Medieval settlements Idnakar and Uchkakar in the basin of the Cheptsa river: general and special development in dynamics

The article offers a brief comparative analysis of the materials of complex studies of the Idnakar and Uchkakar settlements as the most important archaeological sites of the Finno-Ugric Middle ages in the Cis-Ural region. The researches of Indakar have been conducted for more than 30 years (1974-2010) and are remarkable for the first use of modern methods which have formed a basis of the project on studying the synchronous ancient settlement Uchkakar (2011-2017). The use of a representative complex of methods of natural sciences, including aerial photography by unmanned aerial vehicles, geophysical and soil investigations, archaeozoological and archaeobotanical analysis of the materials of cultural strata, and methods of spatial analysis in geographic information systems, made it possible to disclose convincingly the regularity of the development of the Uchkakar settlement which was similar to Idnakar, but with significant features. Differences are revealed in the area of structural parts and informativeness of their cultural layer, in the parameters and design of fortifications, in social status of the settlement, etc. Idnakar, located in the heart of the Chepetsk lands, was founded as a center of ethno-social education, while Uchkakar was the center of the district with agricultural and craft functions. The collections in many respects complement the sources for disclosing various aspects of the material and spiritual culture of the population and the dynamics of trade relations. The analysis of osteological and archaeobotanical materials helped to clarify the contours of the life support system model. The received results significantly enrich the corpus of sources and give an opportunity to use it in further researches on the comparative analysis of the fortified settlements of the Volga-Kama region and the Urals, as well as on the analysis of the features of each of them in line with the processes of urban development.