German Version

Preliminary title: “Life and economy in the Transural steppe. Archaeobotanical investigations in a Bronze Age settlement area at the Karagaily-Ayat River“

Advisors: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Krause, Dr. Astrid Stobbe

Funding: since June 2015, German Research Foundation (DFG) “The function and importance of wells in the fortified settlement of Kamennyi Ambar, Bronze Age Sintashta culture in the Trans-Urals, Russia“

2013-2014, German Research Foundation (DFG) “Environment, Culture and Society of the Southern Urals in the Bronze Age: A Multi-disciplinary Investigation in the Karagaily-Ayat Microregion, Russia”

The dissertation proposal is part of the archaeobotanical (http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/47389293/10_Ural and http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/65651772/36_Ural-Brunnenprojekt-engl-Version) and archaeological studies (http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/47231428/30_Ural) within the scope of the DFG funded project “Environment, Culture and Society of the Southern Urals in the Bronze Age: A Multi-disciplinary Investigation in the Karagaily-Ayat Microregion, Russia” (principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Krause).

The dissertation focuses in particular on the exploration of the subsistence strategy of the Bronze Age Sintashta culture using the example of several fortified settlements in the southern Transural steppe region. Besides own plant macro-remains analyses and the archaeological examination of well features, the results and datasets of other disciplines like palynology, sedimentology, geography and pedology will also be included.

Often, a combined subsistence of livestock herding (Fig. 1) and agriculture (agro-pastoralism) was assumed for the Sintashta culture, based on the settled lifestyle implicated through the construction of fortified settlements, but systematic studies within settlements were lacking. Archaeobotanical analyses in the Kamennyi Ambar settlement did not provide any evidence for crop plants or agricultural practices (L. Rühl, unpublished Magister thesis). These results shall now be consolidated by a wider data basis.

Fig. 1 Calv in the steppe

Since 2008, archaeobotanical sediment samples are taken from features and cultural layers during the excavations and processed in the field (Fig. 2). The dry sediment samples comprise charred (rarely also mineralized) remains of wild plants. The spectrum of plants is characteristic for an herb rich feather grass-steppe (Stipa-Festuca steppe) and represents the surrounding vegetation in much detail.

Fig. 2 Processing of archaeobotanical soil samples (semi-flotation/wet-sieving)

Being typical Sintashta settlement features, the wells within the building structures offer the unique opportunity to study charred and subfossil plant material from the same site together (Fig. 3). With the help of drilling cores the stratigraphy of the fillings can be documented and the history of use of these constructions can be reconstructed.

Fig. 3 Kamennyi Ambar. Excavation of Well 5.3

The aim of the multidisciplinary analyses is to gain a better understanding of the life and economy of the Bronze Age settlers in the steppe. How did people interact with their surrounding? How did they use the resources of the landscape? Which role plants played in day-to-day life? Die they use the settlement year round or seasonal? Were the animals kept in the settlement in winter and fed additionally?

Publications

J. Fornasier – R. Krause – L. N. Korjakova – A. Stobbe – L. Rühl – H. Schneider – H. Thiemeyer – S. Peters – A. V. Epimachov – S. V. Šarapova – S. E. Panteleeva – I. V. Molčanov – N. A. Berseneva – A. Patzelt – V. V. Noskevič, Architektur, Wirtschaft und Landschaft der bronzezeitlichen Siedlungen am Nordrand der Eurasischen Steppe im Trans-Ural (Russische Föderation), EurAnt 20, 2014 (print 2017).

A. Stobbe – M. Gumnior – L. Rühl – L. N. Koryakova – R. Krause, Climate, Vegetation and Sintashta Economy in the Karagaily-Ayat Microregion of the Trans-Ural Steppe, in: V. N. Adaev – N. P. Matveeva – N. E. Ryabogina – S. M. Slepčenko (Hrsg.), Ecology of ancient and traditional societies. Proceedings of the 5th international conference: Ecology of ancient and traditional societies (EATS), 7.-11.11.2016, Tyumen Vol 1 [А. Штоббе – М. Гумниор – Л. Рюль – Л. Корякова – Р. Краузе, Климат, растительность и хозяйство синташтинской культуры в карагаилй-аятском микрорегионе степи зауралья, in: В. Н. Адаев – Н. П. Матвеева – Н. Е. Рябогина – С. М. Слепченко, Экология древних и традиционных обществ : материалы V Международной научной конференции, г. Тюмень, 7–11 ноября 2016 г. ч. 1 (Тюмень 2016).] (Tyumen 2016) 184–188. http://ipdn.ru/nauchnye-meropriyatiya/yekologiya-drevnikh-i-tradicionnykh-soob/

