Aspects of highlighting and systematizing archaeological microregions (based on the example of the Bakhmuto culture settlements near the village of Kainlykovo)

The study is a continuation of the author's work on examining the settlement system of the Bakhmuto culture in the Ufa-Belaya interfluve. The object of the research consists of settlement monuments. The settlements of the Bakhmuto culture are the most numerous in the region and can therefore be considered the most suitable site for applying spatial archaeology methods. The source base of the work is represented by geographical data from 365 settlements (76 fortified sites and 289 villages) as well as 8 burial grounds. Electronic mapping of the specified objects and their further analysis using GIS tools significantly expands our understanding of the specifics of how the ancient population utilized their living space. As part of the research tasks, verifiable models characterizing the settlement structure of the Bakhmut population in the Ufa-Belaya interfluve were created. New results were obtained from the study of a group of monuments near the village of Kainlykovo, which are not characteristic of the microregions studied earlier. The research employed spatial archaeology methods implemented through GIS analysis software. The main tools were procedures for determining the concentration and degree of centrality of archaeological objects. The typology of the settlements in the microregion was based on the application of the "rank-size" rule and deviations between the graphs of actual and normal distributions of the absolute areas of the objects. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the obtained model of the settlement structure of the Bakhmut culture monuments near Kainlykovo does not fully conform to existing ideas. Firstly, there are no hillforts in this microregion, whereas it is widely accepted in domestic historiography that fortified sites served as centers of power and administrative and economic hubs in ancient and medieval times. Secondly, a similar but not identical structure was encountered in the previously studied of the Lower Belaya microregion; however, in our case, the largest settlement is not central. Thirdly, a similar situation was previously studied in the context of the Birsk microregion, but there, the subregions (clusters of monuments) still had centers represented by hillforts or large unfortified settlements with the highest degree of centrality within their group. Thus, we have an example of a new model of settlement and utilization of living space by the population of the Bakhmuto culture in the Ufa-Belaya interfluve.