Case Study

Krasnyi-Yar

A Chalcolithic Botai Culture Site, Kazakhstan

	Magnetic Field Gradient Survey
	Electrical Resistance Survey

Archaeo-Physics, LLC was contracted by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to perform a geophysical investigation of Krasnyi-Yar, an Eneolithic (Chalcolithic) Botai Culture site located in Northern Kazakhstan.

The objective of the investigation was to identify and map subsurface archaeological features using non-invasive prospection methods. Of particular interest was the identification of possible stockades or corrals, as these may provide evidence that Krasnyi Yar was a locus for early horse domestication. The geophysical data collected during this investigation will be used to target specific archaeological features for excavation, and as primary data for the study of intra-site patterning at Krasnyi Yar.

The investigation consisted of electrical resistance and magnetic field gradient survey over 24,300 m2 of the site. Data collection took place in July, 2001.

See also:

• Horse Domestication in the Botai Culture, Eneolithic Kazakhstan, University of Exeter, Department of Archaeology.
• Horsemen of the Steppes: Ancient Corrals Found in Kazakhstan, Scientific American.
• Horses were tamed a millennium earlier that previously thought, Los Angeles Times.

Principal Investigators:

Dr. Sandra Olsen (Carnegie Museum of Natural History)
Dr. Bruce Bradley (Pritech Inc. and the Smithsonian Institution)

Senior Associate: Dr. Alan Outram (University of Exeter)

Reference:

Olsen, S., Bradley, B., Maki, D. and Outram, A. (2006) Community organization among Copper Age sedentary horse pastoralists of Kazakhstan. In D. Peterson , L. M. Popova and A.T. Smith (ed.) Beyond the Steppe and the Sown: Proceedings of the 2002 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology. Leiden: Brill, pp89-111.

This investigation was sponsored the National Science Foundation (grant # BCS-9816476).