A model for pastoral mobility in Iron Age Kazakhstan

Abstract

Recent research in Central Asia has altered our understanding of mobility and local economies during the Bronze and Iron Ages. In this paper, we present new data from Tuzusai, an Iron Age (400calBCE–1calCE) site in southeast Kazakhstan. Multiple lines of evidence have suggested that Tuzusai was part of an agro-pastoral system, and that people may have been present at Tuzusai year-round. We performed an analysis of cementum annulations in caprine (sheep/goat) teeth from Tuzusai, which gives direct evidence for seasonal slaughter patterns. Our results demonstrate that animals were slaughtered at Tuzusai year-round, and that there was a spike in the fall which was likely due to herd management strategies. To date, these results are the strongest line of evidence that people were present at Tuzusai throughout the year. We use ethnographic analogy to discuss the nature of a community in which some people were sedentary and others were mobile. We also argue that our results can be used as a model to help determine mobility at other sites in the region for which there are fewer lines of evidence describing the local economy.