Soil-archaeological studies of the bronze-age settlement on the Urshak River floodplain, Bashkortostan

Soil-archaeological studies were performed on the territory of the Muradym ancient settlement, which dates back to the Srubnaya cultural epoch of the Bronze Age (the 15th–14th centuries BC) and is located on the Urshak River floodplain in Bashkortostan. The morphological, chemical, and some biological properties of the habitation layer and the underlying meadow-chernozemic soil were studied. It was shown that the habitation layer differs from the buried soil in color and in the increased contents of humus, total nitrogen and phosphorus, and available potassium. The enzymatic activity in the habitation layer was also higher than that in the buried natural soil, which can be explained by the properties of the sediments composing the habitation layer, the anthropogenic activity of ancient humans, and by the involvement of the habitation layer into the sphere of modern pedogenesis.