Кафедра археології

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Radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis of human remains from the Usatove culture site of Mayaky in Ukraine
(Social Science Research Network, 2022) Nikitin, Alexey; Ivanova, Svetlana; Budd, Chelsea; Culleton, Brendan; Potekhina, Inna; Reich, David; Malcolm C. Lillie
The Usatove (Usatovo) culture provides a pivotal link between farmer and forager-pastoralist cultures of the North Pontic region and adjacent areas during the Eneolithic-Early Bronze Age (EN-EBA) transition in southeast Europe. Usatove is conventionally dated to the middle of the 4th- early 3rd millennium BCE. However, the AMS dating of human remains from the Mayaky complex of the Usatove culture in Ukraine has produced dates beginning in the mid 5th millennium BCE. In this study, we report a series of new radiocarbon dates and stable isotope ratios from human remains at Mayaky and present an attempt to evaluate this data in the context of the Usatove culture chronology. The results suggest a diet of the individuals attributed to the Usatove culture at Mayaky based on aquatic resources, potentially contributing to a reservoir offset (RO) on the AMS dates obtained on human remains. The presented data indicate a change in dietary preferences of the users of the Mayaky archaeological complex in succeeding chronological periods. The presented as well as previously published AMS radiocarbon dates establish the utilization of the Mayaky archaeological site that precedes and post-dates the Usatove culture.