Historical and geographical periodization of the process of landscape development of the Crimean peninsula in the ancient era and the middle ages

Abstract

There are several approaches to the process of studying the history of the formation of ethnic groups in the region, in particular, the historical-socio-geographical one, in which the influence of the natural (landscape-paleogeographical) factor on the processes of development and settlement of the territory is considered in a retrospective aspect. The purpose of the study is to show the need to take into account the historical process of territory development, i.e. conducting a retrospective analysis in assessing the landscape-ethnographic situation. Along with natural methods, archaeological methods are used (excavations, stratigraphy of cultural layers, methods of absolute dating, metallography) and historical and sociocultural (historical sections, diachronic, comparative). Comprehensive historical and geographical information is necessary for almost any geographical research. The spatial and temporal basis of the regions provides for the creation of an information database (history of landscape development during the existence of man, in particular, changes in nature management practices) and includes the obligatory historical and geographical analysis and synthesis of the region, carried out by studying event processes and their consequences. As a result, a historical-geographical periodization is created, which makes it possible to study the relationships in the “landscape–ethnos–nature use” system over historical time and determine the dynamics of the formation of the ethnic picture of the region. In the course of the study, the following periods of development of the landscapes of the Crimean Peninsula were identified: the Late Bronze Age, the Early Iron Age, antiquity and the Middle Ages. The synthesis of the obtained information makes it possible to create schemes of historical-geographical zoning into multi-temporal slices. The results obtained will make it possible to trace the continuity of the cores of the formation of ethnic communities, models of their settlement systems, schemes of migration processes for various time slices. The practical significance of the project lies in the creation of a series of electronic maps of the change in the ethnographic situation of the Crimean peninsula during human development, which will be completed with an integral geographic information system.