SOIL EVOLUTION AND CLIMATE-CHANGE IN THE SEMIDESERT ZONE OF EASTERN-EUROPE DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE

The paleopedological study of archaeological monuments (burial mounds) of the Early Iron Age (from the first to the fourth century AD, the S armat culture) and Medieval epoch (the 13th and 14th centuries AD, the Golden Horde period) in the southeast of the Russian Plain was perfor med. The study area belongs to the semidesert zone with light chestnut soils. Morphogenetic analysis of soil profiles of different ages was supplemented by the determination of the composition of humic substanc es and the isotopic composition of carbon and oxygen in pedogenic carb onates and organic matter. Such a multiple approach enabled us to reve al the regularities of soil formation in the region during the Late Ho locene and to establish the main trends in the dynamics of zonal bound aries during the last 2500 years. Paleopedological data served as the basis for the reconstruction of paleoclimatic conditions in the region during the Early Iron and Middle ages.