to accurately determine the relative date of the existence of the site.

The thickness of the cultural layer of peat sites is small. For example, in the Lyalovsky site, a cultural layer of 2–15 cm lay under a layer of peat with a thickness of 80 to 112 cm. mandatory viewing (by hand) of each shovel of ejected soil, which is necessary to fix possible things.

Excavations of peat sites make it possible to restore the life of ancient people with great completeness, thanks to the preservation of organic remains in peat, from plant pollen to dwellings. The walls of the dwellings were often wattle, and the roofs were birch bark. The houses rested on decks. In piled buildings, the flooring rested on piles and rose above the soil. In buildings in swamps, the flooring of logs was arranged directly on the soil. Finds of things in these cases are concentrated on the floor or near the house. When examining dwellings, it should be taken into account that their individual parts, after destruction, could move in a vertical direction up to 1 m or more. Excavations on drained peat bogs in their methods differ little from excavations of sites located on ordinary soil.

The excavation techniques described above are applicable in the study of single-layer monuments. In the case of several layers, work must be carried out sequentially within each layer.

Trypillia settlements. The method of excavation of Trypillia settlements was summarized by T. S. Passek. The main requirement of modern field archaeological methodology in relation to the settlements of the Trypillia culture is the obligation to study both a separate dwelling and the entire settlement as a whole.

The excavation laid to study the Trypillia dwelling should include it in its entirety. The location of this dwelling is specified before excavations with the help of a probe, which is stuck into the soil every 20 - 30 cm, and positive or negative results are marked with pegs (to which, for example, pieces of paper of different colors can be attached), and also applied to the plan, where the depth is fixed deposits of adobe remains. As a result, a sufficiently detailed idea of ​​the location and contours of the dwelling is obtained, which makes it possible to start laying the excavation.

In view of the fact that Trypillia dwellings occupy an area of ​​up to 100-120 m (length 15-20 m, width 5-6 m), it is recommended to lay an excavation of at least 400 m. The excavation should include not only adobe remains, but also their immediate surroundings. The excavation and the grid of squares are oriented along the sides of the horizon for any orientation of the dwelling. Before the start of excavations, the surface is leveled, which is necessary for constructing profiles and for measuring depths. After that, you can begin to remove the horizontal layers of the earth. Although the removed earth is ballast, the thickness of each layer is limited to ten centimeters, since the adobe remains usually lie shallow. In addition, in the earth being dug up, if the dwelling is disturbed by plowing, interesting coatings and even things can be found.

At a depth of 30-40 cm, in some squares, heaps of plaster burnt to slagging appear, sometimes with wood imprints. These are the collapsed vaults of furnaces, lying above all other remnants. With further deepening, the contours of the adobe platform are first revealed, and it is impossible to move the remains of the building from its place, especially at its edges, since such a displacement can distort the nature of any structure. At the same time, sections are preliminarily marked where there were furnaces, partitions, altars, the foundation of the building, etc. Then they proceed to clearing and dismantling the adobe remains.

When the dismantling of the remains of the Trypillia house is completed, the entire area under it is dug to a depth of 0.5 - 1 m. At the same time, figurines, shards, whole vessels can be found below the base of the house (for example, a sacrificial vessel was found filled with bones of a sheep and a pig).

On the dismantling site, the removed remains are sorted and those that most clearly show the design features of the Trypillia house are selected from them, as well as material is selected for exhibiting in museums. It is advisable to select characteristic fragments of each part of the house: hearth, floor, etc. Some of the material can also be taken in monoliths, for example, cruciform altars.

All of the above applies to single-layer Trypillia settlements. Multilayer settlements are excavated taking into account their complex stratigraphy and in compliance with the rules for removing cultural strata by layers. When excavating multilayer settlements, profiling is widely used to help identify dugouts, pits, and other disturbances in the cultural layer. The methodology of their research is approaching the methods of excavation of settlements and settlements.

In addition to the discovered Trypillia dwellings, the space between them is also being explored. The search for the cultural layer in these areas is carried out in small (for example, 2 X 2 m) pits, and then, if necessary, it is explored over a wide area. Small dwellings, kitchen piles, and individual items can also be discovered here.

Settlements. The concept of "hillfort" unites monuments of different eras and territories. Therefore, the differences in excavation techniques are greater here than in other cases. These techniques are often due to the small thickness of the cultural layer and the poor preservation of the tree. The latter is poorly preserved due to the insufficient moisture content of the cultural layer of monuments of this type, which are usually located on hills. Air infiltrating

into the cultural layer, contributes to the decay of the tree, and only traces remain of it.
The cultural layer on hillforts is often thin, and then traces of buildings on the mainland acquire special significance. In this case, it is best to break up a large excavation and open the cultural layer with thin lines of squares, layers (for example, 10 cm each) or sweeps. The mixed part of the cultural layer must be separated from the intact part and each of them must be excavated separately. All pits are opened by spot, the finds from them are recorded separately for each pit, marking their stratigraphy. It is important to find out the purpose of the pits: dugout, underground, grain pit, garbage, etc.

