Pastyrskoe Gorodishche

an archaeological site from Scythian and early medieval times.

Pastyrskoe Gorodishche is situated on both banks of the Sukhoi Tashlyk River (a tributary of the Tiasmin River), near the village of Pastyrskoe, Smela Raion, Cherkassy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. The site was investigated in 1898, 1900, and 1901 by V. V. Khvoiko and in 1949 and 1955 by an expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. The site was settled twice—in the sixth to fourth centuries B.C. and in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D.

Among the remains dating from the earlier, Scythian, times are defensive works, including a ditch and a rampart as high as 20 m in places and subterranean and surface dwellings. The population engaged in land cultivation, stock raising, and handicraft production and traded with the ancient cities of the northern Black Sea coast.

During the seventh and eighth centuries, there was a settlement at the site which some archaeologists believe was Slavic, and others Alani-Bulgar. Excavations have uncovered the remains of both semisubterranean and surface dwellings; household vessels cast on a potter’s wheel; various implements, including sickles and scythes; and jewelry made of bronze and silver.