Overview
- An international team from UCL, Durham University and Toraighyrov University reports the findings in Antiquity, confirming a vast ca. 1600 BC settlement in northeastern Kazakhstan.
- Surveys documented rectilinear earthworks, at least 20 enclosed household compounds likely built in mud brick, and a central monumental building.
- Crucibles, slag and tin-bronze artefacts identify a dedicated industrial zone for copper and tin-bronze production on an unprecedented scale for the steppe.
- Geochemical signatures in metallurgical debris match tin deposits in the Altai Mountains roughly 300 kilometers away, indicating distant sourcing.
- Researchers propose the site functioned along the Irtysh corridor as a production and exchange node, with targeted excavations planned to test settlement chronology and social organization.