The Rostovka cemetery

The Seima-Turbino phenomenon is often broken down into a western part (west of the Ural) and an eastern part (east of the Ural). Rostovka is the largest and most significant site in the eastern group with a total of 38 burials, most of them containing Seima-Turbino style artefacts. Material from the eastern group, including Rostovka, is characterized by the almost exclusive use of tin-bronze and several findings of moulds for casting. According to most reseachers, this is also the area where the "transcultural phenomenon" originated. The tin resources of Altai were most probably exploited by the bronze founders of Rostovka.

Inventory of three of the burials at Rostovka, our burial 8 on the right. Burial 2 contained the famous knife with the "horse-drawn-skier"-figurine. From Anthony 2010: fig. 16.15.

Read more on the significance of the Seima-Turbino spearheads here.

Litterature:

Anthony, D. 2010: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, Princeton University Press,