Traditions of Settlement in Bronze Age Zhetysu (Kazakhstan)

This article summarizes the results of more than two decades of research concerning Bronze Age settlements in Zhetysu. The purpose of the work is to sythesize the regional cultural traditions and the development of‘Andronovo” related material culture in Southeast Kazakhstan from the 3rd to 1st millennia BC. Compiling the results of various research, we offer a preliminary map of the sites and describe the nature of the settlement of the region at various stages of the Bronze Age. Settlement data documented throughout Zhetysu (Semirechye) show that foothill areas were the most commonly exploited ecological niche and also where the largest settlements are concentrated. Following settlement developmentsin mountainous and foothill areas, steppe plains, and semi-deserts were also occupied throughout the middle and late Bronze Ages. Pit-houses of frame-pillar construction were the most familiar type of housing in the cultural traditions of the Andronovo cultural communities. Data from Zhetysu also reveal a relationship between house-building traditions and the natural resources and climatic conditions of individual residential districts across Zhetysu, Kungey and Ile Alatau, as well as steppe areas of the Shu-Ile interfluve. There are two main variants of dwellings with stone and wooden foundations. Most of the settlements studied during this period were dwellings intended for a mid-sized to large residential communities. In the Late Bronze Age, large settlements are less common. In their place, there are a series of smaller settlements (up to 4-5) dwellings with different parameters and layout of the dwellings. In the Bronze Age, populations of Zhetysu were in engaged in a complex array of economic strategies, ranging from dedicated cattle-breeding to mixed farming/herding strategies (agro-pastoralism). These economies generally map on to different ecological settlement areas, with agro-pastoralists predominantly documented in the foothill zones and cattle breeders found more in higher elevation mountainous and lowland steppe areas. The allocation of handicraft production into an independent industry both among both cattle breeders and agro-pastoralists contributed to an active exchange of goods between them, an expansion in the territories of people covered by economic activity, and, as a result, an increase in the scale and welfare of the population, which significantly complicated the social structure of Bronze Age communities of Zhetysu.