Traces of iron age slash-and-burn agriculture under the slavic kurgans at the MSU zvenigorod biological station

Abstract

The paper reports on the analysis of soils buried under the kurgans of the 12th – 13th centuries from the Volkovo kurgan group situated within the compound of the MSU Zvenigorod biological station. Based on the diagnostic assessment of the layers associated with slash-and-burn agriculture developed by the authors, the buried soils and the carbonaceous horizons under two kurgan mounds were examined. Traces of several instances of slash-and-burn agriculture use were identified, the radiocarbon dating puts them to the 1st, the 2nd and the 10th centuries.