This paper presents the reconstruction of the natural environment and agricultural activities of the Medieval inhabitants of the Ust-Tersyuk settlement based on the results of carpological and anthracological analyses of macroresidues and charcoal fragments. The analysed settlement, represented by a powerful fortress, is located in the forest-steppe Iset River region (Western Siberia). The cultural strata of the site reflect the long period of existence of the fortified site. Within the 4th–13th centuries, two phases have been distinguished (4th–9th and 9th–13th centuries), comparable to the materials of the Bakal and Yudino archaeological cultures. The analysis of the macroresidue samples taken from the filling of the middens, foundation pits, as well as from the body of the rampart of the defensive line, showed that the charcoal remains of the early (Bakal) period belong to woody plants, including larch, birch, and pine. Samples from the objects of the Yudino Culture are characterized by the presence of sclerotia of mycorrhizal fungi, indicating deforestation in the beginning of the Yudino period. Furthermore, ruderal weeds, such as white goosefoot, knotweed, sorrel, as well as cultivated remains of soft wheat and industrial waste in the form of forks from wheat ears and its stalks, have been recorded. The presence of remnants of cultivated cereals in the sample of the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD suggest the existence of rudiments of the agricultural tradition in the economy of the Trans-Ural population.

Keywords: Western Siberia, agriculture, residential landscape, the Middle Ages.

 

Funding. The research was carried out at the expense of a grant from the Russian Science Foundation No. 24-28-00215, https://rscf.ru/project/24-28-00215/ «The defensive architecture of the Early Middle Ages fortified settlements in Western Siberia».

 

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

Accepted: 30.10.2024

Article is published: 15.06.2025