A Major City of the Kazakh Steppe? Investigating Semiyarka's Bronze Age Legacy

Summary

Introduction The site of Semiyarka is situated on a promontory overlooking the Irtysh River in the Beskaragay district of Abai Oblast, Kazakhstan, 180km south-east of the city of Pavlodar. Identified in the early 2000s, preliminary investigations (Mertz Reference Mertz and Grushin2006, Reference Mertz2017) suggested the site covered 40ha, with rectilinear earthworks that stretch for over 1km clearly visible in satellite imagery (Figure 1) and confirmed through on-site surveys (Figure 2). Surface finds from these surveys include pottery from Late Bronze Age cultures, specifically Cherkaskul (1600–1250 BC) and Alekseevka-Sargary (1500–1100 BC), and evidence of metallurgical activity: ores, slag, crucibles and finished metal artefacts. Figure 1. Corona spy photograph of Semiyarka (KH4B Mission 1116, April 1972). Red boxes indicategeophysical prospection areas shown in Figure 4 (figure by authors). Figure 2. Drone photograph of the archaeological site of Semiyarka, looking from the south-east to the north-west, taken in July 2018 (photograph by Peter J. Brown). Emerging first in western Siberia, the Andronoid Cherkaskul culture represented a fusion of Andronovo and local traditions, with communities engaged in agropastoralism, hunting, gathering, and fishing (Korochkova Reference Korochkova2010). Alongside it, the Alekseevka-Sargary material culture spread across the eastern Eurasian Steppe, marking the development of more permanent dwellings and settlements up to 30ha (Agapov et al. Reference Agapov, Degtyareva, Kuzminykh, Stöllner and Samašev2013; Varfolomeev et al. Reference Varfolomeev, Loman and Evdokimov2017). Material from Semiyarka predominantly relates to the Alekseevka–Sargary culture, with finds also attributable to the Cherkaskul culture. The site’s size, together with the presence of rectilinear earthworks and metallurgical evidence, highlight its potential importance for advancing our understanding of regional settlement patterns, social organisation and t...