Absolute Chronology of the Rostovka Cemetery

The paper describes the issue of chronology of the Rostovka cemetery, which is one of the key sites of the Seima-Turbino cross-cultural phenomenon. Until now, based on the radiocarbon results, it was assumed that most assemblages of the site date to the 22nd–20th centuries BC while two graves (No. 5 and 24) are dated to the 21st/20th–18th centuries BC. The relevant calibration carried out by the authors and several new dates obtained in the laboratories in the USA and Germany do not confirm the two-stage periodization of the cemetery. Besides, the verification of the Rostovka dates depends on how much the true dates are skewed too old due to a reservoir effect. This conclusion was made when we dated the samples not subject to the reservoir effect which corrupts radiocarbon dating. The expected reservoir offset value for the people who have left Rostovka is not less than 150–200 years. It means that this cemetery functioned from the middle and the second half of the 21st/20th centuries BC till the turn of the 18th century BC – early 18th century BC.