A Multidisciplinary Study of Burial Mounds and a Reconstruction of the Climate of the Turan-Uyuk Depression, Tuva, During the Scythian Period

A Multidisciplinary Study of Burial Mounds
and a Reconstruction of the Climate of the Turan-Uyuk Depression,
Tuva, During the Scythian Period

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.4.082-092

M.E. Kilunovskaya¹, V.E. Prikhodko², T.A. Blyakharchuk^{3, 4}, V.A. Semenov¹, and V.O. Glukhov^1
1Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia
²Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskaya 2, Pushchino, 142290, Russia
³Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademichesky 10/3, Tomsk, 634055, Russia
⁴National Research Tomsk State University, Pr. Lenina 36, Tomsk, 634050, Russia

This article presents the results of a multidisciplinary study of Beloye Ozero-3—an early nomadic cemetery in the Turan-Uyuk intermountain trough in Tuva, southern Siberia. The radiocarbon analysis of wood from four of its mounds suggests that they were constructed 2565–2390 (calibrated, 1?), or 2465–2380 (uncalibrated) years ago. In four complex mounds with burials in cribworks, spoil-heaps and peripheral rings were overlaid by stones. In the mound No. 3, there were stone slabs, and the mound No. 4 was encircled by a ditch. The construction of the fourth mound proceeded in two stages. A total of 12,744 m2 of space between the mounds was excavated, and 38 pavements for funerary repasts were found. Fragments of gold figurines of various animals, ceramics, and arrowheads can be attributed to the Uyuk culture. The results of the palynological analysis suggest that during the construction of the first two mounds, the climate was more humid than at present. By the time the third mound was constructed, 95 years later, the climate had become slightly drier. But before the final stage in the construction of the necropolis, the new humidization of climate began. Environmental changes are evidenced by fl uctuations in the amount and composition of pollen of plants adapted to various ecological conditions: xerophytes, mesophytes, hydrophytes, and ruderals. In general, dry-steppe communities prevailed over mesophytic ones. Hydrophytic vegetation and larch grew near the water-bodies. The anthropogenic pressure on landscape increased during the early and final stages of the necropolis, corresponding to the Uyuk culture. Background and ancient soils are largely similar, indicating relative stability of the climate during the construction of mounds, and its proximity to modern environmental conditions.

Keywords: Paleosols, palynological analysis, radiocarbon dating, Early Iron Age, burial mounds