Modern Data on the Bronze Age Radiocarbon Chronology in the Minusinsk Basins

Abstract

In 2009, the first radiocarbon chronology of the Bronze Age and Scythian period of the Minusinsk Basins was published, which laid foundation for a system analysis of further results. Over the past decade, the total number of radiocarbon definitions further increased by almost a quarter. The most important changes have concerned the chronological boundaries of the Afanasyeva Culture – a large series of new AMS dates from the Altai Mountains showed that a significant number of the earlier determinations for the sites were inexplicably significantly older. This phenomenon probably affected the Minusinsk Basins as well. The new dates shifted the boundaries of the Afanasyeva Culture in the Middle Yenisei Region to the 30^th-25^th c. BC, and the timing of the earliest Okunev Culture burials to the end of the 26^th c. BC, rather than the beginning of the 25^th c. BC. This suggests a 100-year period of coexistence of the Afanasyeva and Okunev Cultures. Moreover, the new dates filled the "hiatus" between the end of the Okunev and beginning of the Andronovo Culture, discussed in 2009. The end of the Okunev can now be attributed to the 17^th c. BC. The new dates fully confirm the narrow chronology of the Andronovo (Fedorov) Culture on the Middle Yenisei – 17^th-15^th c. BC. Minor changes are seen in the beginning of the Late Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basins, previously called the Karasuk Culture. The new determinations suggest the end of the 15^th c. BC as the beginning of this period, which is somewhat older than previously thought. The end of the Bronze Age is still dated to the end of the 9^th c. BC.

Keywords:

Minusinsk Basins, Bronze Age, radiocarbon chronology, Afanasyeva Culture, Okunev Culture, Andronovo (Fedorov) Culture, Late Bronze Age