Radiocarbon Chronology of Complexes with Seima-Turbino Type Objects (Bronze Age) in Southwestern Siberia

This paper discusses the chronology of burial grounds containing specific Seima-Turbino type bronze weaponry (spears, knives, and celts). The transcultural Seima-Turbino phenomenon relates to a wide distribution of specific objects found within the sites of different Bronze Age cultures in Eurasia, not immediately related to each other. The majority of the Seima-Turbino objects represent occasional findings, and they are rarely recovered from burial grounds. Here, we present a new set of ¹⁴C dates from cemeteries in western Siberia, including the key Asian site Rostovka, with the largest number of graves containing Seima-Turbino objects. Currently, the presented database is the most extensive for the Seima-Turbino complexes. The resulting radiocarbon (¹⁴C) chronology for the western Siberian sites (22nd-20th centuries cal BC) is older than the existing chronology based on typological analysis (16th-15th centuries BC) and some earlier ¹⁴C dates for the Seima-Turbino sites in eastern Europe. Another important aspect of this work is ¹⁴C dating of complexes within specific bronze objects - daggers with figured handles - which some researchers have related to the Seima-Turbino type objects. These items are mostly represented by occasional finds in Central Asia, however, in western Siberia these have been recovered from burials, too. The ¹⁴C dating attributes these daggers to the end of the 3rd millennium cal BC, suggesting their similar timing to the Seima-Turbino objects. Further research into freshwater reservoir offsets in the region is essential for a more reliable reconstruction of the chronology of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon and the daggers with figured handles.