Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (1) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.1.064-072

Annotation:  The Loess-Paleosol Sequence at the Krasnogorskoye Section, the Low-Hill Zone of the Northeastern Alt The Early Neolithic Complex on the Tartas-1 Site: Results of the AMS Radiocarbon Dating Water and Cosmology in the Stone Age of Northeastern Europe Turning Points in Horse Breeding in the Eurasian Steppes and the Near East The Study of Middle Bronze Age Interments at Khanghah Gilavan: Tentative Results The Petrovka Bronze Age Sites: Issues in Taxonomy and Chronology A Comparative Study of the Layout of Bronze Age Fortifi ed Settlements in the Southern Urals (3rd to Early Iron Age Pyramidal Kurgans in Western Siberia The Xiongnu Gold from Noin-Ula (Mongolia) Geophysical Studies at the Horogoru Fortifi ed Settlement in South Korea Medieval Sites of Tara Region, the Irtysh Basin: Origin, Chronology, Cultural and Ethnic Attribution A Central Asian Helmet from the Northern Kazakhstan Regional Museum The 18th-Century Udmurt Women’s Outfi ts Depicted in J.P. Falk’s Book: Interpretation and Attributio Wearing Folk Costumes as a Mimetic Practice in Russian Ethnographic Field Studies Types of Winter Clothing Worn by Descendants of the Russian Pioneers in Siberia (Late 19th to Early Long-Bone Growth in the Bronze Age Skeletal Population of Gonur-Depe, Turkmenistan   

A Comparative Study of the Layout of Bronze Age Fortifi ed Settlements
in the Southern Urals (3rd to 1st Millennia BC)

O.A. Ulchitsky, E.K. Bulatova, E.K. Kazaneva, and O.M. Veremey

Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Pr. Lenina 38, Magnitogorsk, 455000, Russia

The earliest (Bronze Age) fortified settlements in the Southern Urals are described with regard to their defensive function, as well as their production and residential quarters. Their parallels are discussed. The article focuses on the architecture of the earliest Indo-European forts and compares it to that of their later Eurasian counterparts. The relations between the layout of the Sintashta-Petrovka forts and the architecture of Central Asia and of the early Indo-European states are revealed. Bronze Age fortified settlements of the Southern Urals, Northern Kazakhstan, and Central Asia are compared on a unified scale with reference to their function. The results can be used in future research on ancient architecture.

Keywords: Fortified settlements, Southern Urals, comparative method, Bronze Age