Kostyonki 4: Experiment for reconstruction of an area of a cultural layer
This article is devoted to solution of the problem of horizons of the archaeological site of Kostyonki 4. The main area of the site is about 740 sq. m. The cultural remains were localized in two dug-into-earth elongated dwellings positioned at a slight angle to each other with a chain of fireplaces ranged along the central axis. The southern dwelling was divided into three unequal sections while the northern one constituted a single structure. From south and east, it was joined by two rounded dwelling pits, each with a fireplace in the centre. Their fill differed in its color from the fills of the long dwellings. After certain doubts A. N. Rogachev arrived at the conclusion that Kostyonki 4 is a site composed of two layers (horizons) of differing periods and differing cultures. However, this statement until now needs a more grounded argumentation than that presented in the monograph describing the site. Proceeding from the main object of this investigation, the southern dwelling assemblage with neither extraneous additions nor foreign items among its collection was taken as a reference one. Respectively, of special importance becomes the reconstruction of the cultural layer within the area of excavations of 1927-1928 conducted by S. N. Zamyatnin and P. P. Efimenko without recording the finds in plans. The present paper devoted to reconstruction of some area of the cultural layer is part of an extensive study focused on solution of the problem connected with archaeological horizons. On the basis of studies of the structural features of the dwellings, metric parameters of the fireplaces, peculiarities of their arrangement, it has became possible to define presumably the locations of the three fireplaces in the western section of the southern house disturbed by excavations of 1927. As additional arguments, data ofplanigraphic analysis are employed in this study at the level of square-by-square composition of the finds.