Problem of chronology and origin of the Alakul culture in light of new excavations in the Southern Urals

Grigoriev S.A. (Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation)

                      page 44–53

The article deals with chronology and origin of the Alakul culture of the Bronze Age in the Trans-Urals and with searching for its early sites. One of the problems of the Bronze Age in the Trans-Urals is that there are no sites of the Sintashta and Petrovka periods in forest-steppe areas. Basing on analysis of stratigraphic situations and typological characteristics, relations of the Alakul culture with other cultural complexes of the region and adjacent territories, such as Petrovka, Tashkovo, Koptyaki, Elunino, Seyma-Turbino, were identified. A conclusion was made about synchronization of the early Alakul sites with the Sintashta culture. The same possibility is testified by Poltavka inclusions in Alakul ceramics. It is also confirmed by the results of radiocarbon dating. And this dating completely corresponds to the early dates obtained from analyses of materials of the Chistolebyazhsky and Hripunovsky cemeteries. Today the number of such early dates increased and is already 43 % of all the Alakul dates, so it can't be considered as an accidental result. Respectively, formation of the Alakul culture began in the forest-steppe soon after the Sintashta people had appeared in the steppe Trans-Urals, due to isolation of populations, bearers of the Sintashta and Poltavka traditions. Similar processes in Kazakhstan led to the origin of the Petrovka culture.

Key words: Alakul culture, Bronze Age, Trans-Urals, dating and origins.