Middle and Late Bronze Age House-Building in the Steppe and Forest-Steppe Altai

Middle and Late Bronze Age House-Building
in the Steppe and Forest-Steppe Altai

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.075-082

A.S. Fedoruk¹, D.V. Papin^{1, 2}, and O.A. Fedoruk^1
1Altai State University, Pr. Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia
²Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

This article integrates information on the house-building practices of people represented by the Andronovo, Cherkaskul, Sargary-Alekseyevka, Irmen, Korchazhka, as well as the “Burla” cultures. A graphic reconstruction of the dwellings has been made, and a prototypical model of the structures is described with regard to the Middle and Late Bronze Age steppe and forest steppe Altai. This is a rectangular or subsquare single- or two-chamber post-frame construction, with a corridor-like entrance extending beyond the foundation pit. Diachronic and cultural variations of this prototype are listed. Andronovo dwellings were heavy or light, large or medium-large, based on a post-frame, or possibly log construction with a flat, gable, or truncated-pyramidal roof. A typical representation of Bronze Age dwellings is the light Cherkaskul house with gable roof at Kalinovka II. The “Burla” dwellings are either post-frame semi-dugouts or houses of heavy construction with various sizes and conical or truncated-pyramidal roofs. Numerous Sargary-Alekseyevka dwellings are large or medium-sized, heavy semi-dugouts with frames of posts and truncatedpyramidal roofs. The Irmen dwellings are similar to them. There are few investigated Korchazhka dwellings, and their design is difficult to reconstruct.

Keywords: Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Altai, housebuilding, reconstructions.