Vlasta E. Rodinkova^1,*, Elena V. Ponomarenko^2,**, Svetlana A. Sycheva^3,***, Ekaterina G. Ershova^4,****, and Lyudmila S. Shumilovskikh^5,*****

¹Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia
²University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
³Institute of Geography RAS, Moscow, Russia
⁴M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
⁵Georg August University of Gottingen, Gottingen, Germany

*E-mail: vlasta2004@mail.ru
**E-mail: ecosystemarchaeology@gmail.com
***E-mail: sychevasa@mail.ru
****E-mail: ekaterinagershova@mail.ru
*****E-mail: shumilovskikh@gmail.com

Keywords: natural and anthropogenic landscapes, land use, slash-and-burn agriculture, early Slavs.

The article presents the results of a multidisciplinary study of the Kurilovka 2 settlement (Sudzha District, Kursk Region), which made it possible to identify several stages in the development of the territory in the Upper Psel basin, in the north of the East European forest-steppe zone. During the last 2.5 thousand years, a broad-leaved forest was growing on the remnant of a low terrace above the floodplain, at the site area. In the early 1st millennium AD, it was probably cleared by the early Slavic population in a cycle of slash-and-burn agriculture. In addition to cultivating crops, in particular millet, the population conducted residential and economic construction and possibly practiced grazing in the studied area, however, the influence of the bearers of early Slavic traditions on the environment outside the habitation zone was insignificant. In the late 1st millennium AD, the settlement became uninhabited and the forest was restored. It was cleared again presumably in the 13th century AD. The next period of active development of the Upper Psel region covers the second half of the 17th–20th century, when the forest was totally cleared and the land plowed at a large scale. This led to the transformation of natural landscapes into agricultural ones and to noticeable changes in the ecosystems of the region.

DOI: 10.31857/S0869606325030097