Between Landscape and Laboratory. Current Research on Bronze Age Settlements in Western Eurasia 

Elke Kaiser 

In the last two decades, numerous landscape archaeological research has been conducted in the Western Eurasian steppe zone. It is now possible to present the current state of research, particularly for the Late Bronze Age. The lecture will summarize the field archaeological investigations and complementary scientific analyses for settlements of the Srubnaya Culture east of the Dnipro and for settlements of the Noua-Sabatinovka Culture west of the Dnipro. The results now allow us to understand how pastoralists exploited the grass and forest steppe north of the Black Sea. Animal husbandry formed the fundamental fundamental part of the subsistence economy. It remains unclear whether and to what extent grain cultivation was practiced in this vegetation zone in the 2nd millennium BCE. 

Fig. The Late Bronze Age settlement Odaia-Miciurin, Rep. Moldova. The light spots in the ploughed fields represent so-called ‘ash mounds’ (photo: Elke Kaiser)