Dwellings in the southern settlements were rarely built of wood, although wood was used in the structures; they are mostly dug into the ground, built of stone, mud brick or adobe. The methodology for studying all these structures is considered in detail when presenting the general methods of excavation.

A feature of the excavations of the settlements is the study of fortifications, most often represented by an earth rampart and a ditch, or only a rampart, or several ramparts and ditches. The usual technique for their study is a transverse incision. It is necessary to choose the most characteristic place of this section - not in a smaller and not in the destroyed part of the rampart. It is desirable that the rampart and the ditch be studied with the help of one trench, which should link the two elements of the fortifications into a single whole.
The width of the trench depends on the height and material of the shaft. For research purposes, a trench 2 m wide is sufficient, since it may well reveal the structures located on the top of the shaft, in its thickness and at the bottom of the moat. When studying the embankment of the shaft, its section is most important, for which the width of the trench does not matter. In this case, it depends only on the safety conditions of the diggers.
Shaft excavations are carried out in the entire width of the trench in horizontal layers. To speed up the excavation, you can simultaneously start two or three excavations at different levels, linking their zero marks and calculating the order of the layers in the lower excavations. The account of layers on excavations goes from top of a shaft. Thus, the trench takes on a stepped shape.

When removing the upper layers, the issue of structures standing on the shaft can be resolved. It could be a tyn, traced by the spots from the logs, which must be studied not only in a horizontal, but also in a vertical section. The latter (i.e., log stains) will help to find out whether these logs were dug in or driven in (which corresponds to a flat or pointed end of the log), as well as whether this tyn was straight or oblique (i.e., slanted) and how it was fixed logs (jamming in the pit with stones, spacers, props, etc.).

Often, its internal structures protruded at the top of the shaft, forming additional obstacles for the enemy in the form of, for example, a log wall. At the same time, the basis of the rampart was sometimes made up of taras, i.e., interconnected three-walled log cabins with a long outer span and short retaining walls. The main part of Tarasov was covered with earth, and the top protruded above the rampart in the form of a wall. The basis of the shaft could also be gorodni, that is, log cabins without windows and doors placed close to each other, covered inside with earth and stone. The gorodni were not always hidden by the embankment of the rampart,

they often represented an independent type of fortification. In the latter case, they were covered with clay to protect them from arson. But if gorodni and taras once towered above the rampart, now they are inside the rampart, since the structures that protruded to the surface have collapsed and rotted. In some cases, the shaft was protected from slipping by wattle fences enclosed in its thickness. For the same purpose, the shaft was coated with clay, which could then be burned, and in later buildings it was laid out with cobblestones. All these constructions can be traced during the excavation of the shaft both in plan and in profile.

When studying the shaft, it is important to divide its thickness into separate construction periods. It is easiest to do this by studying its section, in which the history of its construction is clearly traced. Sometimes it turns out that the original settlement had no fortifications, and they were built only after a certain time. In such cases, a more or less thick untouched cultural layer is often preserved under the rampart embankment, corresponding to the period of the settlement's life when it was unfortified. The constructed shaft over time could turn out to be insufficiently reliable protection, and it was increased. Then the semi-oval of the original shaft is visible in the profile. There are several such semi-ovals, if the improvement of the fortifications took place several times. At the same time, the position of the ditch could be changed: the old, shallow ditch was covered up and a deeper and wider one was dug. This ancient ditch can be traced in section. In the section of the rampart one can sometimes see traces of repair of the fortifications.

When digging a shaft, you need to find out what its embankment is. This may be mainland soil from a ditch, but often it is a cultural layer cut off on the inner site of the settlement, which provides indirect possibilities for dating the rebuildings of the rampart according to those things that are in the mound. At the same time, it must be remembered that the things found in the rampart mound are often much older than it, since the cultural layer was cut quite deeply from the settlement.

The cultural layer under the rampart must be explored by the methods of excavation of settlements. At the same time, it sometimes turns out that this is the only site in the settlement that has not been disturbed by excavations, and therefore is especially valuable for clarifying the history of the settlement under study.

At a time when the settlement did not yet have fortifications, the cultural layer could slide down the slope of the hill. Therefore, it is also necessary to examine the slopes of the settlement, collecting lifting material, which can also help determine the time of construction of the fortifications. Sometimes, under the shaft or on the slope, there may be substructures that strengthen the soil and protect the shaft from slipping: rammers, washouts, coatings, floorings, log cabins.

