Radiocarbon Chronology of Complexes With Seima-Turbino Type Objects (Bronze Age) in Southwestern Siberia

Abstract

This paper discusses the chronology of burial grounds containing specific Seima-Turbino type bronze weaponry (spears, knives, and celts). The “transcultural” Seima-Turbino phenomenon relates to a wide distribution of specific objects found within the sites of different Bronze Age cultures in Eurasia, not immediately related to each other. The majority of the Seima-Turbino objects represent occasional findings, and they are rarely recovered from burial grounds. Here, we present a new set of14C dates from cemeteries in western Siberia, including the key Asian site Rostovka, with the largest number of graves containing Seima-Turbino objects. Currently, the presented database is the most extensive for the Seima-Turbino complexes. The resulting radiocarbon (14C) chronology for the western Siberian sites (22nd–20th centuries cal BC) is older than the existing chronology based on typological analysis (16th–15th centuries BC) and some earlier14C dates for the Seima-Turbino sites in eastern Europe. Another important aspect of this work is14C dating of complexes within specific bronze objects—daggers with figured handles—which some researchers have related to the Seima-Turbino type objects. These items are mostly represented by occasional finds in Central Asia, however, in western Siberia these have been recovered from burials, too. The14C dating attributes these daggers to the end of the 3rd millennium cal BC, suggesting their similar timing to the Seima-Turbino objects. Further research into freshwater reservoir offsets in the region is essential for a more reliable reconstruction of the chronology of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon and the daggers with figured handles.

Chariots in the Eurasian Steppe: a Bayesian approach to the emergence of horse-drawn transport in the early second millennium BC

“…These include, for example, the Abashevo Culture located to the west of the Urals, and sites in western Siberia attributed to the Eurasian Seima-Turbino phenomenon (Marchenko et al . 2017: 1393).

Figure 4.Eastern European chronological scheme of archaeological cultures of the Bronze Age east and west of the Ural Mountains and western Siberia (after Koryakova & Epimakhov 2007: 42, tab.

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“…Overall, the absolute chronology and stratigraphy of the enclosed settlement of Kamennyj Ambar and its associated cemetery situate the entire Sintashta-Petrovka cultural complex (twenty-first to eighteenth centuries BC) in a sequence together with other Eastern European Middle Bronze Age communities (Molodin et al 2014;Krause et al 2019;Figure 4). These include, for example, the Abashevo Culture located to the west of the Urals, and sites in western Siberia attributed to the Eurasian Seima-Turbino phenomenon (Marchenko et al 2017(Marchenko et al : 1393.…”

Finnish vatsa ~ Sanskrit vatsá and the formation of Indo-Iranian and Uralic languages

“…With 19 radiocarbon dates, the duration of the Sejma-Turbino network was fi xed to 2150-1600 BCE (with sigma 1 calibration) (Chernykh & al. 2017), but now, with 38 dates, to c. 2200-1900 BCE (Marchenko & al. 2017).…”

Metalworking Techniques on the Eurasian Steppes in the Late Bronze Age: Technical Analyses of the Borodino Treasure Spearheads

“…; Marchenko et al . ) and the chariot cultures of North Eurasia (Trifonov ) clarifies the chronology of the ‘treasure’ and places it within 2000–1700 BC (Shishlina ).…”