Radiocarbon Chronology of the Bronze Age Fedorovka Culture (New Data Relevant to an Earlier Problem)

Abstract

This article presents the results of excavations and dating of the Fedorovka culture cemetery of Zvyagino-1 in the Southern Trans-Urals. It consists of 12 small kurgans, each of which contains from one to three differently arranged graves with cremations. The funerary items include typical Fedorovka clay vessels. We estimated the age of bones of domestic animals found on the area under the kurgan or in graves. The new dates were compared with those generated previously. Statistical analysis has made it possible to assess the time range as being from the mid-18th to mid-15th centuries cal BC (medians of calibrated intervals). Dates of the Alakul-Fedorovka complexes fall in the same time range, illustrating the process of interaction between these two traditions. The results of modeling were compared with the dates of the Andronovo sites in Kazakhstan, the Baraba forest-steppe, and Southern Siberia. The dates were similar, barring those of the more ancient series from Kazakhstan. Dates for the Alakul sites in the Trans-Urals were earlier (19th to 16th centuries cal BC), documenting the long coexistence of the Alakul and Fedorovka traditions. In the Southern Trans-Urals, the former tradition appears to have declined earlier. The question as to whether the Fedorovka tradition survived until the Cordoned (Valikovaya) Ware cultures remains open due to the lack of dates for the Cherkaskul culture, which resembles Fedorovka, while being stratigraphically earlier than the Cordoned Ware cultures.