Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Located at the northern fringe of the Eurasian steppe in the Russian Federation, the Trans-Urals have been a transfer zone and centre of economic and socio-cultural innovations especially in the Bronze Age. Outstanding examples are the fortified permanent settlements of the Sintashta–Petrovka period that emerged in the steppe during the Middle Bronze Age around 2000 bc , but before and after, a more mobile lifestyle prevailed. The cause of such cultural transformations has been discussed for long, together with the associated subsistence economy. The hypothesis that arable farming was introduced as a part of sedentism was recently rejected, but the idea that climate change triggered shifts in settlement behaviour and land use patterns is still common. Based on our recent palaeoecological investigations (pollen/NPPs, soils/sediments, radiocarbon dating), however, we conclude that relatively humid conditions persisted during the time of the fortified settlements and beyond, while increased climatic instability occurred at the transition to the Iron Age and the Middle Ages. Apart from migration as a likely factor for socio-cultural changes, catastrophic events such as pests or diseases may have had a decisive impact.
Stobbe et al. (Wed,) studied this question.