MATERIALS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE PERIOD FROM THE MULTILAYERED SETTLEMENT OF KITSIVKA 1

The materials from the excavations of the multilayered settlement Kitsivka 1 provide additional insight into the characteristics of the Golden Horde Age population living in the forest-steppe part of the Siverski Donets River basin. Over time, the cultural and historical communities inhabiting this territory were changed. However, people always chose to settle in the settlement zones which traditionally used the natural resources of the micro-region and its logistical features. A vivid example of this is the crossing of the Siverski Donets known in the «Book of the Great Map» as the Kaganski Perevoz. It connected the territories with different landscapes: the right-bank forest-steppe and the left-bank steppe, thus being on the border of two systems of economic management and, as a result, cultural development. At certain historical stages, this point required military control, as evidenced by the remains of fortifications built in the early Middle Ages. During the Golden Horde period, the ethno-political situation seems to have changed dramatically, and the nature of the ties between the populations of the forest-steppe right bank and the steppe left bank of the Siverski Donets acquires the quality of a cultural and economic contactor. The material and spiritual culture of the Golden Horde period is represented at the Kitsivka 1 settlement by ceramic and cast-iron utensils, iron and non-ferrous metal products (elements of weapons, armour, clothing, tools), etc. Of great importance for understanding the nature of the worldview and origin of the settlers of this period is the discovered inhumation burial which belongs to the male privates, with traces of a fire ritual of the IV period (Golden Horde time) according to the classification of Dr. Fedorov-Davydov. The settlement of Kitsivka I is the first site in the Kharkiv region containing the materials on everyday life and funerary rites with osteological remains of the deceased, and this provides great potential for further cultural and historical reconstructions of the Golden Horde period in the modern Kharkiv region. It is necessary to further expand the studied areas of cultural layers, which will allow, among other things, to obtain a more accurate chronological framework for the life of the Golden Horde population, which today can be roughly defined as the second half of the 13th—14th centuries.