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 has further increased by almost a quarter. The most important changes have affected the chronological frames of Afanasyeva Culture. A vast series of new AMS dates obtained from the Altai Mountains sites showed that a significant number of the earlier age estimates erroneously suggested the sites to be considerably 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 30th–25th c. BC, and the timing of the earliest Okunev Culture burials to the end of the 26th c. BC rather than the beginning of the 25th 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 17th c. BC. The new dates fully confirm the narrow chronology of the Andronovo (Fedorov) Culture on the Middle Yenisei — 17th–15th c. BC. Minor changes are seen at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basins, previously called the Karasuk Culture. The new determinations suggest the end of the 15th 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 9th c. BC.