Architectural energetics for tumuli construction: The case of the medieval Chungul Kurgan on the Eurasian steppe

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2016.09.006

Journal of Archaeological Science

Volume 75, November 2016, Pages 101-114

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2016.09.006 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Architectural energetics study of Chungul Kurgan, a 14th century Ḳipčaḳ burial mound in Ukraine.
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A new quantitative method for assessing historical labor costs in materials transport is proposed.
•
Historical sources pertaining to labor and tools for medieval tumuli are evaluated.
•
Construction investment at Chungul Kurgan is evaluated at scale of chieftain-level societies.

Abstract

The present work introduces the first architectural energetics analysis of a medieval tumulus from the Eurasian/Pontic steppe. In contrast to New World earthworks, tumuli on the steppe were constructed 1) with sod taken from the environment immediately surrounding the construction site, 2) with the use of draft animals and metal tools, and 3) in identifiable phases as part of funerary rituals over a period of weeks or months. These variables introduce problems which are confronted through 1) the application of novel historically attested rates for construction and 2) the creation of new, replicable mathematical methods for modeling materials transport.

Section snippets

Introduction: energetics on the Eurasian steppe

Earthen mounds and earthworks constructions are encountered all over the world (Renfrew, 1973; Ortmann and Kidder, 2013). But the Chungul Kurgan (CK) is one of the few tumuli – from any period – which has been excavated stratigraphically on the western Eurasian steppe (Fig. 1, Sec. 1.2, Otroshschenko and Rassamakin, 1986; Boltryk, 2011; Mozoloevskyj and Polin, 2005; for examples of funerary tumuli further east in the Eurasian steppe, see Parzinger, 2003). The high quality of documentation from

Modeling distances and transport investments for Kurgan construction

Total labor is a function of the mound's ritual perimeter or radius, and the volume and material of each phase of the earthworks. The entire site, then, measured 65–66 m in diameter. The ritual ditch has a median width of 1.5 m; the structure above the burial itself had a radius of 27 m. From the outside of the moat (where sod-cutting could begin), r = 31.5 (see Secs. 1.2 and 1.3 above). Four primary phases of ritual construction occurred where volumes V₂ = 5655 m³ of sod (Ritual Phase 2), V₄

Results: contextualizing labor investments at Chungul Kurgan

Having accounted in an absolute sense for transport and labor requirements in mound construction, we can now model how various historical realia and differences in the length of work-periods by ritual phase would have constrained these values. Fig. 9 illustrates a range of work-period scenarios for the organization of labor in the construction of the CK, using conservative labor rate minima.

First-order limitations on the duration of kurgan construction episodes were necessarily climatic:

Conclusions

Among the tumuli of the Pontic steppe, the CK is the most varied and complex earthworks studied to date of the medieval period. Not only is it built upon a much earlier, lower Bronze Age tumulus, it contains the burial of the leader (in all likelihood) of an entire nomadic confederation from the early thirteenth century CE. The CK project is unique because its careful excavation facilitated a precise volumetric account of phase-by-phase construction in relation to both the ritual of burial and

Acknowledgements

A project team consisting of Oleksandr Halenko (Institute of History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv), Renata Holod (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA), Vitaliy Otroshchenko (Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv), Yuriy Rassamakin (Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv) and Warren T. Woodfin (Queens College, CUNY, New York, NY) was supported by a J. Paul Getty Trust Collaborative Research Grant,

