The interdisciplinary approach to dating Late Bronze Age archaeological assemblage in the Southern Urals region (data on the Kazburun micro-district)

The paper describes the results of the interdisciplinary approach applied to dating of the Late Bronze Age sites of the Srubnaya and Srubnaya-Alakul type in the Southern Urals region (Kazburun archaeological micro-district, Republic of Bashkortostan). A total of 21 samples were selected from closed contexts at the Kazburun I kurgan cemetery and the sites at the Usmanovo-3 and Muradym-4 settlements for radiocarbon dating. The burial assemblages were dated based on the collagen of a dental root and the collagen of fragments of a thighbone substantia compacta, whereas the assemblages from the settlements were dated using ceramic fragments and humus from the dwelling infill and from dwelling floors. The compared results of the radiocarbon dating of the funerary (bone) and settlement materials (ceramics, humus) were found to be weakly correlated. The study also focused on paleoanthropological determinations, including DNA analysis of bone remains of the buried individuals, making it possible to determine the degree of relationship between some of them, identify the sequence of the burials made and clarify their relative chronology.