Yamnaya Culture Burials of the Peschany IV Burial Ground from the Rostov Region:Funerary Rite and Chronology

The paper analyzes Yamnaya graves from the Peschany IV burial ground located in the Remontnoye district,Rostov Region. These graves are characterized by the use of wooden structures as roofing of burial pits. According toradiocarbon dates, a small Yamnaya population group lived in the Dzhurak-Sal basin roughly in 2,900–2,700 BC. A lackof variations and the similar isotopic composition of an elderly male, an elderly female and children aged 6–7 yearssuggest that this local Yamnaya group exploited an area with rather limited resources

nnovative Seasonal Migrations and Subsistence System of the Mobile Pastoralists of the Desert-Steppe Zone of Eurasia:role of social groups

The study of the economic system of the earliest nomads which inhabited the Eurasian desert-steppe belt in 5000-2000 is a relevant task of contemporary studies. The data on the organization of living space and the role of social groups of early prehistoric pastoralists in the exploitation of open steppe resources are scarce. The paper presents a new methodological approach to searching camps of the earliest pastoralists. The application of this approach enabled the archaeologists to discover numerous seasonal camps in the Sal-Manych Ridge located in the western part of the Eurasian steppes, including Eneolithic camps dated to 4200-3600 BC. The study of the occupation layers at the sites, evaluation of the productivity of pasture systems made it possible to categorize such sites as short-term seasonal camps occupied by pastoralists, evaluate the role of social groups in the organization of innovative seasonal migrations and reconstruct their subsistence system. The camps emerged as a result of developing pastoral economic strategy in the Lower Don region and the abutting areas reflecting the role of special social groups of pastoralists who managed to organize seasonal moves and address the issue of exploiting pastures located beyond the permanently occupied area

THE LEBYAZHINKA BURIAL GROUND (MIDDLE VOLGA REGION, RUSSIA):NEW C-14 DATES AND THE RESERVOIR EFFECT

We report new accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS C-14) dates of bones from humans, animals, and fish from grave 12 of the Lebyazhinka V Eneolithic burial ground in the middle Volga River region, Russia. Earlier conventional dates established a chronology. This has to be adjusted by new insights: the date has to be corrected for reservoir effects. For this purpose we redated bone from a human, and for herbivore and freshwater fauna from the same context, and included measurements of the stable isotopes delta C-13 and delta N-15. The reservoir offset for the human appears to be about 700 C-14 yr

Directly dated broomcorn millet from the northwestern Caucasus:Tracing the Late Bronze Age route into the Russian steppe

This paper provides new radiocarbon dates for preserved remains of broomcorn millet discovered in Bronze Age occupation layers at the Guamsky Grot rock shelter in the northwestern Caucasus. The millet grains directly date between the 12th-10th centuries BC, which complements dates obtained on wood and bone samples from the same layer. The pottery assemblage retrieved from layer 4/5 in Guamsky Grot where the millet was found has stylistic similarities with the Kobyakovo and proto-Maeotian cultures. Concentration of carbonized unhusked millet seeds in a fireplace together with fragments of flat calcined stones implies the seeds drying in the course of which the grains accidentally burned down. All Late Bronze Age sites in the West Caucasus where millet has been discovered represent kindred cultural traditions originating from the proto-Colchis, the Ochamchiri and the Dolmen cultures. Taking into account the finds of broomcorn millet in the Kobyakovo layer at the Safyanovo site (the Lower Don area), it may be suggested that the millet growing tradition north of the West Caucasus, probably, spread together with the West-Caucasian 'Kobyakovo' population, which were sedentary and established settlements in the Steppe: first in the Kuban River Region and then further northward - in the Lower Don River Region. It is precisely the region where the harvesting bronze sickles of the Kuban group came in to use in the second half of the second mill. BC. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved