ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES, material sources (man-made ancient objects, structures, and/or burials which have been preserved on the earth’s surface, underground or under water), which allow us to reconstruct the past of a human society. A.s. of Bashkortostan (more than 3 thous. have been located) represent all periods of the ancient and middle age history. The most ancient A.s. on the territory of Bashkortostan (Aidos, Mysovaya) date 400–100 thous. years. The most common are settlements (Tanalyk, Davlekanovo, Mysovaya, Ufa II, etc), funerary artifacts (Birsk Burial Ground, Sterlitamak Burial Ground, Ufa Burial Grounds, etc) and mausoleums (keshene). The largest keshenes on the territory of Bashkortostan  are  the  Bendebike  Keshene, Minor Keshene, Turakhan Keshene and Khuseinbek Keshene. Among A.s. there are also various inhabited caves and shrines (Shulgan-Tash, Zapovednoye and Ignatyevskoye shrines, etc), stone sculptures (represented by stone images of women, by menhirs, stone images of deer in the Akimbetovo and Baishevo burial mounds, Gumarovo repository, etc), troves (Avryuztamaksky, Kuganaksky, Milovsky, etc), rock drawings (Buranovo Settlement Site and Drawings, Idrisovo Drawings, Kulmetovo Drawings and Muradymovo Settlement Site and Drawings), ancient mines/quarries for ore mining (Bakr-Uzyak, Kargaly, Tashkazgansky Mine, etc), stilts for buildings, ancient roads, and dolmen-type tombs. Local groups of A.s., which belong to the same archaeological culture form archeological complexes (Arkaim, Biktimirovsky, Gornovsky, Kara-Yakupovsky, Manyaksky, Okhlebininsky, Sintashta, Tash-Elginsky, Tashlinsky, Shipovsky, Yakovlevsky, etc); which belong to different cultures – archeological micro-regions (Baishevsky, Beregovsky, etc).