The "Our Pagans" of the Kiev land: stages of settlement and the landscape-geographical niche of nomads in agricultural society

The paper analyzes the issue of the spatial and ecological niche of the nomadic population of the south of the Kyiv principality (“Black Hats”), as well as the dynamics of the settling in the Ros’ river basin in the 11^th—13^th centuries.
An important part of the spatial organization of the Ros’ river basin was the multi-row system of long walls, which divided the steppe zone into closed sectors. Nomadic burials were not discovered yet in the large northern sector (“Perepetovo Pole”), it was used as a buffer between nomads and farmers of the Stugna river basin.
The area of burial mounds concentration is characterized by a lower amount of precipitation and a higher winter temperature, which makes it suitable for winter pastures. The more humid northwestern part with single burials was used for seasonal migrations in summer.
There are four main episodes of the nomad influx in the Ros’ river basin detected. The wave of the 11^th century was Torks and Pechenegs, they occupied the space between the Rosava and the Dnieper. Migrants of the 12^th century wave were added to the Rosava basin, but they also left burials near Vyshgorod. The third big wave of the Cuman origin came in 1223—1241. They occupy both the main area of the “Black Hats” and new sectors along with western Ros’.
The Yablunivka burial ground of the 2^nd half of the 13^th—14^th centuries should be withdrawn from the list of the “Our Pagans” sites. It arose after the migration of a group of the North Caucasian population during the Golden Horde stage.