Archaeologically, the Alan population is represented - as far as can be judged at present - by a mass of plain-foothill settlements and settlements, fortified with mighty ditches, adobe walls (for example, the settlements of Zilginskoye, Oktyabrskoye, Terskoye, Kievskoye, Zamankulskoye, "Kauuat", Verkhniy Dzhulat, Zmeyskoye, Dur-Durskaya system of settlements in the SO SSR, Terskoye, Khamidiye, Nizhniy Dzhulat, Argudan, Stary Lesken, Baksan group in the KB SSR, Gvardeyskoye, Surkhokhi and Alkhan-Kala in the Chechen-Ingush SSR), which have powerful cultural strata from the first centuries A.D. and the catacomb burial grounds associated with these settlements and hillforts (for example, Baital-Chapkan, Rim-gora, Khasaut, Peschanka, Nizhniy Dzhulat, Zmeyskaya, Zilgi, Brut, Beslan. Ordzhonikidze. Chmi, Balta, Koban, Arkhon, Verkhniy Alkun, Surkhokhi, Alkhan-Kala, Martanchu), which also had a long-term existence (16, pp. 123-131; 31, pp. 60-73). Despite the objections of M.P. Abramova (32, pp. 81-82), we consider these monuments to be Alanian. In addition to other arguments in favor of such an ethnic attribution, it should be pointed out here that all known early medieval catacomb burial grounds of the North Caucasus fit into the geographical boundaries of Alania, outlined above from written sources.
Judging by the mass of such large and long-functioning archaeological monuments, the Alan population of the Central Caucasus of the 1st - early 2nd millennia was settled agricultural and dense. At present, as a result of excavations of the Zilgin settlement by I. A. Arzhantseva, the impression is created that the mass development of the plain-foothill strip of the Central Caucasus by the Alans began and actively proceeded from the 2nd - 3rd centuries AD, when these settlements with ditches up to 40 m wide and up to 10 m deep were built. Such earthworks required a lot of labor, and they were found.
Considering the simultaneous and related to the Alan Saltovo-Mayaki culture of the Don and Donets, S. A. Pletneva outlined the most important process of the gradual settling of nomads on the land, their transition to agricultural and cattle-breeding economy and the development of feudal relations on this basis (33). From nomad camps to cities - this is the core of the socio-economic development of the "Saltovtsy". It seems that it is largely applicable to the Alan society of the North Caucasus, although in detail here not everything is clear. The emergence of a network of large Alan settlements with powerful cultural layers is the result of both local immanent development and an active influx of nomadic or semi-nomadic population from outside, its settling and mixing with the local aborigines. The influx of nomadic population could come from the region between the Volga and the Don (the Alans-Tanaites of Ammianus Marcellinus) and from the steppe Ciscaucasia, where the ancient Sarmatian lands were located, subject to constant danger. The fertile North Caucasian plain was much safer.
The transition to an agricultural economy was presumably accelerated by the impact on the Alans of the local population, which had long been a settled agricultural one (34, p. 316; 21, pp. 49-50). Economic adaptation to new natural-geographical and socio-economic conditions took place; rapid population growth, in turn, accelerated the development of productive forces and made it possible to develop new territories, involving them in economic turnover. Alan settlements and catacomb burial grounds appeared where they had not been before - in mountain gorges, sometimes near the Main Caucasian Range (for example, in Kobani, Arkhon, Latsa, Kamunt). This is how the real system of Alan settlements was formed, which Masudi so figuratively described: “When the roosters crow (somewhere) in the morning, the answer comes from other parts of the kingdom due to the interspersed and adjacent settlements” (24, p. 205).
The above picture of the demographic state of Alania in the 1st to early 2nd millennia diverges from the report of Makdisi (10th century) that the mysterious tribe of Walaj and the Alans were few in number (35, p. 309). Makdisi is a compiler, relying on the work of Jayhani that has not reached us; but regardless of the original source, this information should be considered inaccurate. There is no doubt that the Iranian-speaking population of Alania was very significant, fully capable of fielding the thirty-thousand-strong army that Masudi testifies to.
