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Fifty-eight Stone Age buildings discovered at 31 settlement sites are currently known in Belarus. Our attention is focused on 21 pit-houses, which are presumably dated to the 4th millennium BC and were found at 13 sites in southern Belarus. They are mainly related to the Eastern Polessye and Upper-Dnieper cultures of the Dnieper-Donets cultural complex, as well as to the Neman culture. Analysis of the shapes, sizes and constructive features of these pit-houses revealed both similarities (size up to 11 m2, depth ca. 0.3–0.5 m and the presence of rounded fireplaces without stones) and differences (rectangular or oval shapes for the Eastern Polessye culture and rounded for the Upper-Dnieper culture). Analogues of the Belarusian building remains exist on the territories of Ukraine and Lithuania. The distribution of these pit-houses indicates an architectural tradition that differs significantly from the second geographically well-defined pit-house area from the 4th millennium BC, which is located in Finland, north-western Russia and the northern coast of Estonia.

Asaviec 2 in the Kryvina wetland is one of the best known and the most thoroughly investigated Stone and Bronze Age lake settlement sites in Northern Belarus.Previously, research on the site used excavations and coring, typological analysis and radiocarbon dating of the find material, as well as stratigraphic, lithological and palynological analyses. However, geophysical methods were not used. This study was carried out to test the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) both at this particular site and in peaty sediments generally. The main goal was to determine the lateral spread of the occupation layer and traces of ancient habitation activity.The GPR reflection profiles have been correlated with coring data and previously excavated archaeological profiles. The chaotic pattern in the GPR reflection profiles has been interpreted as disturbed peat, thereby indicating human activity. The areas of disturbed peat and the lower boundary of the peat body were traced and mapped.The occupation layer and signs of human activity are irregularly distributed and largely coincide with the high and intermediate forms of the subsoil relief, but not with the low forms. As a result, we have concluded that GPR is a valuable tool for determining occupational layers in wetlands when verified by excavations and coring. K E Y W O R D S ground-penetrating radar, Kryvina wetland, Northern Belarus, Stone and Bronze Age archaeology, wetland settlement site 1 | INTRODUCTION Asaviec 2 is 1 of 10 Stone and Bronze Age settlement sites, situated in the Kryvina wetland in the Viciebsk (Vitebsk) region of Northern Belarus, that are currently known to exist (Figure 1a,b). The Kryvina wetland is a part of the Vialiki Moch swamp located in the Belarusian Paazierje (Lakeland). The present-day topography of the territory was formed by the deglaciation processes that followed the Last Glacial