Krasnosamarskoe settlement, pit 10 - the well. Radiocarbon dates from wood and black organic sediments indicate that pit 10 was a feature of the earliest occupation at KS, 1950-1800 calBC, the Pokrovka phase. |
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David W. Anthony and Dorcas R. Brown |
Pit 10, the Excavated Well
Krasnosamarskoe settlement, pit 10 - the well. Radiocarbon dates from wood and black organic sediments indicate that pit 10 was a feature of the earliest occupation at KS, 1950-1800 calBC, the Pokrovka phase. |
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Inside the excavated structure were two deep pit features, pit 10 and pit 14. Both probably were wells. Inflowing water and the end of the 1999 season prevented the complete excavation of pit 14. Pit 10 was fully excavated in 2001. The bottom was 2.4m beneath the Bronze Age land surface (2.7m beneath the modern surface). Since the well was inside a structure with a dugout floor about 40cm deep, the LBA well was about 2m deep from its opening in the house floor to its bottom.
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In the lower 70cm of pit 10 were well-preserved organic remains: waterlogged sticks, planks, wood-chopping debris (triangular chopped-out pieces), including a log 1.2m long that might have been a log-ladder with two chopped steps. The wooden objects must have been discarded into water and remained under water since the LBA, or they would not have been preserved. This means that the pit contained water during its use in the LBA—probably about 70cm of water—which is why we call it a well. |
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The only finished wooden tools were two (possibly four) carved wooden poles with notched ends. |  |
Pit 10 is a closed deposit of the Pokrovka phase. It contained exclusively Pokrovka pottery sherds (right). One sherd had an image of a horse (?) head impressed into the clay. The bottom of the well also contained burned animal bones, a thick black mat of organic sediment with many seeds and other organics. |
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