New Finds of the Late Bronze Age in the Southeastern Kazakhstan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2024.6.69.82Keywords:
Southeastern Kazakhstan, Late Bronze Age, Chust culture, Begazy-Dandybay culture, horse equipment, antler bit shank, ceramic vessel, reconstruction of the bridleAbstract
The work is dedicated to the study of a chance find of an antler bit shank and a ceramic ware of the Late Bronze Age near the village of Tauturgen in Almaty region of Kazakhstan. On the basis of comparative-typological and natural-scientific methods, including paleozoological, traceological, technological and radiocarbon methods, a detailed characterization is carried out and the cultural and chronological belonging of the artifacts is considered. The closest analogies to the objects from Tauturgen are found among the materials of the Chust culture of the Fergana Valley. However, the bit shank decoration indicates its belonging to the Begazy-Dandybay culture. On the basis of the comparative-typological method within the traditional chronology these objects belong to the last third of the II millennium BC within the Yaz-I period. The obtained radiocarbon date of the bit shank from Tauturgen agrees well with the radiocarbon chronology of the Chust culture, Begazy-Dandybay complexes and the new chronology of Yaz-Depe-I and Namazga VI. This allows us to date these objects within the second half of the 16th – early 15th century BC. In general, the Tauturgen finds raise questions about the existence of a wide contact zone between the Chust and Late Bronze Age cultures of Southeastern Kazakhstan, as well as about the earlier position of rod-shaped antler bit shanks with holes in Eurasia than is currently accepted. The authors also reconstructed bridle with “soft” bits.
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