Archaeologists find ruins of a Bronze Age city on the Kazakh Steppe

Summary

“This area revealed few features,” they wrote in their recent paper (archaeologists refer to buildings and walls as features), “suggesting that metallurgical production may have been dispersed or occurred in less architecturally formalized spaces.” In other words, the bronze-smiths of ancient Semiyarka seem to have worked in the open air, or in a scattering of smaller, less permanent buildings that didn’t leave a trace behind. But they all seem to have done their work in the same area of the city. Notice how the area where artifacts were found stretches beyond the visible outlines of ancient buildings. Radivojevic et al. 2025 Notice how the area where artifacts were found stretches beyond the visible outlines of ancient buildings. Radivojevic et al. 2025 Fragments of broken pottery found in Semiyarka Radivojevic et al. 2025 Fragments of broken pottery found in Semiyarka Radivojevic et al. 2025 Notice how the area where artifacts were found stretches beyond the visible outlines of ancient buildings. Radivojevic et al. 2025 Fragments of broken pottery found in Semiyarka Radivojevic et al. 2025 Connections between nomads and city-dwellers East of the earthworks lies a wide area with no trace of walls or foundations beneath the ground, but with a scattering of ancient artifacts lying half buried in the grass. The long-forgotten objects may mark the sites of “more ephemeral, perhaps seasonal, occupation,” Radivojevic and her colleagues suggested in their recent paper. That area makes up a large chunk of the city’s estimated 140 hectares, raising questions about how many people lived here permanently, how many stopped here along trade routes or pastoral migrations, and what their relationship was like. A few broken potsherds offer evidence that the settled city-dwellers of Semiyarka traded regularly with their more mobile neighbors on the steppe. Within the city, most of the ceramics match the style of the Alekseevka-Sargary people. But a few of the potsherds unearthed in...