Results of excavations at the fortress of the Daurian type in Western Amur region

The article presents the results of excavations in 2021-2022 at a fortress of the Daurian type located in the Amur-Zeya interfluve in Blagoveshchensk District of Amur Region not far from the Amur River. The “Sergeevka, fortified settlement-4” site consists of two separate structures of different sizes, similar in shape and connected to each other by a rampart. The research at the smaller fortress in 2021 made it possible clarify its stratigraphy and establish the sequence of its construction, which consisted of making ditches along rectangular contour with corner ledges, and placing soil into ramparts. In 2022, excavations of the interior part of the fortress revealed rows ofpits of unknown purpose and soil burial in a wooden rectangular box in the middle of the structure. Craniological analysis of the skull has shown that this was a female burial. Reconstruction of the appearance of the woman during her lifetime using the skull was performed in the Amur Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination. The accompanying inventory from the burial included three iron objects - a firesteel and two rings. In order to test the hypothesis that this ancient fortress was a structure associated with economic activities of the population, phosphate analysis of soil samples from the layers of the site was carried out. It did not reveal anomalies in mobile phosphorus compounds (P2O5) in comparison with background samples taken from the pits in the floodplain and on the terrace outside the fortress. Small archaeological collection of objects from the burial and ditches did not make it possible to identify any parallels with other archaeological evidence, which would unambiguously establish the ethnic and cultural attribution of the fortress and date of its construction.