New Radiocarbon Dates of the North Asian Steppe Zone and its Consequences for the Chronology

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The chronological problems of the Steppe zone have been under intensive investigation during the last years but no generally accepted chronological system existed up to now. We present new radiocarbon dates of samples from several excavation sites. The dates allow a comparison of the Bronze Age development in the Siberian Steppe Zone with other neighboring regions.

New Radiocarbon Dates and a Review of the Chronology of Prehistoric Populations from the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia, Russia

“…Overall, the new dates support the trend for the older dating of the South Siberian cultures, observed previously (e.g. Görsdorf et al 2001Görsdorf et al :1117Alekseev et al 2005:223). However, the discrepancy between the traditional concept and modern 14 C chronology appears to diminish from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age cultures.…”

“…The results have tended to suggest that the cultures are older, and in some cases considerably older, than traditional archaeological dates, based on cross-correlation of material culture (e.g. Görsdorf et al 2001Görsdorf et al :1117Alekseev et al 2005:223; Table 1). The discussion over the discrepancy between the archaeological and 14 C dating of the populations is still ongoing.…”

“…Some of the first 14 C dates obtained for the prehistoric complexes of Southern Siberia (Scythian monuments of the Altai Mountain region) were published in Radiocarbon in 1965 (Butomo 1965), and since then the various aspects of the area's 14 C chronology have been presented and discussed in its pages (e.g. Sementsov et al 1969Sementsov et al , 1998Semyontsov et al 1972;Görsdorf et al 1998bGörsdorf et al , 2001Alekseev et al 2001;). The following paper focuses on the chronology of the prehistoric populations of the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia, and presents new 14 C dates and a review of the previous understanding of the region's chronology.…”

The Impact of Holocene Climate on the Development of Prehistoric Societies in Southern Siberia

“…For comparison, the data on climatic changes in the southern area of western Siberia were used (Orlova and Zykina 2002;Orlova et al 2007;Bezrukova et al 2008). The periodization and chronology of ancient cultures of that territory have been studied thoroughly (Vadetskaya 1986;Bokovenko 1997;Krasnienko and Subbotin 1997;Erlich 1999;Gryaznov 1999;Alekseev et al 2001Alekseev et al , 2005Chugunov et al 2001Chugunov et al , 2006Chugunov et al , 2007Görsdorf et al 2001Görsdorf et al , 2004Vasiliev 2001;Krasnienko 2002Krasnienko , 2003Vdovina 2004;Zaitseva et al 2004Zaitseva et al , 2005. Table 1 presents the chronological boundaries of archaeological cultures from different parts of southern Siberia based on archaeological and 14 C data.…”

Landscapes of Inequality?: A Critique of Monumental Hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age

“…Studies of graves demonstrate that Bronze Age nomadic pastoralists first appeared in the Western Altai at the extreme edge of the Central Asian Steppe around 4800 b.p. (Görsdorf et al 2001;Jia et al 2009;Kovalev and Erdenebaatar 2009), in the Lake Baikal Region (Nomokonova et al 2010;Weber 1995) and Northern Mongolia (Turbat et al 2003;Wright et al forthcoming) by 3400 b.p., and the eastern edges of the Inner Asian Steppe and the Amur drainage by 3000 b.p. (Shelach 2009).…”