A Tree-Ring and 14C Chronology of the Key Sayan-Altai Monuments

G. I. Zaitseva, S. S. Vasiliev, L. S. Marsadolov, J. van der Plicht, A. A. Sementsov, V. A. Dergachev and L. M. Lebedeva

We present a radiocarbon chronology of key Sayan-Altai monuments from the Scythian period, based on a statistical analysis of dates produced in the 1980s and now supplemented with new dates. These new 14C dates were produced for samples from the Tuekta-1 barrows (burial mounds) and were measured both in St. Petersburg and Groningen. These tree-ring samples were fitted to the calibration curve. Chronologies were established for the Arzhan, Tuekta-1 and Pazyryk-5 barrows. The time of the construction of the Arzhan and Pazyryk-5 barrows is the 9th and late 5th-4th centuries BC, respectively, and agrees with archaeology. According to new data obtained, the time of the Tuekta-1 barrow construction is some years older than has been accepted thus far by archaeologists.

[Radiocarbon Volume 40, Numbers 1-2, 1998]