extended abstracts - Geomorphic Processes and Geoarchaeology

Geomorphic processes and geoarchaeology
• the proximity of the ponds, estuarine sections of rivers, the confluence of streams to
larger rivers, lakes flow;
• the presence of areas evolved from a common landscape: belomoshnye forests, dry
valleys Urman and well-drained, not flooded areas of the coastal terraces and mane.
In practice, it looked like this. Taking into account these criteria, the borders of
«promising» and «unpromising» zones were charted on topographic maps.
«Promising» zone was usually between 300 and 500 m from the modern river bed,
and «unpromising» was buffered and did not go beyond 300 m. Thus, the area of 1 km
from the bed of the river became a major potentially promising in terms of detection
objects of archaeological heritage. In such a way, the area of 1 km from the bed of the
large river became potentially promising in terms of detection of objects of
archaeological heritage.
Since the design of the procedure occurred during practical activities, it relied
heavily on experience and intuition of researchers. Over time, weaknesses of the system
became apparent, specifically the main disadvantage was the lack of clear assessing of
«promising» or «unpromising» criteria of a certain area [5, 6]. At the present stage there
is necessity in improvement of this procedure, creation of objective methodological
framework based on complex analysis and mathematical statistics.
Data on the arrangement of the monuments of Surgut Priob’ye allow improving
the existing methods of identifying and prediction of the archaeological sites on the
unexplored territories. In order to establish the monuments spatial classification has been
developed, the basis of which were attributes that reflect the particular location of
archaeological sites Surgut Priob’ye. Comprehensive analysis of natural and geographical
conditions of the territory and data on the location of archaeological sites of Surgut
Priob’ye allowed identifying 15 attributes that best reflect the placement of monuments in
the space of five criteria, provisionally titled: hydrography, landscape, vegetation, soil,
and distance.
As a result, the established laws allowed determining the maximum width of the
promising zone from the perspective of the modern river beds. For the right bank of the
River Ob promising area must be at least: on Ob river – 8500 m, on the tributaries of the
first order – 1500 m, on the second-order tributaries – 3000 m; on the third-order
tributaries – 2600 m on the fourth-order tributaries – 700 m, on the fifth order
tributaries – 750 m; the numbers for the left bank of Ob river – 8000 m, on the tributaries
of the first order – 3000 m, on the second-order tributaries – 1300 m, on the third-order
tributaries – 1500 m, at present, data on the tributaries of the fourth and fifth from the left
bank of the river is unknown.
At the same time exception of their detection in such places is impossible. By
analogy with the right bank of the river Ob the same criteria can be applied – 700 m from
the river beds 4 and 750 m from the bed of the tributaries of fifth order. During the
prognostication of monuments identifying along the shores of lake width of the
«promising» area shall be not less than 500 m.
Therefore, the laws of the location of archeological sites can serve as a basis for
predicting of their detecting at unexplored areas with similar natural and geographical
conditions. Creation of maps of resource-evaluative perspective allows using this
approach in other areas considering their local circumstances.
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