| Summary: | Despite the planned study of the early Middle Ages Vitebsk settlement structures in the surrounding area are not sufficiently studied.Twelve cities and fifteen villages, which contain the 1st millennium A.D. materials, have been localized within 20-25 km radius from thehistorical nucleus of the would-be administrative center. The available source base makes it possible to trace processes of inhabitingthe micro-region by tribal groups of the 1st millennium A.D. as well as the evolution of their settlement structures.The purpose of the study is to trace the genesis of settlement structures in the micro-region of Vitebsk within the 1st millenniumA.D. from their emergence to shaping the administrative area center on the example of the studied archeological complexes.Material and methods. Materials of the author’s archeological excavations in Vitebsk Dvina River basin became the base for thearticle. Methods of historical and archeological research were used.Findings and their discussion. The article presents a characteristic of archeological complexes of Vitebsk micro-region fromits emergence to the 10th century. The main settlement type since the mid-millennium was found out to be villages while cities weremeant to perform the function of refuge. The new settlement type spread alongside with the infiltration into the region of earlySlav population from the South. Most settlement structures did not last long and disappeared in the last quarter of the millennium. Only some of them, those located on transport routes, functioned up to the end of the millennium and later transformed into the ruralarea with the administrative center of Vitebsk.Conclusion. In the early 1st millennium on the outskirts of Vitebsk a group of strengthened settlements emerged which,according to the topographic location, controlled transport centers along the Western Dvina River and its tributaries. It facilitatedthe existence of cities and the emergence of new settlement structures of the population which moved into the region from the ...
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