Absolute Chronology of the Pazyryk Culture and Climate Variability in the Altai Mountains Inferred from Tree Rings

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Irina Panyushkina、Jeffrey Dean和他们的同事将对中亚铁器时代考古遗址的木材进行树木年代学（树木年轮）分析，重点是位于俄罗斯、蒙古、中国和哈萨克斯坦的阿尔泰山脉的斯基泰人帕兹瑞克文化（公元前1000年）。从活树、冰川山谷中的死树和考古木材中提取的树木年轮序列将被用来建立一个连续3000年的主要树木年轮年表，这将为斯基泰人、塔加尔人、匈奴-萨尔马提亚人和突厥人的考古遗址提供日历日期。这一成就将是一个巨大的进步，就像20世纪20年代那样，当时树木年代学精确地确定了美国西南部数百个古印第安人遗址的年代。阿尔泰项目是美国和俄罗斯联邦之间的一个科学合作项目，旨在研究中亚的考古学、树木年代学和古地理学。该项目整合了俄罗斯、德国、美国、哈萨克斯坦和法国考古团队的努力，他们对该地区铁器时代草原游牧民族进行了多学科研究。该项目将直接解决(1)西伯利亚斯基泰人和内亚铁器时代的绝对年表，(2)Pazyryk人在该地区总体文化和历史背景中的地位，(3)过去几千年（全新世晚期）气候变化和极端气候对欧亚草原游牧民族的影响程度。尽管诊断性的Pazyryk器物和装饰风格通常被用来建立欧亚大陆的游牧和定居群体之间的联系，但对Pazyryk表达的不确定年代阻碍了对这些铁器时代社会之间相互作用的理解。应用3000年的树轮年表来确定斯基泰古墓中木器的年代，将为系统化现有的考古数据和未来的发现提供一个绝对的年代框架。研究区域的绝对年表将阐明印欧起源、蒙古人向欧亚大陆内部扩张之前的史前游牧社会以及斯基泰人对小亚细亚和地中海盆地文化的影响。将树木气候记录与其他环境变化指标相结合，将产生近3000年来高分辨率（季节和年度）的环境重建。这些数据将用于评估草原牧民的环境压力程度，这些牧民的畜群是其经济和社会组织的重要组成部分，极易受到气候和植被波动的影响。反过来，这将表明气候变化在多大程度上“迫使”随后的斯基泰人对西方农业文化的影响。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Irina Panyushkina, Jeffrey Dean, and their colleagues will undertake a dendrochronological (tree-ring) analysis of wood from Iron Age archaeological sites in Central Asia focussing on the Scythian Pazyryk Culture (1,000 B.C.) in the Altai Mountains, which lies across Russia, Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan states. Crossdated tree-ring sequences from living trees, dead trees in glacial valleys, and archaeological timbers will be used to build a 3,000-year continuous master tree-ring chronology, which will provide calendar dates for Scythian, Tagar, Hun-Sarmatian, and Turkic archaeological sites. This achievement will be a quantum advance like that of the 1920s when dendrochronology precisely dated hundreds of Paleo-Indian sites in the U.S. Southwest. The Altai project is a scientific partnership between the United States and the Russian Federation to study the archaeology, dendrochronology, and paleogeography of Central Asia. The project integrates efforts of Russian, German, American, Kazakhstani, and French archaeological teams conducting multidisciplinary studies of Iron Age steppe nomads in the region.The project will directly address (1) the absolute chronology of the Siberian Scythians and of the Iron Age in Inner Asia, (2) the place of the Pazyryk people in the general cultural and historical context of the region, (3) the extent to which climatic variability and extremes during the last few thousands years (Late Holocene) impacted nomads of the Eurasian steppe. Although diagnostic Pazyryk artifacts and decorative styles commonly are used to establish connections among the pastoral and sedentary groups of Eurasia, the insecure dating of the Pazyryk expression impedes understanding the interactions among these Iron Age societies. Application of the 3,000-year master tree-ring chronology to dating wood objects from Scythian tombs will provide an absolute chronological framework for systematizing existing archeological data and future finds. An absolute chronology for the study region will clarify ideas about Indo-European origins, the prehistory of pastoral societies before Mongol expansion into Inner Eurasia, and Scythian influence on the cultures of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean Basin. Combining the dendroclimatic records with other indicators of environmental changes will produce high resolution (seasonal and annual) environmental reconstructions for the last 3,000 years. These data will be used to assess the degree of environmental stress on the pastoral steppe nomads whose animal herds, a vital component of their economy and social organization, where highly vulnerable to fluctuations in climate and vegetation. This, in turn will indicate the degree to which climatic variability "forced" the sequent waves of Scythian impact on the agrarian cultures to the west.