Archaeologists have uncovered a vast 140-hectare Bronze Age settlement in north-eastern Kazakhstan, dating back to around 1600 BC. The site, known as Semiyarka, features houses, a central monumental building, and an industrial zone for bronze production. This discovery reshapes understanding of prehistoric Eurasian societies.
In the open grasslands of north-eastern Kazakhstan, a major settlement called Semiyarka, or the 'City of Seven Ravines,' has been revealed through mapping and surveying efforts led by Miljana Radivojević at University College London since 2016. Spanning 140 hectares and dating to approximately 1600 BC—about 3600 years ago—the site includes long earth banks possibly for defense, at least 20 enclosed household compounds likely built with mud bricks, and a central monumental building suggested for rituals or governance. Pottery findings confirm the timeline.
Crucially, the presence of crucibles, slag, and bronze artifacts points to a dedicated area for producing copper and tin bronze, an alloy with more than 2 percent tin. The slag's composition matches tin deposits from the Altai mountains, about 300 kilometers away in east Kazakhstan. Radivojević notes that the Irtysh river, which the site overlooks, was vital: 'The Irtysh is the most important tin-bearing river in the Bronze Age of Eurasia and the flooding of the river’s flood plain that was happening seasonally would have been very helpful for panning the tin.' Tin could have been transported by people on the steppes, by boat along the river, or panned directly from its waters.
Unlike the typical scattered camps of mobile steppe communities, Semiyarka's large size and organized layout suggest a sophisticated, settled society. Team member Dan Lawrence at Durham University, UK, observes that the neat lines of structures imply they were contemporary, as successive builds would not align so precisely. Without full excavations—planned for the future—details on building timelines remain tentative.
Positioned near major copper and tin sources along the Irtysh, a key transport corridor, Semiyarka likely served as a bronze production hub, exchange center, and node of regional power in Bronze Age metal networks across Eurasia. Lawrence describes it as 'laying the foundations for the Silk Roads as we know them today, a kind of pre-modern globalisation.' Barry Molloy at University College Dublin, who was not involved, calls it 'the missing half of the jigsaw,' highlighting organized resourcing, defense, and integration into wider continental networks. Radivojević emphasizes that it shows steppe societies were as complex as Mediterranean or Chinese civilizations of the era.
The findings are published in Antiquity (DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2025.10244).