Stanislav Zadnikov

The Bilsk fortified settlement, the largest in Europe of the Early Iron Age (8th–4th centuries BC), located on the left bank of the Dnieper, demonstrates links with the Hallstatt culture, Greek civilization and nomadic Scythian culture, starting from the second half of the 7th century BC. The article discusses one of the vectors of cultural influences from the Hallstatt world, traced on the basis of long-term excavations. In the material culture of the second half–late 8th–first half of the 7th century BC, the influence of the Basarabi cultural complex is most noticeable, and in the second half of the 7th–6th centuries BC the impact of the cultures and cultural groups of the East Hallstatt Circle. As a result of migration processes in the local environment, objects of western types became widespread, Hallstatt imports are also known. In the domestic and sacred sphere, the society also borrowed some ideas. New data that significantly expanded our understanding of the nature and degree of the Hallstatt influence on the local sedentary population was obtained as a result of excavations in 2013–2019 mound necropolis Skorobir.

Bilsk is the largest fortified settlement of the Early Iron Age in Europe. The defensive line of the site consists of a rampart and the moat of more than 30 km length surrounding the area of ca. 5 thousand hectares. Over the years of the exploration of this archaeological site the idea of the time of settlement of certain parts of the archaeological complex, the origin and peculiarities of the creation of grand defensive structures was gradually formed. A special role in the process of their formation and use was played by the Eastern fortification, the fortified walls of which existed for more than two centuries. Recent exploration of its rampart and moat taking into account the results obtained last years suggest the creation of strong defencive system on the place of unfortified settlements and offered new vision of the appearance of fortified walls. The analysis of excavation materials of different years allows us to state that the territories occupied by unfortified settlements in the pre-fortress period were much larger and went beyond the future line of wood-earth fortifications. For more than a century and a half in the western part of the settlement complex there were no defencive structures. Only open settlements are known, which appeared in the last third of the 8th century BC. The situation changed in the second half of 6th century BC when the eastern part of the complex was occupied by the population with other traditions. Probably at the beginning of the third quarter of the 6th century BC the founders of the settlement, located in the eastern part of the watershed plateau, surrounded the most important part of the village with a wooden fence (a wall of logs, or mud). A similar wall defended the settlements within the modern Western settlement. The defensive line of the Great Fortress was later planned according to the same principle. We believe that such a light fence, without additional engineering structures, had no defensive significance but determined its own social space of settlements, which housed the estates of local tribal leaders, the most im-
portant public buildings and other facilities. Probably belonging to the different tribal groups prompted the inhabitants of the two settlements to strengthen the system of defence and surround the perimeter of each of them with an earthen rampart. The settlements gradu- ally turned into a kind of residence of the local elite. We can assume that in the last third of the 5th century BC or at the beginning of the last quarter of this century, most likely, in the unstable situation in the region, the single strong defensive line in the form of an earthen rampart with a wooden wall on the ridge and a moat in front of them was created. The rampart and moat of the Great Fortress probably delineated the boundaries of the centre of the tribal union. The representatives of different ethnic groups and different social groups lived in this large area. The created defensive line with a length of 35 km was relevant until the middle of the 5th century BC until the time of the appearance of the settlement within the Western settlement. In the Eastern settlement life continues for another century and a half, until the end of the 4th century BC

The article provides preliminary general information on the results of the latest excavations of burial mounds in the Skorobir necropolis (tract 6th field), carried out by the joint efforts of archaeological expeditions of the Historical and Cultural Reserve «Bilsk» and V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in 2020. Burials of the first half of the 6th century ВС were discovered under the mounds of two small barrows. The most interesting was mound № 2 regarding its specific structure that provides a separate grave for the horse. Among the items of funeral inventory there are many interesting and even rare finds of early Scythian times.

More than 180 iron objects found between the 3rd  millennium BC and the beginning of the 1st millennium BC in the area between the Carpathians and the Urals are evaluated. The objects come from various sites and 15 archaeological cultures. The time frame of the study corresponds to the Bronze Age and the transition to the Early Iron Age on the basis of current chronological conceptions in Eastern Europe. The evaluation is based on an extensive database. The following are presented and analysed: a) the number of iron objects and their distribution; b) the categories of objects made of iron; c) the dynamics and the way iron was used; d) aspects of research history. The evaluation of the material corpus with the updated data and the early finds of iron and slags give a concrete picture of their quantitative and qualitative distribution over two millennia in the study area. The investigation sheds new light on the trends in early iron use in Eastern Europe. The authors’ conclusion that Eastern Europe must be regarded as an independent centre for the development of iron metallurgy in the Old World must be further examined and backed up by modern scientific analyses.

