Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Archaeological Research in Asia journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ara Full length article Early indicators to C4 plant consumption in central Kazakhstan during the Final Bronze Age and Early Iron Age based on stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone collagen Ananyevskaya E. a, ⁎ , Aytqaly A.K. c , Beisenov A.Z. d , Dmitriev E.A. e , Garbaras A. f,g , Kukushkin I.A. e , Loman V.G. e , Sapolaite J. f , Usmanova E.R. e , Varfolomeev V.V. e , Voyakin D.A. h , Zhuniskhanov A.S. i , Motuzaite Matuzeviciute G. a,b a Vilnius University, History Faculty, Department of Archaeology, Universiteto g. 7, LT-01513 Vilnius, Lithuania b History Institute of Lithuania, Kražių g. 5, LT-01108 Vilnius, Lithuania c Akdeniz University, History Faculty, Dumlupinar Boulevard, 07058 Kampus, Antalya, Turkey d Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Shevchenko 28, Dostyk 44, 050010 Almaty, Kazakhstan e Saryarka Archaeological Institute, Buketov Karaganda State University, Universitetskaya 28, 100074 Karaganda, Kazakhstan f Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanorių av. 231, LT-02300 Vilnius, Lithuania g Vilnius University, Faculty of Physics, Department of General Physics and Spectroscopy, Saulėtekio av. 9, LT-10222 Vilnius, Lithuania h Archaeological Expertise LLC, Raimbek av. 348, 050061 Almaty, Kazakhstan i Nazarbayev University, Department of Kazakh Language and Turkology, KabanbaiBatyra 53, 010000 Astana, Kazakhstan ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Stable isotope analysis Kazakhstan Early Iron Age Final Bronze Age Agriculture C 4 plants Millet ABSTRACT In this paper, we present new stable isotope data from central, southern and eastern Kazakhstan (KZ) that date to the Early Iron Age. Our primary data together with results from previously published studies demonstrate that the consumption of C 4 plants, possibly millet, started in the Final Bronze Age in central KZ and continued into the Early Iron Age. Data from southern KZ, however, demonstrate that over half the human population con- sumed C 4 crops in the Early Iron Age as opposed to the central regions of KZ, where just a few individuals within the population, often males buried in elite kurgans, have high δ 13 C values indicative of C 4 plant consumption. In this paper we aim first to understand if any dietary changes can be seen in the central KZ population during the transitional period between the Bronze and Iron Ages; secondly, we investigate the extent of C 4 plant con- sumption in central KZ during these time periods. Here we present new human isotopic data from nine central sites of the Tasmola culture (n = 11), two eastern KZ sites (n = 3) and two southern KZ sites (n = 26). 1. Introduction Kazakhstan is located in the center of the Eurasian continent. Understanding the social and economic processes there is particularly important as their development could potentially affect both the eastern and western portions of the continent. Soviet archaeology used to see the transitional period from Bronze (ca. 2500–800 BCE 1 ) to Iron (ca. 800 BCE–500 CE) Ages as marking the rise of early nomadic cul- tures in the Kazakh steppe (e.g. Habdulina et al., 2013). Some scholars still argue that in the Late Bronze Age settlements became less abundant and therefore less visible archaeologically as people adapted to a more mobile economy (Kuzmina, 2000), that eventually gave rise to “pure nomadism”. The origins of pastoral nomadism and the transitions to it have been reviewed and discussed by several scholars proposing causal relationships with climatic fluctuation, population pressure, and terri- torial expansion (e.g. Hanks, 2002; Honeychurch and Makarewicz, 2016; Khazanov, 1994; Koryakova and Epimakhov, 2007; Spengler, 2014). During the past decades, however, the idea of a purely nomadic Early Iron Age economy the Early Iron Age has been critiqued and challenged by a growing body of archaeological evidence which points to a more complex economic situation in the steppes in the beginning of Iron Ages (Chang et al., 2003; Chang, 2012; Frachetti, 2008). Sys- tematic archaeological research carried out mainly in south-eastern Kazakhstan has improved our understanding of Early Iron Age socio- economics (e.g. Benecke, 2003; Chang et al., 2003; Chang and Beardmore, 2016; Haruda, 2007; Rosen, 2001; Rosen et al., 2000; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2017.12.002 Received 11 July 2017; Received in revised form 6 December 2017; Accepted 8 December 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: elina.ananyevskaya@if.vu.lt (E. Ananyevskaya). 1 All dates in this manuscript are in calibrated, calendar years BC (unless specified otherwise). Archaeological Research in Asia xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 2352-2267/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Ananyevskaya, E., Archaeological Research in Asia (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2017.12.002