BAKAL DWELLINGS OF THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES (FOREST-STEPPE OF THE TOBOL AND ISHIM BASIN)

Abstract

The study of housing space is an important step in reconstructing the life support system and the social structure of ancient societies. The article examines different types of housing buildings of the Bakal culture’ population of the early Middle Ages in the Trans-Urals, when the dwellings became more diverse. Data on the dwellings of this archaeological culture were obtained during the excavations of the Bolshoy and Maly Bakalsky, Staro-Lybaevsky-1, Kolovsky, Ust-Utyak-1, Ust-Tersyuk-1, Tsarevo, Papskoe settlements and Isetsky-2, Isetsky-3 settlements. Thus, the authors have information about forty buildings of the Bakal culture. There are two main types of buildings: ground dwellings and semi-dugouts. All of them are single-chamber and are divided into subtypes depending on the construction technique (frame houses, log cabins) and the shape of the housing area (rectangular, oval). Another important part of the house, to which part of the article is devoted, is the hearth. Archaeological information is supplemented by information about the construction of traditional houses of the Bashkirs and indigenous peoples of the north of Western Siberia. The tendency of the preferential use in medieval housing construction of smaller dwellings and log structures relative to the previous time is associated with a change in economic activities, an increase in the mobility of the population, the expansion of trade and the improvement of construction equipment.