Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppe. No 2. 2020

A. A. Chizhevsky, A. A. Khisiametdinova
Defensive Structures of the Forts on Promontories of the Volga-Kama Region in the Early Iron

The monograph is dedicated to the fortifications of the forts on promontories of the Early Iron Age
and the Early Middle Ages in the Volga-Kama region. The characteristic features of these structures,
which included a rampart and a moat, consist in the use of terrain for the construction of fortifi
cations, and their location on cusps. Forts on promontories, as they appeared in the early Iron Age,
existed for almost two thousand years from the 9th century BC until the 7th/8th centuries AD. This time
period, along with the development of the armament complex, is characterized by the development of
construction technology, and a gradual departure from landscape binding, as the shape and number of
shafts was changing. The forts on promontories building tradition of the Early Iron Age and the Early
Middle Ages was only interrupted in the late Migration Period. The fortifi cations which replaced
them developed on the basis of other traditions and under the infl uence of the established state
institutions of Volga Bolgaria.