Arkaim

Arkaim is a fortified archaeological site, dated to c. 2150-1650 BCE, belonging to the Sintashta culture, situated in the steppe of the Southern Urals, 8.2 km north-northwest of the village of Amursky and 2.3 km east-southeast of the village of Alexandrovsky in the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia, just north of the border with Kazakhstan. It was discovered in 1987 by a team of archaeologists which later came under the leadership of Gennady Zdanovich. The realization of its importance unprecedentedly forestalled the planned flooding of the area for a reservoir. The construction of Arkaim is attributed to the early Proto-Indo-Iranian-speakers of the Sintashta culture, which some scholars believe represents the proto-Indo-Iranians before their split into different groups and migration to Central Asia and from there to the Iranian plateau, Indian subcontinent and other parts of Eurasia.