Paleosols and climate in the southeast of the Central Russian Upland during the Middle and Late Bronze ages (the 25th–15th Centuries BC)

Abstract

Paleosol studies of kurgans dating back to the Middle and Late Bronze ages (the Catacomb, Pokrovskaya, and Srubnaya cultural epochs; 4500–3500 BP) have been performed within the dry steppe zone in the southeast of the Central Russian Upland. The studied kurgans occupy the upper parts of local interfluves differing in the lithology of their upper horizons. The specificity of the Middle Holocene pedogenesis as related to the local lithologic and geomorphic conditions has been characterized. During the past 4500 years, local soils have been subjected to evolutionary changes related to climatic fluctuations. These changes manifested themselves at the subtype level with substitution of dark chestnut soils for chestnut soils. The climatic conditions during the Catacomb and Pokrovskaya cultural epochs (4.5–3.8 ka BP) were more arid than those at present. The maximum aridization of the climate took place at the end of the third and the first quarter of the second millennia BC. Detailed descriptions of the morphology of kurgan bodies and buried paleosols make it possible to hypothesize about the seasons of the kurgan construction and the technology of this work.