THE RECONSTRUCTION OF CULTURAL PROCESSES IN THE FOREST-STEPPE OB BASIN DURING THE EARLY IRON AGE, BASED ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BYSTROVKA CEMETERY1

Abstract

In the last third of the 1st millennium BC, contacts between populations of northern and southern origin in the forest-steppe Ob Basin were quite intense. Over several decades, science-based dating methods such as dendrochronology and radiocarbon analysis have been used to reconstruct these processes. As a result, several key cemeteries (Kamenny Mys, Bystrovka-1–3) were shown to be rather early, implying that contacts of native tribes of the forest-steppe Ob with populations of western (Sargat) and northern (Kulai) origin during the Berezovka stage lasted longer than previously believed. They began no later than the early 3rd or even the late 4th century BC.