An exciting article by Ádám Braun, Volker Heyd, Alin Frînculeasa, Gabriella Kovács and Ákos Pető called Layer by layer – Dismantling a Yamnaya kurgan by geochemical, pedological and statistical approaches (Wallachain Plain, Romania) is published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, (Volume 60, 2024).
The article discusses the significance of kurgans, human-made burial mounds found in the Eurasian steppes, highlighting their botanical, zoological, and cultural importance. A specific kurgan near Boldești-Grădiștea, Romania, was excavated in 2019, revealing various soil layers and horizons through detailed geochemical and pedological analysis. Methods such as MP-AES and ICP-MS were employed to determine the elemental composition, while statistical techniques like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) were used to explore patterns and classify background samples.
The findings contribute to understanding the construction phases of Yamnaya kurgans, the environmental context of the buried palaeosoil from the 4th millennium BC, and the cultural re-use of these structures during the Bronze Age.
The article is open access.
Keywords: Burial mounds; Yamnaya culture; Bronze Age; Muntenia; Paleosoil; Mound structure; Elemental composition