The Ogrin 4/4-a Site in the System of Archaeological Sites of the Ogrin Peninsula

The Ogrin 4/4-a site in Dnipro-city was excavated in 2019. It was located between points 4 and 4-a, which are known from research conducted in 1932. The earliest findings date back to the Neolithic period. Most artifacts from this period consist of pottery shards. Most Neolithic pottery is associated with the Azov-Dnieper culture of its second period. Additionally, the presence of pottery from the Surska culture should not be excluded. Materials from the Early Bronze Age are scarce; fragments of ceramic vessels were found scattered throughout the cultural layer of the site. A destroyed burial of the Catacomb culture was also discovered, from which only the skull of an adult was preserved. Adjacent to the temporal bone, a clay cup with a flat bottom was found, decorated with horizontal incised lines. The most substantial and richest findings at the Ogrin 4/4-a site turned out to be a layer from the final stage of the Bronze Age. The main part of the ceramic complex belongs to the latest period of this era. Notably, there is visible heterogeneity in the investigated ceramic vessels. The first group of findings has Western, Bilozerka or Bilohrudivka origins. However, there is a noticeable presence of Eastern pottery, derived from the Timber-Grave Culture. Similar situations have been encountered repeatedly in settlements along the Left Bank of the Dnieper River and in territories further east. The difference between the ceramic complexes of settlements primarily lies in the percentage distribution of various groups of pottery. Preliminary observations suggest that the population at the end of the Bronze Age in the Ogrin 4/4-a settlement had predominantly Timber-Grave Culture origins. The dynamics of the Ogrynsky Peninsula settlement demonstrate that initially the northern part of the Kuchugurny Island (after I. A. Lepikash) was settled. Materials from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods occupy the coastal strip of the Samara River at its confluence with the Dnieper, or are found on the shores of old river beds and the Starukha Stream. It is noteworthy that ancient settlements were predominantly located along the channels of the Samara «delta». A similar topography of settlements can be traced until the end of the Bronze Age, when practically the entire coastline represented almost a single settlement. At the latest stage of the Bronze Age, settlements and burial sites appear in the floodplain of the Shyianka River, which separated Kuchugurny Island from the left-bank plateau. The M. O. Miller’s thesis that during the late and final Bronze Age the population left the coastline and moved into the Shyianka River valley is difficult to agree with, as this contradicts the continuous layer of the final Bronze Age along the banks of the Dnieper and Samara. The presence of the remains of various chronologically different ground cemeteries, mostly from the Eneolithic — Bronze Age, on the banks of the Samara and Dnieper rivers, in the areas of settlements and campsites cannot be overlooked. Indeed, on the top of the watershed plateau above the Ogrynsky Peninsula, above the present-day Rybalske granite quarry, there is a large burial mound, which consisted of 43 mounds. Тhе presence of mound and flat cemeteries from the Bronze Age, especially the Early Bronze Age, in the Dnieper River region has long been established. However, in this case, it takes on particularly vivid nuances. The convenient location of the Ogrin Peninsula determined its richness in archaeological materials from different periods. The diversity of the archaeological sites in this area has been only partially explored. Today, the archaeological and historical-cultural landscape of the peninsula has been almost entirely altered due to anthropogenic influences. It has somewhat survived in the north-western and western parts of the peninsula, with some sites irreversibly lost. The uniqueness of this territory in an archaeological context allows for the consideration of the entire set of archaeological sites — existing, investigated, and unfortunately lost within the framework of a unified Ogrin archaeological complex. Тhe results of more than a century of archaeological research in this area require synthesis and a special publication dedicated to it

Bronze · Human settlement · Peninsula · Population · Pottery · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Environmental and Biological Research in Conflict Zones · Marine and environmental studies