An important point is the question of the place of entry to the settlement or the location of the gate. This place can be established in the direction of the road, sometimes meandering along the slope of the settlement, and sometimes going through a lintel in a moat. At the later settlements (Rus), the rampart at the entrance is built “overlapped”, when one end goes further than the other, without closing with it, in a spiral, and the entrance is located between these ends of the rampart. This was done in order to keep the army storming the gate under flanking fire from the rampart. At the same time, everyone entering such a gate was turned to the arrows with his right side, not protected by a shield.

The study of the moat is made by the same trench that cuts the rampart. At the same time, it is important to know the

Rice. 74. Special constructions in settlements: a - accumulation of animal skulls in one of the pits in the Donetsk settlement; b - the place of sacrifice of the Scythian time at the Belsky settlement, Poltava region. The dialing number for photographing is visible. (Photo by B. A. Shramko)

the initial depth of the ditch, which can be established from the level of the mainland, which is clearly visible in the profile of the section. The ditch could be filled with water, the sources of which must be established, but it could also be dry. Often, at the bottom of the ditch, additional obstacles were erected for the attacking troops in the form of dug stumps of hollow logs, in the form of sharp pegs driven in with the point up, etc.
These obstacles forced the attackers to slow down their run, which made it easier for the defenders to hit them with arrows and stones from the height of the rampart.

ancient cities. The methods of ancient field archeology are summarized by V. D. Blavatsky. The ancient cities of the Northern Black Sea region often existed for more than a thousand years. The boundaries of cities changed many times, expanding during their heyday and shrinking during their decline. Outside the city gates, where the necropolis was located at the beginning, residential quarters grew up with the expansion of the city, and in a city that suffered from an enemy invasion or from other causes, the place of residential quarters was sometimes occupied by a cemetery. These boundaries should be clarified for each period of the existence of the ancient city. In a number of cases, it is not difficult to establish the location of the fortress wall, which, as a rule, ran along the border of the city, and then you can trace it along its entire length. However, such a solution to the issue for many years stretches the solution of other problems in the history of the city.

Establishing the boundaries of the city can also take place in another way and comes down to clarifying the basic laws of its planning. Knowing this regularity, one can approximately indicate the place where the fortress wall passed, where the handicraft quarters, public buildings, etc. were located. Therefore, it is necessary to combine the excavations of the city center with the excavations of its outskirts.

The cultural layer of ancient cities is saturated with architectural remains, which can be linked into stratigraphic tiers. This architectural framework
is the most reliable support for excavations of such settlements. In ancient cities, the horizon of pits, the upper level of foundations and other remains facilitate the discovery of the day surface of these structures, but the preservation of architectural objects is different and depends on the degree of pitting of the cultural layer by ancient and
new digs, i.e., from the number of holes. The number of pits for different cities is not the same. There are many more pits in Phanagoria than in Olbia. The pits run into each other, and there are few undigged places. Under these conditions, the most reliable cultural layer is the layer located under an undisturbed architectural object, the safety of which is a guarantee that the layer under it is not dug up. Therefore, the task is reduced to identifying such areas.

Since, for example, in Olbia the cultural layer is of good quality, the excavations of this city are carried out over the entire area at once, i.e., the excavation and study of the cultural layer is carried out simultaneously with the study of architectural remains.

But the methods of excavation change if the monument is riddled with holes. The earth filling the pits is depreciated, the observations made during its excavation are very preliminary and cannot be put into circulation without subsequent verification. Therefore, the filling of the pits is removed first. Since there are many pits, and there are much fewer undisturbed areas and they are determined by structures, these structures are left in the excavation on the “priests”. This is conventionally called the first stage of work. The second stage consists in dismantling the architectural structures left on the "priests", their detailed study and the study of the earth pillars located under them. These "priests" are disassembled by stratigraphic tiers, which are established during the first stage of work. The disassembly of the "priests" controls the conclusions drawn during the first stage of work, i.e. the assumptions made when the filling of the pits was removed. Naturally, only those architectural remains are dismantled that hinder further deepening and are preferably less interesting and less preserved. Important and preserved buildings are not disassembled, even if this interferes with the study of the cultural layer up to the mainland.

When uncovering architectural remains, one must carefully study their most important features (see pp. 36 - 40) and record them in detail (see pp. 264). Among the finds, special attention should be paid to monuments of lapidary epigraphy (inscriptions on stone), sculpture, coins and other items important in establishing chronology. Items found in special conditions are very important - in wells, cisterns (lined pits for storing water, wine, for salting fish, etc.). in landfills and especially in craft workshops. These things can not only date, but also clarify the details of open structures. When dating, one should proceed primarily from mass material - ceramics, tiles, etc. Single coins and even amphorae hallmarks often give an erroneous date.

It is necessary to note deviations from the usual ratio of finds. In ancient cities, sherds usually predominate, especially sharp-bottomed amphoras, there are a lot of building remains, baked brick, if it was used in construction in a given city, but there is little metal, glass, bones, and slag. Deviations from this median line may indicate special occurrence conditions, such as faults, which must be specified immediately. Equally important are observations of organic remains, such as animal bones.

