Abstract

The Seima-Turbino (ST) transcultural phenomenon was unique for the Eurasian Bronze Age. Its very rare but highly specific memorial sanctuaries and randomly found bronze artifacts are scattered across a 7000-km-long, gently sloping arс spanning territories from northern China to the Baltic and the Lower Dniester––nearly 4 mln km 2 . However, until recently, no reliable radiocarbon database relating to ST was available. The situation changed after the discovery of the Shaytanka memorial sanctuary in the Middle Ural and its detailed excavation. As a result, a considerable series of radiocarbon dates appeared, enabling us to arrive at a more reliable pattern of absolute chronology of ST on a vast territory from western Siberia (Sopka, Tartas) to the Upper Volga drainage (Yurino). The earlier dates in the eastern part of the ST distribution area uphold the theory concerning the ultimate source of a long-range east-to-west migration. New important features in the overall pattern of dates on the vast territories of the Eurasian forest and forest-steppe zones make it possible to reconstruct the nature of contacts between the ST people and representatives of other cultures, especially those of the Abashevo-Sintashta-Petrovka community advancing in the west-to-east direction.

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