Semiyarka! City of Seven Ravines! No, that’s what the archeologists called it. Because they’re entitled to a bit of fun, too.

The early city of Semiyarka spanned 346 acres (140 hectares) — more than four times larger than contemporaneous villages in the region. The site, which dates to 1600 B.C., is the first site in the region discovered to have significant space dedicated to metallurgy and tin-bronze production, according to the study, published Tuesday (Nov. 18) in the journal Antiquity.

“Semiyarka transforms our understanding of steppe societies,” study first author Miljana Radivojević, an archaeologist at University College London, said in a statement. “It demonstrates that mobile communities were capable of building and sustaining permanent, well-organized settlements centered on large-scale metallurgical production.”

Now, do understand that this is a late Bronze Age settlement, which in this case means about 1600 BC. ‘City’ is also a relative term in this context: they don’t talk population, but from the pictures I’d be surprised if this place had more than a few hundred people in it at any time. They are certain that the site was used for bronze production, since they’ve found the kind of trash and detritus associated with that, but everything else is speculation.

So it is not Semiyarka, long-conquered and restive under the Turanian yoke. It is not low-built and brooding above its infamous Seven Hells, where foul creatures lurk, bathed too long in the runoff of a thousand forges. Those creatures are not fat from the flesh of desperate fools who seek to harvest their brazen-dusted hides for the use of the bronzeworks above. There was no corrupted Cult of the Forge, last remnants of the old, pre-Turanian pantheon, which offers up suitable sacrifices in exchange for the cities unique king-bronze weapons. King-bronze weapons cannot shatter iron ones and blunt steel, and has a price to match. It’s none of these things.

…Now ask me if I care.

Moe Lane

PS: This is, by the way, a legitimately cool discovery.

H/T: Hot Air.