ИСТИНА

The first anthropogenic landscape complexes emerged with the transfer from the appropriating type of economy to producing one. In Central Russia such transition, or the Neolithic revolution, dates back not earlier than the Bronze Age. Landscape-transforming anthropogenic influence stemmed from the development of cultivation and grazing, formation of permanent settlements and specific features of their spatial distribution. At the turn of IX-VIII centuries B.C. there was the expansion of the tribes of the Iron Age in Central Russia. Along with cattle breeding the cultivation, both slash-and-burn and field, gained an important role in the economy. In the Iron Age the development of permanent long-term settlement and agricultural structure had led to the formation of true anthropogenic and cultural landscapes. The following stage of socio-natural history is the Slavic colonization of the region (VIII-XII centuries A.D.). At the turn of the I–II millennia Slavs of Central Russia were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting, fishery, apiculture and wood processing; they had first crafts already: pottery, blacksmith’s work, jewelry and even metallurgy based on local raw materials. Field cultivation has contributed to the move of ancient Russian settlers from river valleys to interfluve’s landscapes with more diverse resource base. The prevalence of field cultivation has led to the formation of permanent centers of more profound influence on landscapes. Irreversible impact on soils and lithogenic base of natural territorial complexes was caused by stubbing and development of washout-inwash processes on the slopes. The permanent fields were formed around the settlements which could be considered the arable anthropogenic landscape complexes of that time.