2015 survey campaign at the territory of Surgut district in KHMAD-Yugra: preliminary results

Department of Rescue Archaeology of Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS conducted archaeological survey in Surgut district of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District in 2015 field season. We explored the area near Sytomino village and focused on the bank lines of Bolshaya and Malaya Bykova, Nizhnyaya creeks (Ob River basin), to the east from Sytomino village to old Kushnikovo village. A characteristic feature of this area is hardness. Three sides of this area are surrounded by heavy going hummock-ridge and hollow-pool oligotrophic bogs. The exploration territory is far from the main communication corridors. The survey obtained the previously unknown archaeological sites: Sytominsk 4 hillfort, confined to Bolshaya Bykova creek, Saima 1 hillfort and Saima 2 burial ground near Nizhnyaya creek. Saima 1 settlement is the defensible town with developed fortification. Archaeological survey educed the destruction of the sites, cultural layer disturbance and described the current condition of the archaeological heritage objects. In terms of exploration, we mapped the found archaeological objects on the topographic plan. In studies of this area, we collected the surface material that permitted to interpret and dated these objects to Early Iron Age and Middle Ages.