New results of excavations of the “Dauria type fortification” in the western Amur

The authors describe the results of the excavations at the site "Gashchenka, fortification site-1" conducted in the Svobodnoe District of the Amur Region in 2024. The site has been defined as a "Daurian-type fortification settlement" found only in the western part of the Amur Region. This type of archeological objects still lacks proper interpretation, which provoked the archaeological excavations. Stationary studies of such objects were carried out sporadically in the form of a test trench at the Pryadchinsky settlement (excavations by D.P. Bolotin, N.N. Zaitsev, B.S. Sapunov) and a small-scale excavation site at the Dubovaya Relka fortified settlement (excavations by A.L. Shumkova, S.A. Sakmarov), which data were not published. The 2024 research is a continuation of the research of the "Daurian-type settlements" project started by the team of authors in 2021. Excavations of2024 of the interior part of the settlement revealed the presence of rows ofpits for household purposes and an above-ground dwelling with a U-shaped three-channel kang, two separate furnaces and one chimney inside the building. The kang ditch had no covering, while the pits located outside the dwelling were filled with burnt and sooty stones. This suggests that the covering of the ditch made of stones was removed and taken out of the dwelling by the inhabitants of the house. The household pits were filled with ash, soot, numerous small burnt bones, and a separate accumulation of animal andfish bones. Some pits were used repeatedly after a long period of inactivity. The archaeological material includes a series of stone sinkers on flattened pebbles, a ceramic whorl, and remains of animal bones. This small archaeological collection does not provide any grounds for establishing parallels with other archaeological materials or unambiguously determine its ethnocultural affiliation and the date of its construction.