Будівельні споруди південної частини «цитаделі» городища Дикий Сад

Abstract

The constructional features of Dykyi Sad (Wild Garden) ancient settlement building constructions № 24 and 24-a, located in the southern part of the ‘citadel’, are uncovered in the paper. The composition and principles of constructing, as well as the peculiarities of internal filling of pits, are characterized. Material objects (pottery, produced items made of bone, horn, clay, stone, and bronze) found in a cultural layer of the constructions are analyzed. It is found out that the structure № 24 can be attributed to residential (ground) constructions with a set of posts, utility, and utility and ritual pits. The most impressive objects are a bronze sickle, a fragment of a bronze dagger, a bone spindle whorl, a bottom part of a pot with 5 holes, the walls of vessels with ornaments in the form of drawn lines and oval indentations, flat roasters, and a ‘skate’ blank made of horse bone. Some fragments of pottery are found in the pits: pieces of pots with ornaments in the form of rims, goblets with the drawn ornaments, bowls, flat roasters, upper grinding stones, hooves and bones of animals (horse, sheep), backbones and bones of fish. Structure 24-a, taking into account the constructional features, nature and filling of the pits, as well as the found artifacts, can be attributed to the ground buildings of utility and ritual purposes, where around the central hearth the multifunctional pits (posts, utility, and utility and ritual) were situated. However, it is possible that the object was used as a residential building, but just at a certain time, either during the period of settlement emergence or at the end of its existence. The majority of the found material objects (floor level and pits filling) are pottery. Other artifacts are represented by produced items made of horns and bones of animals, clay, and stones. Among them are a horn and some talus bones with a processing surface, a ceramic disc and a small spindle whorl, grinders, upper grinding stones, and anthropomorphic lithic objects. Ecofacts include the remains of animal and fish bones, as well as tortoise and snail shells. All the found artifacts are typical for the collection of material objects from Dykyi Sad and belong to the antiquities of Bilozerka-Tudorove period of the North-Western Black Sea region.