A07_02

Last chance for carbon-14 chronology of Bolshoi Sintashta Kurgan: Mesopotamian ziggurat in the South Urals

Panyushkina I¹,  Milyutina T², Jull A³, Molnar M³, Cherkinsky A⁴, Agafonov L⁵

¹University of Arizona, Tucson, United States, ²Chelyabinsk Pedagogical University, Chelyabinsk, Russia, ³Isotope Climatology and Environmental Research Centre, Debrecen, Hungary, ⁴Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, United States , ⁵Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Research into the sociocultural complexity of the Eurasian steppe in the Bronze Age has been challenged by recent advances in the prehistorical calendar chronology derived from high-precision AMS carbon-14 measurements. The medley of archaeological cultures in the Southern Urals is well distinguished in space with the prominent typology of ancient ceramic traditions. For the past several decades, they have been thought to be disconnected chronologically. The recent chronological framework of the Bronze Age archeology has struggled with bewildering evidence of chronologically-overlapped and contemporaneous cultures that were previously viewed as a sequential series. New ¹⁴C dating results have uncovered a problem with past dating strategies and suggest a resampling of archaeological materials to address controversial interpretations of the Eurasian Steppe history. We resampled the crumbling ruins of Bolshoi Sintashta Kurgan (BSK) at Sintashta (Indo-Aryan outpost of Middle Bronze Age) and developed 18 new AMS dates from wood and slag. Sintashta as a prominent metallurgical, military and early urban center is dated to the interval 2100-1800 BCE.  BSK can be described as is large worship structure built in the shape of terraced compound resemble a Mesopotamian ziggurat. A Bayesian approach to calibration and re-analysis of the new and historical ¹⁴C BSK datasets showed that the worship structure was built between 1500 and 1300 BCE above the deteriorated tholos covering the chamber burial. The tholos chamber is possibly 300-500 years older than the worship structure above. The revised chronology indicates the continuity of the Sintashta, Fedorovo and Alakul cultures on the site.