NEW EVIDENCE FOR A BRONZE AGE DATE OF CHARIOT DEPICTIONS IN THE EURASIAN STEPPE

Gino Caspari; Timur Sadykov; Jegor Blochin; Matthias Bolliger; Sönke Szidat

Rock Art Research

Vol. 37 No. 1 (2020)
Published : May 1, 2020

NEW EVIDENCE FOR A BRONZE AGE DATE OF CHARIOT DEPICTIONS IN THE EURASIAN STEPPE

Gino Caspari ⁽¹⁾, Timur Sadykov ⁽²⁾, Jegor Blochin ⁽³⁾, Matthias Bolliger ⁽⁴⁾, Sönke Szidat ⁽⁵⁾

(1) Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC), University of Sydney, Australia

(2) Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

(3) Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

(4) Institute of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland

(5) Department for Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Switzerland

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Abstract

Two-wheeled horse-drawn chariot depictions in the Eurasian steppe have long been stylistically dated to the Bronze Age. Here we present an example of a petroglyph embedded in the architecture of an early Scythian royal tomb in the Tuva Republic, Siberia. The construction of the tomb is dated through wiggle-matching to between 833 and 800 BCE (95.4%) thus providing a rare terminus ante quem for chariot depictions in southern Siberia. The new evidence supports the current chronological range for this type of petroglyph in the Eurasian steppe belt.