In the

archaeology of Russia Russian archaeology begins in the Russian Empire in the 1850s and becomes Soviet Union, Soviet archaeology in the early 20th century. The journal ''Sovetskaya arkheologiya'' is published from 1957. Archaeologists Sites major archaeological ...

, the Country of Towns (russian: Страна городов, ''strana gorodov'') is a tentative term for a territory in the southern Trans-Urals where a number of middle

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

(~2,000 BC) fortified settlements of the

Sintashta culture The Sintashta culture (russian: Синташтинская культура, Sintashtinskaya kul'tura), around 2050–1900 BCE, is the first phase of the Sintashta–Petrovka culture. or Sintashta–Arkaim culture,. and is a late Middle Bronze Ag ...

were found in the 1970s and 1980s.Andrey Bersenev, Andrey Epimakhov and Dmitry Zdanovich
SINTASHTA BOW OF THE BRONZE AGE OF THE SOUTH TRANS-URALS, RUSSIA
in: "Bronze Age Warfare: Manufacture and Use of Weaponry", 2011, Since the discovery of the Sintashta culture,

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

has revealed that there is a compactly grouped number of town-type settlements (over 20) in the northern steppe of the southern Trans-Urals, within an area bounded roughly 350~400 km north–south and 120~150 km east–west between Magnitorgorsk and Chelyabinsk in Orenburg region, Chelyabinsk region, Northern Kazakhstan and Bashkortostan. Therefore, in the 2000s, the principal investigator of this area,

Gennady Zdanovich Gennadii Borisovich Zdanovich (Russian: Геннадий Борисович Зданович; 4 October 1938 – 19 November 2020) was a Russian archaeologist based at the historical site of Arkaim, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Zdanovich led the excavat ...

, grouped them under the tentative term "Country of Towns". Since then, while some archaeologists recognize this term as a metaphor, others insist on the literal understanding. A colleague of Zdanovich,

Fyodor Petrov Fyodor Fyodorovich Petrov (russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Петров) (16 March 1902, Doktorovo, Tula Governorate – 19 August 1978) was a Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR) ...

, criticizes Zdanovish's views on the described territory as a unique compact object and considers the apparent compactness as an artifact of the incomplete and uncritical archaeological research. He mentions that earlier Zdanovich himself reported even more compact archaeological groupings of this type. He also writes that there are more Sintashta-type settlements discovered in

Orenburg Oblast Orenburg Oblast (russian: Оренбургская область, ''Orenburgskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Orenburg. From 1938 to 1957, it bore the name ''Chkalov Oblast'' () ...

, so that when taken into an account, they would significantly blur the "clearly defined" boundaries of the "Country of Towns".Fyodor Petrov, Поселение Аркаим в культурном пространстве эпохи бронзы, 2009
II. Страна городов - мифы и реальность
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References

{{reflist Archaeology of Russia History of Siberia Cultural heritage monuments in Chelyabinsk Oblast Objects of cultural heritage of Russia of federal significance