The territory adjacent to the ancient city should also be included in the plan of its archaeological research. An important object located on this territory is the city dumps. Their character is an indicator of the well-being of the city, urban culture, and sometimes urban organization. Landfills are explored by methods of excavation of settlements with the obligatory clarification of stratigraphy. At the same time, one should try to establish the sequence and growth rate of garbage layers. By studying landfills, they seek to establish their composition: kitchen remains, urban waste from fires, industrial waste, manufacturing defects, etc.

Settlements of Central Asia. The technique of excavation of the settlements of Central Asia is complicated by the fact that multi-layer monuments with powerful cultural strata predominate here. Multi-layer monuments are still rarely excavated. Even such cities as Samarkand and Bukhara, in essence, were little affected by the excavations. In excavated settlements, mainly the upper layer is studied.

The largest number of settlements has been excavated in Khorezm, where excavations are often reduced to clearing buildings from sand deposits, and the study of cultural strata plays a lesser role. On the surface of these settlements, one can note not only the remains of fortress walls and dwellings, but also indicate their internal layout. Therefore, when excavating such settlements, microleveling of the surface plays an important role, which makes it possible to refine their layout. Leveling marks are taken after 50 cm. Experience has shown the possibility of determining any room, room, yard from these data. All these structures are united by certain architectural remains, for example, the level of one of the floors, which is taken as the zero plane. For each room, readings are made from some conditional point, the level of which is measured and known.

For such objects, an excavation is usually about 200 m in size, covering several rooms. When excavating hard Central Asian soil, ketmen and tesha (adze-shaped hatchet) are usually used.

In view of the fact that the layout of buildings is already visible from the surface, the grid of squares is not divided here, and the registration of finds is carried out by room. V. I. Raspopova draws the attention of archaeologists to the fact that the walls of the premises, preserved to a height of 2 - 4 m, create a deceptive impression of the uniformity of the layer. But in each room, complexes of ceramics of different origin stand out. V. I. Raspopova singles out the following complexes according to the method of finding: from the floors; from the rubble of structures; from ash pans at the hearths; from landfills formed after the desolation of the premises; from backfills and backfills associated with perestroika. The correctness of the selection and understanding of the layers can be checked with one or two cuts through the room.

In order not to disturb the floor of the room, a pit can sometimes be punched through the sediments in order to establish the level of the floor or the horizon of the cultural layer.

The main difficulty of excavations in Central Asia is that the remains of adobe structures are covered with loess streaks, and the things found are also often made of clay. The criterion can be the difference in the density of clay structures, things and loess streaks, which is significant in the case of clearing fired clay vessels and very small in the case of clearing mud bricks. The best results are obtained by clearing with vertical cuts with a tesha or a knife, when the difference in density is more easily felt by hand.

The blockage of the roof and walls is cleared to the loess streaks on the floor of the dwelling. Next, it is necessary to reveal the raw brick of the floor, which is done by vertical cuts with a knife. It is especially difficult to identify seams between bricks. Clearing the floor makes it possible to trace the structures that lie below its level, for example, utility pits, which are determined by the violation of the brickwork of the floor, the structure of the filling, and sometimes the color. The walls of such a pit are often coated with clay.
The remains of fire pits can be traced on the floor, which are revealed by the color of the soil - it is burnt and saturated with ash. If a hearth is found, it is necessary to trace the boundaries of the hearth pit, which is determined by the difference in the structure of the surrounding earth and the hearth filling. Under the floor, there can be various substructures that reinforce it, most often in the form of clay undercoats, the presence of which is established by small pits.

With the dryness of the Central Asian climate, the remains of the settlements retain wall paintings that require immediate fixation (see p. 260), as well as various organic remains in the form of wood, leather, etc. When clearing, one should remember about the possibility of such finds, among which may be written documents.

The multi-layered monuments of Central Asia are still receiving undeservedly little attention. Their research was begun even before the Great October Socialist Revolution, when Pompelli cut the Anau hills with huge trenches, V. A. Zhukovsky dug Merv, and N. I. Veselovsky - Afrasiab. Some other multi-layer monuments were also dug, but in a small number and with insufficiently scientific methods. This gap is felt at the present time, although here one can point to a number of interesting works, for example, excavations by M. E. Masson of Nisa, G. V. Grigoriev Tali-Barzu, M. M. Dyakonov and A. M. Belenitsky of Penjikent.

During the excavation of multi-layer monuments at the first stage of work, the techniques that are used for excavation of single-layer monuments remain in force. Both single-layer and multi-layer sites are dominated by loess layers. The buildings in these settlements were also constructed from loess, and this causes the first difficulty of excavations: it is necessary to find loess in the loess. The second difficulty lies in the fact that the layers of loess strata usually do not differ from each other either in color or in structure, and finds are the main criterion for their selection. Only in rare cases, for example, at the site of Tali-Barzu, one can indicate alternating layers that differ in color: ash-garbage and dark clay.

