Current Issues and Prospects of Study the Karayakupovo Culture Hillforts

Due to the increased interest in Magyar issues in the study of Ural-Volga antiquities, the interest of researchers in the issues of Karayakupovo-Kushnarenkovo materials has also awakened. Despite the almost half-century-long process of studying of the Karayakupovo culture sites, which began in the 60s of the XX century by G.I. Matveeva and was actively developed further in the works of V.F. Gening, N.A. Mazhitov, V.A. Ivanov, G.N. Garustovich and others, the authors can state that at the moment the Karayakupovo hillforts in general are poorly represented in the archaeological literature. The purpose of this work is to show the degree of study and introduction into scientific circulation of the materials of the Karayakupovo type hillforts and to replenish the source base with the material obtained during the latest research of the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IHLL UFRC RAS) at the Kara-Yakupovo and Kushnarenkovo hillforts. All the pottery obtained at the Kara-Yakupovo hillfort and most of the pottery from the Kushnarenkovo hillfort belongs to the Karayakupovo type. The authors conclude that at the present stage of studying the Karayakupovo sites, a more in-depth and systematic analysis of settlement materials should be carried out and researchers should pay special attention to issues related to their topographical features of placement, the system of mutual arrangement, internal structure and ways of life support.