New data on radiocarbon chronology of the final part of the Late Bronze age (Southern Trans-Urals)

Chronology of the Final Bronze Age in the Southern Trans-Urals has been established using radiocarbon dating. This article presents new results of dating two burial complexes from the steppe zone - single burial mound of Sokolok and secondary burial in burial mound 4 at the Solntse II burial ground. These complexes are similar in many features of funeral rite (inhumation in the crouched position on the right side, southern orientation of the deceased) as well as small size of burial structure and scarce inventory. The AMS dates turned out to be very close despite some difference in details (lack of pottery in the secondary burial). The calibrated dates show late 15th-13th century cal BC (95.4% of probability). The isotope values did not indicate the reservoir effect. New results match exactly the earlier AMS dates. The summation of the probabilities of twenty AMS-dates illustrates the presence of two peaks. One of them refers to the period of transition to the Early Iron Age (10th-8th centuries BC). The question on cultural attribution of these complexes remains open, since that area was a zone of interaction between the steppe Sargary-Alekseevka and forest-steppe Mezhovka groups of population. New evidence does not confirm the previous assumption about the evolution of pottery tradition towards reduced ornamentation and disappearance of bands on dishware. The evidence from the Sokolok burial mound was dated to the beginning of the Final Bronze Age but contained undecorated pottery. Burial pottery might have significantly differed from pottery of the settlements for which the assumption on pottery evolution was made.