In some regions of Central Asia, due to the relatively large amount of precipitation (Samarkand region), in contrast, for example, to the dry climate in the Chardzhou region, the loess is so strongly eroded that some layers of cultural strata are eroded and displaced (as was observed in Tali-Barzu) . This must be taken into account when dating.

Perekops stand out in color only when they are painted with garbage. It should be noted that in the case of large excavations that come to the surface of the monument, they are well defined by the nature of the vegetation, which completely changes at the site of the excavation. Inside the layers, the excavations are recognizable by the change in the nature of the finds and by the absence of building remains.

The walls of Central Asian buildings, as a rule, were placed directly on the ground, and thus, their lower level in most cases determines the daylight surface of the building. However, care must be taken here, since the possibility of filling and recesses is not ruled out. According to the observations of M. E. Masson, during the excavation it is possible to determine in advance the level of the floor by the characteristic nests of some bugs sometimes found in the walls, living at a certain distance from the floor of the building.

The construction periods of a building are identified by the restructuring of its premises, structure, difference in the level of their day surface, which primarily affects the difference in the level of their floors. Painted ash layers and fire marks can also help here.

If an adobe building collapsed, its walls were not always leveled to the ground. The ruins of old buildings were filled with strong loess clay, and this was how the soil was leveled for new buildings.

The foundations of the fortress walls sometimes consisted of large clay blocks, for example, 3X1X1 m. In other buildings, smaller raw or baked bricks were used, the specifics of which were mentioned above.

Old Russian cities. In choosing the method of excavation of medieval Old Russian cities, it is not their time that is of decisive importance, but the conditions for the occurrence of archaeological remains. This means that those cities, the cultural layer of which is similar to the cultural layer of the ancient city, are digging with the same methods. For example, there are no fundamental differences in the methods of excavation of stone buildings of medieval and ancient Chersonese. The dry layers of the most ancient city are being investigated by the methods of excavation of settlements and settlements. Of course, in all these cases, the most complex version of multilayer monuments is implied. The techniques for excavating cities with a wet cultural layer are outlined below.

Many ancient Russian cities still exist today. Their researcher is constrained in choosing an excavation site: it is not always possible to lay an excavation site where it seems most profitable; one has to reckon with urban development, with the impossibility of stopping traffic; excavations are often carried out at the site of a future construction site in order to protect the cultural layer.

During the archaeological study of the ancient Russian city, it becomes necessary to excavate it over wide areas. This requirement is due to the large thickness of the cultural layer and the large size of the estates, which will not fit into an excavation area of ​​100 or even 500 square meters. Since the excavation must be large, its place is carefully chosen, since excavations are very expensive and funds cannot be allowed to be spent unproductively.

Throughout the excavation, the cultural layer is removed in horizontal layers counted from one benchmark. But this does not mean that the same layer should be dug up throughout the excavation. Sometimes it is necessary that one part of the excavation is ahead of the other by several layers.

An important hindrance to excavations may be late structures sunk into the ground. These include the foundations of houses, garbage pits, wells and other similar structures that speak of excavations that have violated the stratigraphy of some layers. These structures are recorded on the plans of the respective layers. The diaries record late (and early) coins and other dating finds.
As a rule, in the upper layers the tree can be traced only in the form of dust. The lower the sole of the excavation falls, the better the tree is preserved. It should be recalled that we are talking about cities with a wet cultural layer. Humidity is the reason for the preservation of the tree, which is isolated from the air by groundwater. The layers of the 17th-20th centuries, as a rule, lie above the standing groundwater level and do not preserve the tree. (In Novgorod, the tree is no longer preserved in the layers of the 16th century.)

Often, short dies were placed under the lower crown of the log house. Much less often, the corners of the log house rested on vertical poles or a group of poles (a chair). A stump with chopped roots or a large boulder was used as a chair. Sometimes the corners of some buildings rested on small log cabins - robes, chopped into a cloud.

In the process of excavation, utility rooms should be distinguished from residential ones. Often this difference is reflected in the design of the building. Living quarters in Russian cities have never been built from vertical logs. The barns and storerooms were smaller than the dwellings. Utility rooms usually did not have stoves, but it should be borne in mind that the stove in the living room is not easy to trace. The floors of the outbuildings are less even than those of the dwellings, and are often built of slabs or poles.

Sometimes the nature of the building can be judged from the remains found in it. A layer of grain gives out a barn, layers of manure - khlez, etc. At the same time, grain and other organic residues should be taken according to certain rules. Also, according to special rules, hay residues, bast, fruit seeds, vegetable seeds (for example, cucumbers, etc.) are taken (see Appendix II).

