ANCIENT ROADS NEAR DAVYDIV BRID AT INGULETS RIVER

Abstract

In recent years, due to expansion of the capabilities of using high-resolution satellite images and their availability on many resources on the Internet, the possibility of identifying new sites is becoming especially relevant. In order to reveal the ability of land communications as well as for the study of close relationship of the barrows and steppe roads we made the attempt to map them as completely as possible using the remote sensing methods in the area between the Dnieper and the Lower Ingulets Rivers. The coverage of large territory made it possible to identify the place of the highest concentration of road residues which was located near the modern village of Davydiv Brid (Beryslav district, Kherson region). There were three identified so-called «Stars» — Bajdak-Mohyla, Shurzhyna and Bilohirka. At the base of each of them was a large mound of the 6—8 m high. All of them were in the line of sight from one to another and marked the place of the traditional crossing of the Ingulets River. On the basis of the remnants of roads associated with them the main directions of movement were identified: 1) the largest to the southeast to the area of the modern city of Beryslav; 2) a less saturated but clearly traced eastern route to the area of the modern Dudchany village; 3) along the Ingulets valley on the top of the steppe plateau. The internal structure and arrangement of the mounds and remains of roads is very complicated and can only be partially reconstructed. For example, we consider the fact of the seasonal use of Shurzhin’s star to bypass two lowlands located near Bajdak-Mogyla as obvious. From the last point several direct routes of the southeastern direction can be traced which were convenient in the dry season. The attempt to compare the roads identified by us with the paths of the «three-verst Schubert map» of the 19th century had a few results. Only in some cases it is possible to trace the coincidence of the historical paths with those recorded by us in the southeastern direction and only on certain sections. In the eastern direction and the route along Ingulets there are no this kind of coincidences were actually revealed. As a result we consider it necessary to admit that the remains of the roads we have recorded should be considered a special type of archaeological monuments accompanying other objects, primarily mounds. The phenomenon of the remains of these roads and the «stars» described by us is the phenomenon which reflects the certain part of human activity in the past and should be studied with the involvement of the as largest as possible territories and conducting field research.