Freshwater Reservoir Effects on the Re-Dating of the Eurasian Steppe Cultures: New Data for the Prehistoric Sites of Kazakhstan and South of Siberia

Freshwater reservoir effects (FRE) can cause a major problem with radiocarbon dating human skeletal material in the Eurasian steppe. Recent research has demonstrated that, for the Eneolithic to Early Bronze Age sites of North-Eastern Kazakhstan, the maximum fish-herbivore freshwater reservoir offset observed equals 301±47 14C yrs, as such indicating that 14C dates from aquatic and human samples from the area apparently need to be interpreted with caution as they are likely to be affected by the offset. The current paper presents the new data on the FRE of the Eneolithic to the Early Iron Age sites of Kazakhstan and South of Siberia.