Bronze age textile from the Chesmenka 3 kurgan group in the Voronezh region: technology, isotopic composition and radiocarbon chronology

The paper analyzes a composite accessory discovered in the Chesmenka 3 cemetery, kurgan 2, grave 4. Various materials were used to make the item. It consists of several components such as felt, tubular beads strung on wool threads and sewn onto the felt with a linen thread. Radiocarbon dating of linen thread fragment helped relate this grave to the early Pokrovka culture (1800-1700 BC). The variation in the 87Sr/86Sr ratio in the linen thread fragment and comparative analysis with the use of background «isotopic signatures» point to likely western areas of plant raw material sources. The use of wool fibers and woolen cloths correlates with the chronology and the distribution pattern of wool fibers and wool cloths in the early second millennium BC, i.e. from the southern areas of the Caucasus and the adjacent steppes to the north.