L. Rühl – L. N. Koryakova – R. Krause – A. Stobbe, Wells of the fortified Bronze Age settlement Kamennyi Ambar (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia), in: V. N. Adaev – N. P. Matveeva – N. E. Ryabogina – S. M. Slepčenko (Hrsg.), Ecology of ancient and traditional societies. Proceedings of the 5th international conference. 5th international conference: Ecology of ancient and traditional societies (EATS), 7.-11.11.2016, Tyumen Vol 2 [Л. Рюль – Л.Н. Корякова – Р. Краузе – А. Штоббе «Колодцы укрепленного поселения эпохи бронзы Каменный Амбар (Челябинская Область)» In: В. Н. Адаев – Н. П. Матвеева – Н. Е. Рябогина – С. М. Слепченко, Экология древних и традиционных обществ : материалы V Международной научной конференции, г. Тюмень, 7–11 ноября 2016 г. ч. 2 (Тюмень 2016).] (Tyumen 2016) 187–192. http://ipdn.ru/nauchnye-meropriyatiya/yekologiya-drevnikh-i-tradicionnykh-soob/

A. Stobbe – M. Gumnior – L. Rühl – H. Schneider, Bronze Age human-landscape interactions in the southern Transural steppe, Russia – Evidence from high-resolution palaeobotanical studies, The Holocene 26 (10) 2016, 1692-1710. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683616641740 

L. Rühl – Ch. Herbig – A. Stobbe, Archaeobotanical analysis of plant use at Kamennyi Ambar, a Bronze Age fortified settlement of the Sintashta culture in the southern Trans-Urals steppe, Russia, Veg Hist Archaeobot. 24 (3) 2015, 413-426. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-014-0506-7

A. Stobbe – L. Rühl – A. E. Nekrasov – P. A. Kosincev, Fish – an Important Dietary Component in the Sintashta Settlement of Kamennyi Ambar (Siberia), in: R. Krause – L. N. Koryakova (Hrsg.), Multidisciplinary Investigations of the Bronze Age Settlements in the Southern Trans-Urals, FArS 23 (Bonn 2013) 233-237.

L. Rühl, Archäobotanische Untersuchungen pflanzlicher Großreste in der bronzezeitlichen Siedlung Kamennyj Ambar (Russ. Föd.) (unpubl. Magisterthesis Goethe University Frankfurt am Main 2012).

Conference presentations

2016

5^th International Conference “Ecology of Ancient and Traditional Societies (EATS) (November 7-11 2016, Tyumen, Russia) (V Международная научная конференция «Экология древних и традиционных обществ» 7-11 ноября 2016 г., Тюмень)

Paper: “Wells of the fortified Bronze Age settlement Kamennyi Ambar (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia)”/«Колодцы укрепленного поселения эпохи бронзы Каменный Амбар (Челябинская Область)»

17th Conference of the International Workgroup for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP), July 4-9 2016, Paris

Poster: “Wet preservation in a semi-arid environment – well features from the Bronze Age Sintashta settlement Kamennyi Ambar (Russia) as multidisciplinary archives”

2015

Workshop: “The Introduction and Intensification of Agriculture in Central Eurasia: The Exception to the Rule or the Exception That Proves the Rule?” March 19th-22nd, 2015, Berlin (funded by the Volkswagen and Wenner Gren Foundations)

Paper: „No Evidence for Agriculture in the Sintashta Settlements at the Karagaily-Ayat River in the Southern Trans-Urals steppe, Russia”

2014

24. Jahrestreffen des Arbeitskreises Vegetationsgeschichte der Reinhold-Tüxen-Gesellschaft, 26.-28.09.2014 Frankfurt am Main

Paper: „News from the Trans-Urals. Archaeobotanical investigations of Bronze Age wells from the fortified settlement Kamennyi Ambar (Russia)”/(„Neues aus dem Trans-Ural. Archäobotanische Untersuchungen bronzezeitlicher Brunnen aus der befestigten Siedlung Kamennyj Ambar (Russische Föderation)“)

2013

“The Environmental and Cultural Development during the Bronze Age in the Southern Urals” International Conference, Frankfurt 7-9 March 2013

Paper (with A. Stobbe): “Reflections on Landscape, Climate and Diet in the Trans-Urals during the Bronze Age”

16th CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKGROUP FOR PALAEOETHNOBOTANY, 17- 22 June 2013, Thessaloniki

Poster: L. Rühl – C. Herbig – A. Stobbe, FOOD, FODDER, AND TIMBER — Plant use in the fortified Bronze Age settlement Kamennyj Ambar in the Transurals-Steppe (Russia) Plant macro-remains and charcoal analyses

2012

2nd International Landscape Archaeology Conference (LAC) 2012, 6th - 9th June 2012, Berlin

Poster: L. Rühl – A. Stobbe – A. J. Kalis – R. Krause, Plant macro-remains from the Bronze Age settlement Kamennyj A