Research on the evolution of soils and landscape-climatic changes in the Bronze Age for the steppe of the Kuban-Azov plain was conducted based on the study of a large burial mound

The soils buried under an archaeological monument - a burial mound of the Bronze Age, on the Kuban-Azov plain were studied. The mound had three different constructions, built over a time interval from 4500 to 3600 years ago, under which the soils that formed a pedochronoseries were buried.

The soils buried under an archaeological monument - a burial mound of the Bronze Age, on the Kuban-Azov Plain were studied. The mound had three different structures, built over a time interval from 4500 to 3600 years ago, under which the soils that formed a pedochronoseries were buried. A comparative analysis of the morphological, physicochemical and magnetic properties of the buried and modern soils of the chronoseries, as well as an analysis of the palynological spectra from the upper horizons of these soils, was carried out. Reconstruction of paleoclimatic conditions based on the study of the properties of paleosoils of the identified chronoseries made it possible to establish that during the construction of the mound, the climate of the region gradually changed towards increasing aridity. During the construction of the third structure in the mound (the catacomb culture of the Middle Bronze Age, 21st-16th (15th) centuries BC), climatic conditions were maximally arid. Palynological analysis confirmed the findings of the paleosoil study. In the plant association, generally characterized as southern forest-steppe, the percentage of herbaceous plants increased significantly in the catacomb period, and species typical of steppe areas appeared.

DOI: 10.31857/S2587556621010143