PREVENTIVE EXCAVATIONS IN THE BUG-INHULETS INTERFLUVE IN THE 1950S

Abstract

The Snigurivka-Ingulets expedition carried out a comprehensive survey of the Middle and Lower Ingulets region and the main trunk routes of the Ingulets irrigation system in the area between the Bug and Ingulets rivers. It included extensive exploratory work and rescue excavations of the areas that were to be destroyed. The material, obtained due to this work, makes it possible to reconstruct the history of the population of the region during the period of two and a half thousand years — since the 2nd millennium BC to the mid-1st millennium AD. Among the earliest sites in the region explored by the expedition are the burials of the Yamna Culture (3600—2300). Although they did not get the cultural attribution and were not included into later interpretations, they are important for reconstructing the archaeological map in this region during the Early Bronze Age. During the Middle Bronze Age (27th/25th—21st centuries BC), this area was inhabited by the population of the Early Catacomb culture (middle — third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC). Later, the tribes of the Ingul Catacomb culture left summer sites and the barrows in the region. During the Late Bronze Age, the banks of the Ingulets River were inhabited by the tribes of Sabatynivka culture (14th—12th centuries BC), who left the settlements with stone buildings and burials. The Final Bronze Age (12th—9th centuries BC) is represented among the expedition material by burials, although the Reprynske settlement of Bilozerska culture in the Lower Ingulets has been known to archaeologists since the late 19th century. The most important result of the expedition’s research became the study of settlements of the Chernyakhiv culture (3rd—5th centuries AD). The expedition has ascertained that in the first centuries AD the area of the Lower and Middle Ingulets was densely inhabited. The expedition’s excavations gave a powerful impulse to the beginning of the discussion on the interpretation of Chernyakhivs’ culture sites. For a long time they were considered as a part of the forest-steppe system but in the 1950s, this idea became disputable due to the discovery of settlements in the steppes of Southern Ukraine. It is important to note that the material obtained by the expedition came from sites of different types (settlements and burials). After all, the materials from the sites of various types allowed for a broader study of cultures, including economic activity and ideology. The Snigurivka-Ingulets expedition continued the research in the Bug-Ingulets interfluve region which had begun before WW2. Moreover, the previous research was sporadic, but in the 1950s, the regular archaeological studies of the region had started. The obtained materials allowed us to make assumptions and put forward hypotheses that were taken into account by subsequent generations of researchers working in the region. Thus, one can trace a certain continuity between generations which is important for the development of science.