The article considers one of the aspects of adaptation of the population to the natural conditions and landscape of the
developed territory of the left-bank forest-steppe, taking into account social and household needs and occupations. For the
first time ever, a comprehensive study of the available materials from the excavation of ashhill 28 from the Western Bilsk
fortified settlement and application of layout and spatial modeling method have offered various options for the scientific
reconstruction of a dugout as a residential center of sedentary population. The volumetric-spatial construction of a resi¬
dential building is based on planigraphic, stratigraphic observations, and the conclusions of researchers about the climatic,
topographic features of the microregion. The manor existed in the first quarter of the 6t h century BC.

Статтю присвячено аналізу пам’яток та знахідок третьої чверті І тис. н. е. виявлених в басейні р. Харків, в межах сучасної Харківської області. Це десять пам’яток, в тому числі дві із знахідками прикрас та одна із знахідками ливарних формочок. Більшість пам’яток виявлені з 2000-х рр. завдяки проведенню археологічних розвідок і експертиз.

The article discusses the history of the study of the fortifications of the Western  Bilsk hillfort. The basic points of view of the researchers about the formation of the defensive system, its features, the allocation of building periods, the questions chronology and duration of the construction of fortifications are given. A version of
the possible time for the construction of wood-earth structures is proposed, based on new data on the periods of development of the Bilsk hillfort.

In 2018 the study of early Scythian settlement lazkivski Stavky I was continued. The work was carried out by the expedition of Kharkiv University at the request of the Historical and Cultural Reserve «Bilsk». On the openings of the asshill area of 250 m2 a household pit, the remains of the dwelling were opened. Moreover, there were set the boundaries of the ashpit mound, andfound a large number of handmade wares fragments, items made of bronze, iron and bone. The material found refers to the second half of ?h — early 6th centuries ВС.

Results of field researches conducted by famous Ukrainian archaeologist V. P. Andrienko at Bilsk site of ancient settlement both as a member of Kharkiv
University expedition and individually, are summarized. 20 new settlements, burial mound were discovered, fortifications of Bilsk site of ancient settlement,
mounds of Velykyi Skorobir and Rozryta Mohyla maidans were observed as a result of conducted archaeological investigations. Archaeological researches of nine barrows in Skorobir Stow (1965) and excavations of ash-pit 19 at the Western fortification of Bilsk site of ancient settlement (1967) were conducted supervisedby B. A. Shramko.

The Early Iron Age nomadic Scythians have been
described as a confederation of tribes of different origins,
based on ancient DNA evidence [1–3]. It is still
unclear how much of the Scythian dominance in the
Eurasian Steppe was due to movements of people
and how much reflected cultural diffusion and elite
dominance. We present new whole-genome sequences
of 31 ancient Western and Eastern Steppe
individuals, including Scythians as well as samples
pre- and postdating them, allowing us to set the
Scythians in a temporal context (in the Western,
i.e., Ponto-Caspian Steppe). We detect an increase
of eastern (Altaian) affinity along with a decrease in
eastern hunter-gatherer (EHG) ancestry in the Early
Iron Age Ponto-Caspian gene pool at the start of
the Scythian dominance. On the other hand, samples
of the Chernyakhiv culture postdating the Scythians
in Ukraine have a significantly higher proportion of
Near Eastern ancestry than other samples of this
study. Our results agree with the Gothic source of
the Chernyakhiv culture and support the hypothesis
that the Scythian dominance did involve a demic
component.

The Early Iron Age nomadic Scythians have been described as a confederation of tribes of different origins, based on ancient DNA evidence. It is still unclear how much of the Scythian dominance in the Eurasian Steppe was due to movements of people and how much reflected cultural diffusion and elite dominance. We present new whole-genome sequences of 31 ancient Western and Eastern Steppe individuals including Scythians as well as samples pre- and postdating them, allowing us to set the Scythians in a temporal context (in the Western/Ponto-Caspian Steppe). We detect an increase of eastern (Altaian) affinity along with a decrease in Eastern Hunter-Gatherer (EHG) ancestry in the Early Iron Age Ponto- Caspian gene pool at the start of the Scythian dominance. On the other hand, samples of the Chernyakhiv culture postdating the Scythians in Ukraine have a significantly higher proportion of Near Eastern ancestry than other samples of this study. Our results agree with the Gothic source of the Chernyakhiv culture and support the hypothesis that the Scythian dominance did involve a demic component.

The publication introduces ma tenuis from the excavation of the settlement of the
Early-Scythian time in the tract of Lazkiski stavky (Bilsk hillfort). The household pit
and various finds of the second half of the 7-th century ВС, were investigated. The
features of the material culture of the time of formation of cultural layers of the ash
embankment located within the settlement are specified.
Keywords: Dnipro Left Bank forest-steppe, settlement, cinder heap, ceramic
complex, clay, metal, stone and bone products, early-Scythian time, 7-th century ВС.