The estates were separated from each other by fences made of vertically placed logs 15 - 20 cm thick. The remains of such a tyn are often traced. The upper ends of the logs usually correspond to the ancient surface of the time of the death of the tyn. Sometimes the fence line is made up of the remains of two or three or more similar fences, and one should not think that two fences existed simultaneously - their breaks are usually at different levels, and these remains are the remains of two fences that successively changed each other.

When excavating ancient Russian cities, much attention is paid to elucidating the complex of buildings that existed at the same time, i.e., stratigraphic tiers. Tiers are drawn in the field. With urgent graphic fixation of tiers, it is possible to avoid errors, the most common of which are the entry of a building (or collapse of logs) into the wrong tier and the non-segmentation of the structure into tiers. In order to avoid these failures, it is necessary to check the simultaneity of structures by common layers underlying or overlapping them, logs and structures both in plan and in the profiles of the walls of the excavations. A good guideline in establishing the simultaneity of structures are layers of fires. An important control factor is the results of a dendrochronological study of logs from various buildings, pavements, etc.

In ancient Russian cities, the remains of stone and brick residential buildings are the greatest rarity, while churches have been discovered by excavations in a number of cities. Brick and stone churches were usually built on dry ground, as they required reliable ground. However, the foundation of many churches was insignificant, and this in some cases, especially when laying the foundation above the soil freezing line, contributed to the rapid destruction of the building. Therefore, when studying such structures, it is important to trace the nature of the mainland, the depth of the foundation, and the method of laying it. (Sometimes it is a rubble stone without a binder; the voids between the individual stones were filled with compacted clay.) It must be borne in mind that the foundation under the outer and inner walls and under the pillars can be different.

It is also necessary to trace the most important features of the structure: size, thickness, laying of walls and pillars, correspondence to the pillars of the inner and outer blades on the walls, etc. All this should be recorded in the plans taken by the method of architectural measurements. The plan should be accompanied by two or three vertical sections and facades.
When examining brick buildings, it is necessary to fix the dimensions of the bricks (plinths), their configuration (patterned, i.e. figured bricks are possible), the thickness and nature of the binder solution (lime, opal) - all this is important for dating, clarifying the features of building techniques, features production of building materials. For clearing the surfaces of walls and other masonry, it is convenient to use an ordinary broom and brushes.

Brands, signs, drawings are possible on bricks, which also require fixing. Inside the buildings there are rubbles of plaster with frescoes and graffiti.

Finally, the layer in which the building lies is important - the layer of its destruction, formed by the crushed remains of its upper parts. This layer can be cut through by late burials, which must be able to distinguish from the early ones, made back in the period when the church was not destroyed. After all, burials near churches are common, and churches that are not surrounded by cemeteries are a rare exception.
The day surface during the construction of such a building is usually distinguished by construction debris: fragments of bricks, stones, remains of a binder mortar, lime pits, etc. However, these remains could also be left during the repair of the building.

All these questions are of interest to the researcher when studying the remains of fortifications uncovered by excavations, but one should also keep in mind the features of the study of the remains of wood-earth fortifications, which are outlined above.

One of the most important discoveries of Soviet archaeologists is the establishment of the importance of ancient Russian cities, primarily as craft centers. This conclusion follows from the large number of craft workshops discovered by excavations. These workshops can be judged by production residues in the form of raw materials, stocks of finished products, tools, production waste, and especially by manufacturing defects. So, by the presence of sawn-off joints from identical animal bones, one can draw a conclusion about a bone-cutting workshop; about the pottery workshop. Of course, the ruins of blacksmith's and potter's forges, ash pans with the remains of hair in which skins were kept by the tanner, bagasse used when squeezing vegetable oil, etc. speak of the same. All these remains require careful study to reveal the details of production.

Of great importance for the study of pottery, as well as for dating, is the most massive material in ancient Russian cities - ceramics.

Remains of leather shoes, well preserved in moist soil, are a very common find. Although most of the scraps of leather do not mark the remnants of workshops, they are good material for learning shoemaking.
Along with the remains of leather shoes, the remains of bast and felt shoes should be studied.

Under conditions of preservation of wood, the urban layers are saturated with products made from this material. These can be the bottoms and plugs of barrels, tub riveting, sleigh parts, boat frames, oars, shoe lasts, architectural details, wooden sculpture and other things. All of them require careful cleaning (because they are easy to break), fixing and skillful storage. On many of these things, carved inscriptions and individual letters can be found, which have been traced more than once in Novgorod and other cities.

In Novgorod, a new type of historical source was discovered - birch bark letters, also known in Smolensk, Pskov, Vitebsk and Staraya Russa. These important documents are in the form of a birch bark scroll and thus do not differ from the birch bark floats found by the hundreds. Therefore, each birch bark scroll should be carefully examined by a researcher. If letters are found on the birch bark during inspection, the scroll is transferred to the laboratory for unwinding and preservation. It is impossible to unroll a scroll without observing certain rules (see p. 258), since it is easy to break.

