The aim of the article is reconstruction of purpose of ancient settlements construction using a combination of chemical and microbiological indicators. The study object is the Bagai-1 settlement of the Late Bronze Age in the northwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula. The chemical and microbiological properties of the occupation layer within the buildings of various shapes and sizes in different parts of the site have been studied. It was established that the Bagai-1 settlement is a stationary settlement of pastoralists, or was intended for living in the winter. Traces of cattle manure were found everywhere, which is confirmed by the high values of such soil indicators of livestock keeping as urease activity, the number of keratinolytic fungi and thermophilic bacteria in the cultural layer. The results of the research showed that most of the buildings in the settlement were related to livestock keeping. We cannot exclude the joint stay in the premises of both animals and humans, especially in the cold season when livestock was used as a source of heat. However, according to the complex of natural scientific data, no buildings have been identified that could be called exclusively residential, and in all cases the traces oflivestock are much more pronounced than the traces of human habitation. At the same time, vast areas without traces of stone buildings were found at the settlement, but with a high content of mineral forms of phosphates in the cultural layer and high values of magnetic susceptibility, which indicates the entry into the soil of a large amount of ceramics, ash, and pyrogenic residues. The combination of these properties can be considered as an indicator of human habitation.

The Late Bronze Age settlement Bagai 1 is located on the left bank of the Bagai ravine, which flows into one of the largest lakes in the Crimea, Sasyk-Sivash, near the city of Yevpatoria. In the northern part of the settlement, excavations were carried out by the expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in connection with the construction of the Yevpatoria branch of the Tavrida highway. The article examines the results of X-ray fluorescence analysis of the alloy composition of metal finds from the excavations. It turned out that all studied items of the Late Bronze Age were made of tin bronze, in which the corresponding ligature is from 2 to 20 %. The only exception is a miniature chisel, in which there is no tin, and in addition to copper, more than 8 % of iron was found. Other prescription components (arsenic, antimony, lead) are also found in several items, but in very small concentrations (up to 2 %). The use of tin bronze in items of the Late Bronze Age is a distinctive feature of the Central European tradition and allows us to attribute the alloys of the items studied to the Carpatho-Transylvanian metallurgical province.