New Results of Interdisciplinary Study of Bronze Age Settlements in Northwestern Crimea

Abstract

The research into the settlements on the Tarkhankut peninsula is the most relevant issue of the Crimean Bronze Age. More than forty new Bronze Age settlements have been discovered by means of complex interdisciplinary methods (analysis of satellite imagery, GPS routes for land exploration, magnetic and electromagnetic surveys, excavations). Oval structures were found on more than twenty new sites using non-invasive methods. By ethnographic similarities, they were interpreted as “livestock corrals” with stone foundations of walls. To test this hypothesis and to identify the time of existence, four settlements were excavated. It has been found that some settlements were repeatedly populated. Basic archaeological material and radiocarbon dating show that two settlements (Tarkhankut-18 and Tarkhankut-22a) existed in the final period of the Middle Bronze Age. They were left by communities of Babino culture. Based on the data of geochemical analysis of soil samples taken at a test pit 1 at Tarkhankut-18 settlement, the main function of this part can be defined as livestock enclosure-corral. Two other settlements existed in the Late Bronze Age. They were left by communities of Sabatinovka (Tarkhankut-H2) and Belozerka (Tarkhankut-H8) cultures. “Livestock corrals” are very close to structures unearthed on the sites of Hospital II and Gorodishche 11 km, which date to the Middle Bronze Age and are attributed to Kamensk culture of eastern Crimea. The structures of the Middle and Late Bronze Age found in Crimea are similar to synchronous objects from the Circumpontic region. It is indicative of the existence of specific non-burial stone architecture in the world of moving herders.

The First Data of Strontium Isotopic Composition of Osteological Material from Late Bronze to Early Iron Age Settlements in the Crimea Region

“…The fact of using a horse for riding is confirmed here by two cheek bone pieces at the settlement of Bai-Kiyat I, as well as cheek and horn bone pieces at other Late Bronze Age sites in Crimea (Fontany, Chuyuncha, and Druzhnoe 2) [23]. It is worth noting that in Bai-Kiyat I there are no obvious premises for keeping livestock, but on the Tarkhankut Peninsula, more than 50 archaeological sites are already known where the stone walls of cattle pens were recorded [70]. The radiocarbon dates obtained for some of these cattle pens show that they are synchronous with the Bai-Kiyat I site.…”

“…For example, the Tarkhankut-H8 site of the Belozerka culture dated to ca. 1125-941 calBC [70]. It is possible that the cattle pens were used by inhabitants of several settlements in the region.…”

Environmental and Cultural Transformations at the Turn of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in the Steppe Belt of Eurasia

“…На полуострове Тарханкут (северозападный Крым) были проведены исследования загонов для скота (Kashuba et al, 2021). Радиоуглеродный возраст, полученный по костям домашних животных, найденным внутри, подтвердил появление в этой части полуострова сабатиновской (1440-1234 л. до н.…”