Protection of archaeological sites. After considering the main types of archaeological sites, methods of their search and excavation, it becomes possible to consider the principles of protection of these sites.

The question of the protection of historical and cultural monuments (including archaeological monuments) has been repeatedly raised by law. At present, the Law on the Protection and Use of Monuments of History and Culture, adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1976, is in force.

The main requirement of this Law is the protection of the monument from destruction and damage. Damage should be understood as any damage to or change in its earthen layers. For an archaeologist, it is a truism that damage to the earthen layers is a violation of stratigraphy, the loss of the possibility of dating or a distortion of the date, the loss of the possibility of reconstructing structures, the death of things or their damage, the death of a burial, the distortion of the appearance of a monument, this is ultimately the loss of the significance of a historical source by a monument and the impossibility of historical conclusions on its material.

Thus, the archaeological monument must be protected primarily from all kinds of earthworks. These include: the use of mounds of mounds and settlements for the extraction of sand, gravel, stone, "chernozem"; selection of stone from ancient masonry; device in burial mounds and ancient settlements of cellars; installation of geodetic and land surveying signs, pillars, fences, houses, sheds on mounds; laying of cables, gas and water pipes; laying roads on the territory of the monument; demolition of parts of the monument (eg ramparts); filling the monument with soil (for example, ditches); planting trees and bushes; digging pits for fires (by hunters, tourists, pioneers), and finally, unauthorized excavations. Each of these actions, as well as similar ones, are serious crimes against the scientific study of the history of our Motherland, insulting the memory and deeds of our ancestors. Therefore, all the earthworks listed and similar to them at archaeological sites are prohibited.

The instruction on the regime of protected zones provides for the prohibition of new construction and redevelopment on the territory of the protected zone of the monument, and also considers it necessary to demolish later buildings that distort monuments, interfere with their inspection or litter their territory.

But there is as yet no law or instruction indicating exactly what space on and around the monument these prohibitions apply. Meanwhile, the question of the size of the zone of protection of archaeological monuments or, as they say, of buffer zones, their regime is urgent.

Without pretending to solve the issue of security zones, you can try to justify their size. The size and configuration of protected zones should be determined for each specific monument. They depend on the modern and historical topography of the area, the nature of the site (urban, suburban), the type of monument (parking lot, settlement, barrow, ancient mines, etc.), the era to which it belongs (Paleolithic, Neolithic, etc.).

For monuments with a cultural layer, the limits of which are unknown, the boundary of the buffer zone should be at least 50 m in radius from the explored outcrops of the cultural layer. This figure is taken because a rare settlement has a diameter of less than 100 m. This applies to settlements from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age inclusive.

For settlements (of all eras), the boundaries of which are defined, as well as for fields and gardens with traces of ancient land cultivation, the buffer zone should be at least 25 m from the boundaries of such a monument. For settlements, this zone is counted from their borders.

Mound groups should be surrounded by a strip 50 m wide from the ditches of the outer mounds, since possible plowed mounds with a diameter of 30 - 40 m will fall into this space (and possibly even go beyond it). Therefore, the security zone here cannot be narrower.

For rock carvings, architectural remains (outside modern settlements), burial grounds, ancient roads and irrigation systems, the minimum size of the buffer zone, calculated from the boundaries of the monument, is also 50 m. from breaking the stone.

For dolmens, small single burial mounds, stone statues and other structures where single graves or even small burial grounds are possible, we can recommend a buffer zone with a diameter of 15-20 m.

But in addition to the above factors that threaten archaeological sites, there are other actions that are no less dangerous for these sites; flooding as a result of the construction of dams on large and small rivers, major construction and earthworks (construction of factories, multi-storey buildings, railways and roads), campsites and parking lots, tourist camps, quarrying and quarrying, blasting, etc. All these works are prohibited within the security zones, but they are also undesirable near them. In these cases, the regulation on regulated development zones should apply, the strips of which should be several times wider than the protected zones.

In regulated development zones, large-scale construction and other activities just listed are prohibited. These zones should be subject to the provision on the release of funds for the study of the monument by an enterprise that carries out work that threatens the monument in accordance with the said Law.

The restrictions that exist for protected areas do not apply in regulated development zones. You can’t build here, but you can plow, plant gardens, lay cables, in a word, all work is allowed except for large earthworks and construction. The boundaries of these zones do not yet have exact dimensions.

The greatest size of regulated development zones should be for monuments that are threatened by quarries, quarries, pits, etc. located dangerously close to them, as well as for monuments that must be visible. These are settlements of all eras, barrow groups, ancient mines, rock carvings, ancient ramparts, burial grounds. The size of the zone of regulated development in this case is 300 m, counting from the boundary of the buffer zone.

