Overview
- Drones and geophysical surveys expand Semiyarka’s footprint to about 140 hectares, showing rectilinear earthworks with likely mud-brick walls and a larger central structure.
- Surface finds include crucibles, slag, ores and finished metal, and 35 analyzed samples indicate tin-bronze alloys with up to roughly 12% tin alongside malachite and azurite.
- Researchers suggest ores likely came from the Altai Mountains and propose Semiyarka as a potential node in regional metal-exchange networks.
- Ceramics are dominated by Alekseevka–Sargary types with a smaller Cherkaskul presence, pointing to contacts between settled communities and mobile western Siberian groups.
- Foundations first noted in 1972 Corona spy photos were reinterpreted through modern surveys, and the team stresses that limited excavation means population, chronology and industrial organization remain to be confirmed.