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This article presents a statistically grounded method for the comparative analysis of polygonal masonry and the calculation of their architectural energetics. Four wall stretches of different Samnite hillforts (5th-3rd century BCE) have been recorded through 3D modelling to generate models suitable for calculating three variables (area, rectangularity and gap area) used for a comparative assessment of the different building techniques involved in their construction. This allowed the identification of masonry styles related to different costs of labor which were used to produce cross-regional energetic indexes suitable for the cost analysis of several hundred hillforts in south-central Italy. This formal and replicable approach to the cost analysis of polygonal masonry is not only suitable for analysing sites in Italy, but can also be applied to similar sites found widely in the Mediterranean.
The scale of social labor investments and social practices behind the construction of megalithic stele monuments in south Ethiopia
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Characterizing the physical and geochemical properties of stele materials is also important to understand raw material choices, to identify the known and potential quarries, and to link these to in situ stelae, from which I can then estimate the scale of social labor investment in the quarrying, forming, and construction stages of stelae production, including their final emplacement. The total energy expenditure required to construct a stele site (quarrying/carving, transport, emplacement) can be expressed in terms of person-hours (e.g., Abrams 1994; Abrams and Bolland 1999; Bernardini 2004; Pickett et al. 2016; Shepardson 2006). Data on stele size (height and circumference), material density, the number of stelae in a site, and the average distance to a quarry or the nearest known raw material outcrop were used to make energetic estimates and to calculate estimates of the total amount of person-hours required to construct a stele site.
By analyzing the materiality of stele monuments and associated material remains, this article sheds light on the scale of social labor investment and past social practices behind stelae construction in the Gedeo zone, south Ethiopia. Existing archaeological data suggest that the Gedeo stele landscapes represent one of the earliest megalithic stele traditions in Ethiopia. Diverse social and ritual practices led to the materialization and ritualization of distinct forms and sizes of stele monuments in the region at various times and scales. Investigating the stelae construction processes and the disposition of stele in a site permits one to understand some of the social practices and processes that led to the creation of the Gedeo megalithic stelae landscape, and to make inferences about the significance of the monuments. By analyzing the physical properties of stelae carving, transport, and emplacement and the distance from quarries to a stele site, the study estimates the scale of social energy investment in stelae construction. Findings indicate that the scale of labor organization, and the time and resource investment for stelae construction vary by site function and change over time. Generally, stelae used as a burial marker required smaller-scale social energy investment compared to stelae built for other purposes.
“Sod blocks” in kurgan mounds: Historical and soil features of the technique of tumuli erection
2019, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Citation Excerpt :
Many prehistoric monuments, such as Silbury Hill, made of English Chalk, were constructed using sod blocks (Leary and Field, 2010). It was shown that tumuli were constructed with sod taken from the environment surrounding the construction site (Pickett et al., 2016; Beisenov, 2014; Villagran and Gianotti, 2013; Mimokhod, 2009). Sometimes only a part of the tumulus was composed of soil blocks carved from the upper soil horizons, while other mounds were made of loose material from the kurgan ditch (Belinskij et al., 2000).
Tumuli (Kurgans) over Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, and Middle Age burials are a common attribute of the landscape across the entire steppe zone of Eurasia. For many years, the kurgan embankment was believed to be created from loose soil and underlying sediments. However, in recent years, during the excavation of kurgans, archaeologists began to understand that the mounds contain large blocks of undisturbed soil. These blocks are a type of brick, carved from the upper sodded layer of soil held together in blocks by plant roots.
We suggest the term “sod blocks” for such soil blocks. The earliest kurgan mounds made from sod blocks date to the Early Bronze Age. Sod blocks are found in burials from the Middle Bronze Age, but after that, the tradition of sod brick architecture begins to fade. During the Scythian era, from the 7th to 4th centuries BC, sod blocks are widely used for making huge “King's” kurgans. During the Early Sarmatian culture, in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, the sod blocks technique disappears, arising again in the Middle Sarmatian of the 1st century AD. We found that sod blocks are well distinguished in tumuli if the kurgan is built from Solonetz, a soil with a light grey upper AE horizon and a reddish-brown underlying Bt horizon. Due to sharp differences between the upper two soil horizons, we can distinguish the sod blocks in kurgan mounds. The growing number of kurgans with traces of sod blocks in the mounds allows one to suppose that this method of kurgan construction was much more widely used than previously thought. Taking into consideration that most of the mounds have not been made from soil-forming rock, but from the upper soil horizons, from which one can easily cut sod blocks, we assume that most of the kurgans were made from sod blocks. The use of sod blocks can significantly expand the range of possible architectural proposals for the creation of the kurgan mound and provide an opportunity for building vertical elements. The purpose of this article is to consider the emergence and development of this kurgan building tradition and to show the most interesting examples of burial mounds built from sod blocks. Another task is to establish, in terms of soil science, why in some burial mounds soil blocks are clearly visible but in other cases are not.
Characterization of Stronghold Fortifications by 2D/3D/4D Electrical Resistivity Tomography: Major Push Towards Quantitative Interpretation
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The Javakheti Plateau: Megaliths, villages, and obsidian mines in the prehistory of the lesser caucasus of Georgia
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View full text