This figure can be reduced to 200 m for ancient roads, irrigation systems, dolmens. For other single monuments, the recommended size of the regulated development zone is 100 m, counting from the boundaries of the protected zone. Security zones should be marked with boards with detailed restrictive inscriptions.

The archaeologist must fight for the preservation of antiquities, seeking punishment for those responsible for the destruction of monuments, conduct conversations with the population, give lectures, appear in the press, and create an active community of the Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.

Archeology is a secondary profession introduced to the game with the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. In this guide, we will try to teach you the basics of the profession. Starting to download Archeology, you need to remember that this skill will not bring real bonuses in the game. With the help of Archeology, you can dig up pets, toys and mounts, as well as some epic rags. However, the benefit from all these things is unlikely to exceed that which can be obtained by pumping, for example,. Basically, Archeology is a profession for fans and it is not necessary to download it at all - only if you really want to.

On the other hand, most epics that are mined using Archeology are bound to the account, which is good news. Once you dig up [Zin-Rok, Destroyer of Worlds], you can give it to your twink (if the sword fits the class)... But, of course, you need to dig it up first. Your obedient servant, for example, this venture failed.

excavation sites

As soon as you study Archeology, specially selected areas will begin to appear on the world map - outwardly looking like a shovel. There are no more than 4 such places on each continent at the same time, and nothing can change this number. Also, once appearing in a certain location, the excavation site will remain there until you post it.

The number of zones and continents where excavation sites are displayed depends on the current level of the character and on the level of the profession. A level 77 player will see 16 excavation sites on the map, 4 on each continent (if the profession level is sufficient). But a level 32 player will be able to see a maximum of 8 places of 4 in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms; in addition, they will be located in locations at levels 25-35.

A feature of the profession is also that there is no competition here - for each player, the excavation sites are unique, and even if someone is nearby in the same place as you and with the same goal as you - do not worry, he will dig his own , and you - yours and nothing else.

This is what "shovels" and excavation sites look like on the map.

Research and Fragments

Having studied the profession, in addition to happiness, you will also receive an additional spell in your spell book, called [Explore]. You can use this skill only when you are directly at the excavation site. Immediately after using the skill, a research device will appear on the ground, very reminiscent of a telescope, directed in a certain direction. The blinking light of the device determines the distance to the fragment.

How it works? Fly to the excavation site, press [Explore] and see what happens. A fragment appeared - excellent, but most often a device appears indicating the direction with a flashing light: red, yellow or green. If the light is red, you can mount and ride in the indicated direction for a bit before exploring again. If the light is yellow, you need to drive less. If it is green - the fragment is very close - within 40 meters (you can walk). In general - we follow the direction, we explore and over time, getting used to it a little, you will be able to dig up fragments from 3-5 times.

Once you have discovered a find, you will receive a fragment belonging to one of the 10 races of Azeroth. Fragments are tied to zones. Three fragments, in turn, are attached to each excavation site - you won’t be able to dig more - you can’t dig less, otherwise the place will not appear in another location on the map.

Below is a list of races, fragments of which will become available as you level up the profession:

• 1-300 - Eastern Kingdoms and Kalmdor: Fossils, Night Elves, Trolls, Dwarves
• 300 - Outland: Draenei, Orcs
• 375 - Northrend: Nerubians, Vrykul
• 450 - Uldum: Tol'Vir

An avid archaeologist's research tool.

Artifacts

When you receive the first fragment, you will automatically start a research project, which will eventually become an artifact. The number of fragments for each artifact is different - it takes from 25 to 150. Once you have enough fragments, you can click the "Collect Artifact" button in the profession window, which will end the current project. If there are more fragments than needed, they will not go anywhere, the next study will simply begin. Unfortunately, you cannot control the process of obtaining a project by artifacts - the system, although based on the skill level, is random and ... what fell out, fell out.

In short, waiting for the right research project for the right artifact can be a daunting task. Sometimes, when you are lucky, it happens quickly, and some cannot wait for what they want at all and give up this activity after 2-3 weeks of trying.

Sometimes, when you loot a fragment, a "tablet" - [Troll Tablet] falls into your inventory, with which you can add as many as 12 missing fragments to the project. But, this can only be done if the project has an appropriate slot. The more complex the project, the more such slots can be used. There are 1, 2 or 3 slots.

Leveling archeology

I must say right away that using a set of addons makes it easier to download a profession. You will need: GatherMate2 and Archeology Helper, by setting them up in the right way (with the HUD turned on), you can sometimes guess the fragment at the excavation site even by the red light, from 1-2 times.

And finally, the best way to improve the Archeology profession is to explore excavation sites and accumulate fragments until you raise the skill to 50. After 50, the level of the profession from excavations will stop growing - that's when you can start Collecting artifacts. For each artifact collected, you will receive 5 skill points to the profession (15 for rare), regardless of which race of the artifact you are researching. You can upgrade Archeology to 525 in about 25-30 hours.