Fig 1.
Map of study region showing sites* mentioned in the text.
*Tasbas and Dali are indicated with a single marker due to their proximity. Landsat-9 imagery and NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission digital elevation model courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Table 1.
Sites and samples present in the study. Counts of ceramic thin-section samples included in the analysis and corresponding Bronze Age phase, associated ceramic culture, and radiocarbon dates.
Fig 2.
Early Bronze Age ceramics from Zhetysu settlements.
Dali. a) DL-1458; b) DL-1009; Talapty. c) TL-4; d) TL-5; Begash. e) BG-1052; f) BG-1067; g) BG-0786; Kuigan 2. h) KG-5.
Fig 3.
Middle Bronze Age ceramics from Zhetysu settlements.
Begash. a) BG-0021; b) BG-0711; Kuigan. c) KG-8; Begash. d) BG-0018; e) BG-0666; LBA Kuigan. f) and g) KG-9, h) KG-10; Dali. i) DL-1017; j) DL-0449; k) DL-0774.
Fig 4.
Late Bronze Age ceramics from Zhetysu settlements.
Tamgaly. a) TM-10; b) TM-5; Kulzhabacy. c) KJ-4; Tasbas. d) TB-0136; Dali. e) DL-4-01; Tasbas. f) TB-0110; g) TB-0038.
Fig 5.
Geological map of Zhetysu, southeastern Kazakhstan with a 30 km buffer around study sites.
Landsat-9 imagery and SRTM digital elevation model courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. Stream data courtesy of NGA TDX-Hydro dataset (https://earth-info.nga.mil/php/download.php?file=tdx-hydro-license).
Table 2.
Summary of the main petrographic groups identified based on compositional and textural characteristics.
Table 3.
Comparison of the petrofabric groups in diachronic and synchronic perspective.
Fig 6.
Thin section micrographs of selected Bronze Age ceramic samples from Zhetysu tempered with granite.
Images were all taken with a field of view 3mm under XP. a) DL-1041, Fabric A1-DL (EBA); b) DL-0593, Fabric A2-DL (MBA); c) DL-4-05, Fabric A3-DL (LBA); d) DL-1446, Fabric B2-DL (EBA); e) TB-02C16-n/a1, Fabric A1-TB; f) BG-0544, Fabric A-BG; g) BG-0711, Fabric B2-BG; h) BG-0018, Fabric E-BG; i) KG-4, Fabric A1-KG; j) TL-5, Fabric A-TL; k) TM-4, Fabric A1-TM; l) KL-2, Fabric A1-KL.
Fig 7.
Thin section micrographs of selected Bronze Age ceramic samples from Zhetysu with polymodal distribution.
Images were all taken with a field of view 3mm under XP: a) DL-4-29, Fabric C-DL; b) TB-0214, Fabric C-TB; c) BG-0769, Fabric C-BG; d) BG-0708, Fabric D-BG, e) KG-6, Fabric C-KG; f) TM-1, Fabric D-TM.
Fig 8.
Thin section micrographs of selected Bronze Age ceramic samples from Zhetysu marked by different tempering agents.
Images were all taken with a field of view 3mm under XP unless otherwise indicated. a) DL-1238, Fabric D-DL (Tempered with granite and sedimentary rock fragments); b) DL-895, Fabric E-DL (Tempered with granite and metamorphic rock fragments); c) TB-17A13-na3, Fabric B1-TB (Grog tempered); d) TB-0025, Fabric D-TB (Tempered with volcanic rock fragments); e) TB-0060-Fabric E-TB (Tempered with polymict sand); f) TB-0148, Fabric F-TB (Tempered with metamorphic rock fragments); g) BG-0990-Fabric F-BG (Tempered with sand containing granite and metamorphic rock fragments); h) BG-0067, Fabric G-BG (Tempered with sand containing metamorphic and volcanic rock fragments); i) BG-1049, Fabric H-BG (Tempered with flint and metamorphic rock fragments); j) BG-3001, Fabric I-BG (Tempered with grog) 3mm PPL; k) KG-8-Fabric B-KG (With polymict sand) Is tempered?; l) TL-2, Fabric B-TL (Grog tempered) 3mm PPL; m) TL-3, Fabric C-TL (Tempered with polymict sand); n) TM-9, Fabric B3-TM (Tempered with metamorphic rock fragments and flint); o) TM-7, Fabric C-TM (Tempered with flit) 6 mm XP; p) TM-5, Fabric E-TM (Tempered with intermediate igneous volcanic rock fragments).
Fig 9.
Presence of granite petrofabrics versus non-granite petrofabrics for all sites for the EBA, MBA and LBA.
Table 4.
Least Cost Path Analysis between granite sources and study sites.