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A Tree-Ring and 14C Chronology of the Key Sayan-Altai Monuments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

G. I. Zaitseva
Affiliation:
The Institute of the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St. Petersburg 191186, Russia
S. S. Vasiliev
Affiliation:
A. F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. Politechnicheskaya ul. 26, St. Petersburg 194021, Russia
L. S. Marsadolov
Affiliation:
The State Hermitage Museum, Dvortsovaya nab. 34, St. Petersburg 191186 Russia
J. Van Der Plicht
Affiliation:
Centre for Isotope Research, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
A. A. Sementsov
Affiliation:
The Institute of the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St. Petersburg 191186, Russia
V. A. Dergachev
Affiliation:
A. F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. Politechnicheskaya ul. 26, St. Petersburg 194021, Russia
L. M. Lebedeva
Affiliation:
The Institute of the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St. Petersburg 191186, Russia
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Abstract

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We present a radiocarbon chronology of key Sayan-Altai monuments from the Scythian period, based on a statistical analysis of dates produced in the 1980s and now supplemented with new dates. These new 14C dates were produced for samples from the Tuekta-1 barrows (burial mounds) and were measured both in St. Petersburg and Groningen. These tree-ring samples were fitted to the calibration curve. Chronologies were established for the Arzhan, Tuekta-1 and Pazyryk-5 barrows. The time of the construction of the Arzhan and Pazyryk-5 barrows is the 9th and late 5th–4th centuries bc, respectively, and agrees with archaeology. According to new data obtained, the time of the Tuekta-1 barrow construction is some years older than has been accepted thus far by archaeologists.

Type
Part 1: Methods
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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