Geoarchaeological Analysis of Soils and Structures of the Shumny Kurgan, Krasnodar Regionстатья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 15 февраля 2024 г.
Аннотация:The chronosequence of soils buried under constructions of different ages at the large (3.5 m inheight and 74 m in diameter) Shumny Kurgan in the Krasnodar region has been studied. The kurgan was builtsequentially by the people of Catacomb (28th–22nd centuries BC) and Srubnaya (15th–10th centuries BC)cultures and includes five constructions made of the material of local soils and anthropogenic admixtures.Each of the subsequent constructions overlapped the previous one and went beyond it, covering some addi-tional space. This allows us to study a consecutive series of soils buried under the constructions. During thekurgan building (28th–10th centuries BC), the morphological and physicochemical properties of the soilschanged: the content of organic matter and magnetic susceptibility increased, whereas the mixing up of theupper horizons by burrowing animals, the content of carbonates, and the exchangeable sodium percentagedecreased. The direction of these changes in the properties of the materials of kurgan constructions over timeagree with changes in the properties of corresponding buried soils. For the uneven-aged constructions of thekurgan, local soils were used, which had different properties at the stages of the construction. These soilsoccupied a significantly larger area than the kurgan, which increases the reliability of the study. Evolutionarychanges in the properties of buried soils and earth materials of kurgan structures are indicative of the climatictrend during the long-term kurgan construction—an increase in atmospheric moistening and a decrease inthe mean annual temperature from the Early Catacomb to Srubnaya cultures. An independent palynologicalanalysis of buried paleosols confirms this conclusion about the tendency of climate changes. According tomicromorphological data, the Early Catacomb time can be additionally characterized as an arid epoch, whichmanifested itself in soil cracking and accumulation of carbonates in the upper part of soil profiles. Based onthe structure and properties of the kurgan, it is possible to identify technologies of the construction, whichincluded tamping down of earthy material in dry and wet states; its mixing; and adding of river silt, charcoal,and bones.