Impact of fire on wooden structures of the Umrevinskiy ostrog

The article discusses the interpretation of the burning traces on the remains of various wooden structures of the Umrevinskiy ostrog from the first half of the 18th century. The tasks of the research were to identify, systematize, and analyze the origin of thermal exposure on preserved parts of the wooden defensive and residential structures of the ostrog. The absence of fire traces on the bases of the logs preserved in the grooves from the log fence indicates that they were not subjected to any special heat treatment before being placed into the ground. Based on written sources of the first third of the 18th century, it is because of this that the back walls of the Umrevinskiy ostrog collapsed rather quickly. In another site, the southwestern corner tower, the fire traces are associated with its destruction in the second half of the 18th century. Note that the piles of the tower foundation, similarly to the log fence, did not have any special burning to provide waterproofing. For the base of the tower frame, this function was performed by clay bedding. In the central part of the ostrog, burned-out ruins of a residential structure were recorded. The abundance of numismatic material in the ruins allows dating this event no later than the late 18th century. Traces of fire exposure on residential buildings of the 18th century were also found in the posad (settlement) of the Umrevinskiy ostrog, in the area of the discovery of the treasure of silver coins, consisting of the “drip” kopeks of the Peter ’s time (minted until 1718). Separate facts of burning are recorded in some burials from a later necropolis that was formed in the inner area of the ostrog no earlier than at the turn of the 18-19th centuries. Generally, the topography of fire traces in the Umrevinskiy ostrog is characterized by local nature, which excludes the impact of large-scale forestfires on fortifications and residential structures. Such natural disasters were recorded in the written sources for the north of the Upper Ob Region in the end of the 17th century and were one a factor of their destruction and the need for restoration of the Siberian ostrogs.