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

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Irina Panyushkina博士，Jeffrey Dean博士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，重点关注斯基泰人的Pazyryk文化（公元前1,000年）。阿尔泰山脉横跨俄罗斯、蒙古、中国和哈萨克斯坦。 来自活树、冰川山谷中的死树和考古木材的交叉日期树轮序列将用于建立一个3,000年的连续主树轮年表，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年代树木年代学精确地确定了美国西南部数百个古印第安遗址的年代一样。 阿尔泰项目是美国和俄罗斯联邦之间的科学合作伙伴关系，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队对该地区铁器时代草原游牧民族进行多学科研究的努力。该项目将直接解决（1）西伯利亚斯基泰人和中亚铁器时代的绝对年表，（2）帕兹里克人在该地区一般文化和历史背景中的地位，（3）最近几千年（全新世晚期）气候变化和极端事件对欧亚草原游牧民族的影响程度。 虽然诊断Pazyryk文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，Pazyryk表达的不安全的年代测定阻碍了了解这些铁器时代社会之间的相互作用。 应用3,000年主树轮年代学对斯基泰人墓葬中的木制物品进行年代测定，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澄清有关印欧起源的想法，蒙古扩张到欧亚大陆内部之前的游牧社会的史前史，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，将产生过去3,000年的高分辨率（季节性和年度）环境重建。 这些数据将用于评估草原游牧民的环境压力程度，这些游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。 这反过来将表明气候变化在多大程度上“迫使”西徐亚人的冲击波对西部的农业文化产生影响。

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.