Architectural energetics for tumuli construction: The case of the medieval Chungul Kurgan on the Eurasian steppe

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Introduction: energetics on the Eurasian steppe

Modeling distances and transport investments for Kurgan construction

Results: contextualizing labor investments at Chungul Kurgan

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

J. Anthropol. Archaeol.

J. Anthropol. Archaeol.

Three papers on Mesoamerican Archaeology

Architectural energetics, ancient monuments, and operations Management

J. Archaeol. Method Theory

Architecture and energy: an evolutionary perspective. Archaeol

Method Theory

How the Maya Built Their World: Energetics and Ancient Architecture

Ob odnoi iz kategorii orudii truda epokhi bronzy

Tatarska Poema John Mukhammedov [The Tatar Poem of John, Son of Muhammed]

Skhidny Svit

An essay on energetics: the construction of the Aztec chinampa system

Antiquity

2016. The construction of monumental landscapes in low-density societies: new evidence from the Early Neolithic of Southern Scandinavia ( 4000 – 3300 BC ) in comparative perspective

J. Anthropol. Archaeol.

The Golden Deer of Eurasia; perspectives on the steppe Nomads of the Ancient World

The Design and Manufacture of Animal-Drawn Carts

Evolution, the History of an idea

The means of agricultural production: Muscle and tools

Kimmerowie, scytowie, sarmaci: ksie̜ga poświe̜cona pamie̜ci Profesora Tadeusza Sulimirskiego

The Baths of Caracalla: a Study in the Design, Construction, and Economics of Large-scale Building Projects in imperial Rome.

Monument building: some field experiments

Southwest. J. Anthropol.

Napad Skifiv na Trakhtemyrivsʹke horodyshche

Handbook of Cost data for Contractors and Engineers a Reference Book Giving Methods of Construction and Actual Costs of Materials and Labor on Numerous Engineering Works

Earthwork and its Cost, a Handbook of Earth Excavation.

Animal Traction: Guidelines for Utilization

The qipchaqs of medieval eurasia: an example of stateless adaptation on the steppe

War and warfare in the pre-Činggisid western steppes

The Black Sea Pilot

On spolia and the Chungul Kurgan finds

Arkheolohiia

The severe landscapes of ‘Mother Sarmatia’: steppe Ukraine in the eyes of a Polish gentleman in 1569

Harv. Ukr. Stud.

Imported and native remedies for a wounded prince: grave goods from the Chungul Kurgan in the northern Black Sea steppe of the thirteenth century

Lasting monuments and durable institutions: labor, Urbanism, and statehood in Northern Vietnam and beyond

J. Archaeol. Res.

Labor mobilization, ethnohistory, and the Archaeology of community in Hawai'i

J. Archaeol. Method Theory

A broken Mirror: the Kipçak world of the thirteenth century

Ukrainian steppes in the past, at present and in the future

Recalculating mound volume at Moundville. Southeast

Archaeol

Principles of Geology; Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation

Rare Breeds and Varieties of the Balkans Atlas: Synonyms, Occurrence, Description of Rare Breeds in the Balkan Region