In this article, we discuss the results of the study of ash heaps typical for the steppe belt of the Urals, Kazakhstan and Siberia. These are specific objects adjacent to settlements of the Middle and Late Bronze Age, their cultural layer contains archaeological finds and consists of loose soil similar in appearance to ash. However, debates about their nature and purpose use mainly archaeological arguments and very rarely involve interdisciplinary data. The study is focused on two ash heaps at the Bronze Age settlements in the Southern Trans-Urals — Streletskoye-1 and Chernorechye 2 (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia). Both are located on the bank cliff, between the dwelling pits and the river; the time of their existence mainly belongs to the Alakul archaeological culture (18th–16th centuries BC). The stratigraphy and granulometric composition of soil samples, composition of archaeobotanical remains, palynological, microbiomorphic, and soil-microbiological analyses, and assessment of biomarkers content have been carried out. It has been concluded that, according to a number of characteristics, ash heaps have a non-uniform nature of formation and differ both between themselves and in comparison with the previously studied ash heap at the fortified settlement of Stepnoye. The lower part of the ash heap of Streletskoye-1 is the soil accumulated during digging of semi-dwellings. The main volume of ash heaps layers was the result of plant biomass decomposition, but there are also markers of animal origin — keratin, cholesterol. No signs of manure were found in the samples. The use of ash and combustion products has not been confirmed at these newly examined sites, as well as at the ash heap of Stepnoye. Both ash heaps were formed in more hydromorphic conditions than the Stepnoye. Taking into account the archaeological context of the ash heaps, it has been suggested that in ancient times these structures near settlements were mainly used to store hay for livestock, and occasionally as a place for butchering animal carcasses and processing bones for bone-carving. The wintering of livestock, some of which were kept in settlements, created the need for fodder to keep the animals alive. Despite many supplementary functions of ash heaps, which were used as working or dumping areas, this is perhaps the first time in the archaeological record that evidence has been found for haymaking and hay storage in the vicinity of pastoral settlements. Interdisciplinary research on the properties of ash heaps is a relatively new field, but it has already yielded interesting results that allow reasoned assumptions to be made about the construction and function of these sites.

Keywords: Southern Trans-Urals, Bronze Age, ash heap, phytoliths, pollen, geochemical composition, saprotrophic microbes, keratinophilic fungi, functional purpose.

 

Funding. The study was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation № 23-27-10016, https://rscf.ru/project/23-27-10016/ “Consequences of cattle breeding near Sintashta-Arkaim type settlements in the Southern Trans-Urals: interdisciplinary research”.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Accepted: 03.10.2024

Article is published: 15.12.2024