7SummariesinEnglish,Germanand.PDF

7 Summaries in English, German and Russian This scientific-archaeological study focused on the reconstruction of mobility and diet in the West Eur- asian steppes in the period between 3500 and 300 BC using 87Sr/86Sr, 18O, 15N and 13C analyses. It was a subproject of research group A II Spatial effects of technological innovations and changing ways of life within the framework of the Excellence Cluster Topoi. The study covered a vast area that has been sub- divided into representative micro-regions or single sites, namely Bulgaria and Hungary in the Carpa- thian-Balkan region, central and eastern Ukraine in the North Pontic region, the sites in the Kuban region, the northwest Caspian steppe and in the Middle Volga region in Russia and one site in Kazakh- stan, in Central Asia. Samples were selected from sites dating to the Eneolithic, the Early and Middle Bronze Age and the Iron Age and can be associated with four time periods; the late Eneolithic in the sec- ond half of the 4th millennium BC, the Early Bronze Age Yamnaya culture that dominates the first half of the 3rd millennium BC and the subsequent Catacomb culture, which can be dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC as well as cultural groups of the Scythian period in the 1st millennium BC. Tooth and bone samples were selected for multi-isotope analysis, i.e. 87Sr/86Sr, 18O, 15N and 13C ana- lyses. The basic questions concerned the mobility and dietary patterns of these cultural groups. It was also interesting to see whether differences in stable isotope ratios could be identified in the periods immediately before and after 3000 BC, which is when specialised cattle husbandry emerged and means of transport like wagons or wagon parts appeared as grave furniture. Furthermore, the widespread and highly consistent burial traditions in the North Pontic and adjacent regions imply wide-ranging cultural contacts. Changes in climate are thought to have occurred at this time, with palaeoclimatic studi