Open AccessDynamics of ecosystems and land use in the Dnieper left-bank forest-steppe for the last two thousand years: Kurilovka 2 case study
Author(s) -
Vlasta Rodinkova,
Elena Ponomarenko,
Ekaterina Ershova,
С. А. Сычева
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.179
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/438/1/012022
Subject(s) - tributary , geography , archaeology , clearance , arable land , period (music) , vegetation (pathology) , woodland , floodplain , transect , agriculture , ecology , medicine , physics , cartography , pathology , acoustics , urology , biology
The paper presents the first results of comprehensive studies of the multi-layer settlement Kurilovka 2 (Kursk region, Russia). It is located on a remnant of a low terrace above the floodplain of the Sudzha River (tributary of the Psel River – tributary of the Dnieper). The site contains archaeological materials of two main periods: proto- and early Slavonic (2 nd – 8 t h centuries) and the Modern Period (end of the 17 th – 20 th century). The mail attention is paid to the results of archaeological, pedological, palynological, phytolith, anthracological study of the soil profile/archaeological pit 10/2016, located within the boundaries of the habitation zone. The data obtained allow us to reconstruct the history of the site development and dynamics of the site-encasing ecosystems over the past two thousand years. The area was initially forested and cleared for shifting agriculture, probably by the proto- and early Slavonic population. At the end of the 1 st millennium AD the settlement was abandoned. The site was reforested and cleared again in the Modern Period. Now the arable land is not farmed, the site is covered with the herbaceous vegetation.