MATERIAL CULTURE OF MILITARY COMMUNITY YELETSKY PRINCIPLE AS A REFLECTION OF EVERYDAY ON THE BORDER OF RUSSIAN LANDS WITH THE SECOND HALF XIV-FIRST HALF XV CENTURY XV (BASED ON THE EXCAVATIONS OF THE SETTLEMENT OF ARGAMACH-PALNA 3)
Archaeological research of middle-age settlements has shown its approach to the study of elite culture problem. Attention is given to interpretation of settlements with rarely found objects of prestigious character, which are not typical for the main part of the population. Objects of armament, personal piety, import, jewelry, treasure, monetary scales belong here. Objects of similar sphere have been met in the settlements of Yelets principality. Our study is directed to the territory of the Upper Don - one of the territories of Russian province, which was greatly remote from apanage town centres and in the late XIV century formed part of Upper reaches principalities. Yelets principality appears on the right bank on the lands reconquered from the Horde, as the result of Upper reaches princes' active foreign policy, with the help of the Grand Lithuania principality and maybe Ryazan principality. The principality turned to be involved in the sphere of political interests of the Grand Lithuania principality and the apanage princes of the Upper Oka territory. The beneficial economic situation developed in the Don basin on trans-European trade routs was rather important for it. Results of the research allow to single out the indications of elite culture fixed in the military settlements of the XIV-XV centuries. 1) Big portion of the objects of armament, horse and rider equipment (12,6-18,2 %); 2) Presence of prestigious objects stressing the social state of their owners. Collection of prestigious objects and their priority depended on the owner's needs. So attention should be paid to the most bright and unusual objects; 3) Dwellings of considerable sizes, differing from mass building (74-110 square m); 4) Distinctly expressed planning of the settlement with the possible country estate building or subordination of one group of dwellings to another group. Settlements of military elite in Yelets neighbourhood mean the town culture of the apanage principalities nobility, that migrated to the Upper Don from the territory of the Upper Oka in the second half of the XIV century. This event was caused by the expansion of the Grand Lithuania principality to the east and involvement of the Upper reaches principalities into its sphere of influence.