The article presents preliminary results of archaeological research of two mounds
in the necropolis of Skorobir in 2017. The mounds of both burial are practically destroyed
by annual plowing. In addition, in each of the burial mounds recorded traces
of ancient looting. However, both burial grounds were very interesting, and contained
rare items of material culture of the last third of the 6th century BC (mound 1) and the
end of 6th — beginning of 5th centuries BC (mound 2).
Certain things can be attributed to unique ones, such as those that do not yet
have analogues in the Eurasian Scythia, or rare for the territory of the Dnipro foreststeppe.
One of the graves according to the features of the funeral rite, such as the funeral
structure and the objects of the funeral inventory, indicating the emergence of a
new type of graves with things typical of the eastern regions of the Scythian world and
the advent of a new wave of nomads from the east to Northern Black Sea in the last
third of the third quater of the 6th century BC. There was buried rider in the mound
2, which was representative of the local population.
Keywords: Northern Black Sea Region, Dnipro forest-steppe left bank, Bilsk
hillfort, Skorobir necropolis, nomads, the third quarter of the 6th — early 5th centuries
BC, craft items, military equipment, antique imports.

At the present stage of the study of the famous Bilsk hill fortress, it is important to analyze the information gathered in extensive scientific literature reflecting the development of scientific views on the designation and organization of the defense system of one of its most important component parts, followed by the name «Eastern Fortification» in historiography. Consideration of various points of view of scientists and their arguments in defense of certain versions of the time of construction, the nature of use, the principles of construction and location in the general defense system of the Bilsk fortified settlement makes it possible to conclude that there are still many unresolved issues in this problem. In this regard, new directions for strengthening research are proposed, combining scientific tasks with protection measures and the inclusion of a defensive shaft in the program of the museumification of a well-known monument of archeology

The article presents the results of the works in 2016 at the largest barrow necropolis of Bilsk settlement, Skorobor burial ground. In the centre of attention is the funerary assemblage of local nobility representatives with a set of gold jewelleiy, rare for the Dnipro River left bank forest-steppe region, of the Early Scythian period.

The article presented the basic information about the results of excavations of the tumulus of the beginning of 6th BC in 2016 at the Skorobir burial ground. Despite the fact that the mound was robbed in antiquity, there was traced some design features of burial structures, founded important finds for the solution of many problems of Early-Scythian period, among which the special place occupied by gold jewelry and beads.

Dear colleagues!
We are pleased to invite you to attend the XI scientific conference "Problems of History and Archeology of Ukraine", which will be held in Kharkov at the end of November 2018. The conference is dedicated to the 60thanniversary of the research of the Bilsk fortress by the Kharkov University expedition.
The following research areas are planned to be discussed at the conference:
1. The Stone Age and Bronze Age archeology.
2. TheEarly Iron Agearcheology.
3. History and archeology of the Migration Period.
4. Slavic world and its neighbors in VII-XVII centuries.
5. History and Archeology of Sloboda Ukraine in XVII-XVIII centuries.
6. History of historical science and education.
Applications for participation in the conference and paper theses should be submitted by June 15, 2018 to e-mail: khiao1995@gmail.com

Ashhill 11, which located in the eastern part of the Western Fortification, was the first object of the research of the scientists of Kharkiv University on the Bilsk hillfort. It was excavated in 1958 by the archaeological squad headed by Boris Shramko. The works were carried out in the collective expedition of Kharkiv University and Moscow University. During excavations, for the first time in Bilsk hillfort, was discovered and scientifically fixed a dwelling (dugout) of the Early Scythian period, and founded distinct subjects of material culture of the 6th century BC.
The book first published complete material from excavations in 1958, analyzes the material complex from the filling of the pit of dugout and surrounding cultural layers of ashhill. The book also demonstrated a graphic reconstruction of the dugout from the excavation.

Ashhill 11, which located in the eastern part of the Western Fortification, was the first object of the research of the scientists of Kharkiv University on the Bilsk hillfort. It was excavated in 1958 by the archaeological squad headed by Boris Shramko. The works were carried out in the collective expedition of Kharkiv University and Moscow University. During excavations, for the first time in Bilsk hillfort, was discovered and scientifically fixed a dwelling (dugout) of the Early Scythian period, and founded distinct subjects of material culture of the 6th century BC.
The book first published complete material from excavations in 1958, analyzes the material complex from the filling of the pit of dugout and surrounding cultural layers of ashhill. The book also demonstrated a graphic reconstruction of the dugout from the excavation.

Вміщено наукові публікації за результатами археологічних досліджень, здійснених на Більському городищі та в його окрузі в 2016 році.
Для археологів, істориків, краєзнавців, фахівців пам’яткоохоронної справи, працівників музеїв, широкого загалу шанувальників стародавньої історії.