Metallurgical Production In Northern Eurasia In The Bronze Age

Copper is the first metal to play a large part in human history. This work is devoted to the history of metallurgical production in Northern Eurasia during the Bronze Age, based on experiments carried out by the author and analyses of ancient slag, ore and metal.

One of the leading Soviet archaeologists describes the development of ancient mining and metallurgy in the northern half of Eurasia. While the first traces of metallurgical activity date from between the seventh and the sixth millennium BC, significant mining developed only in the fifth millennium BC, in the northern Balkans and Carpathians. Metal producing centres were in these northern 'barbarian peripheral' regions rather than in the Near East and Asia Minor, areas traditionally associated with early classical civilization. Professor Chernykh describes successive periods of metallurgical activity in different regions: the Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province of the Copper Age: the Circumpontic of the Early and Middle Bronze Age: and the Eurasian, European Caucasian, Central Asian and Irano-Afghan of the Late Bronze Age. He provides detailed information about the different groups of copper and bronze artefacts, their chemical composition, and their dispersion in time and space. He analyses the international metallurgical trade and division of labour and, finally, the collapse of the sociocultural systems in these metallurgical centres in the first millennium BC.

Focusing on Bronze Age societies in Central Eurasia and North China, this book presents a new scenario of early social evolution. Essentially it integrates the Marxist production-relation concept and the community concept into the Band-Tribe-Chiefdom-State scheme, and formulates the following three hypotheses: 1) The community is an autonomous agent in political, economic, and cultural spheres; 2) The nature of the early social evolution is that the inter-community differentiation at the tribal stage transforms into the inter-community stratification at the chiefdom and state stages; 3) Metal production as a form of economy is a major force that instigates the inter-community differentiation. In testing the three hypotheses, Bronze Age archaeological data from Central Eurasia and North China are subjected to detailed examination. The Central Eurasian societies and the Late Shang kingdom are all engaged in metal production yet they represent two disparate stages of social development, the tribal and state stages respectively. This contrast gives us an excellent opportunity to reflect upon the trajectory of early social evolution and the role of metal production in this process. Virtually the two bodies of materials supply a desirable testing ground for the three hypotheses raised above.

Focusing on some of the earliest metal-working cultures in the eastern region of Eurasia (now northern and western China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia east of the Urals), archaeologists and metallurgical scientists present syntheses of data gathered by Russian and Chinese researchers in order to

The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the evolution of early metallurgy in the Balkans. It demonstrates that far from being a rare and elite practice, the earliest metallurgy in the world was a common and communal craft activity.

This book is the first synthesis of the archaeology of the Urals and Western Siberia. It presents a comprehensive overview of the late prehistoric cultures of these regions, which are of key importance for the understanding of long-term changes in Eurasia. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the Urals and Western Siberia are characterized by great environmental and cultural diversity which is reflected in the variety and richness of their archaeological sites. Based on the latest achievements of Russian archaeologists, this study demonstrates the temporal and geographical range of its subjects starting with a survey of the chronological sequence from the late fourth millennium BC to the early first millennium AD. Recent discoveries contribute to an understanding of issues such as the development of Eurasian metallurgy, technological and ritual innovations, pastoral nomadism and its role in Eurasian interactions, and major sociocultural fluctuations of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

This book presents general problems in geoarchaeology, and discusses geophysical solutions, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry applications, X-ray and isotope analyses and GIS technologies. It also examines practical reconstructions of technological processes used in ancient time, and investigates the use of minerals and rocks by ancient societies in the territories of modern Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, as well as the characteristics of ores, metallurgical slags and data on the composition and impurities of archaeological metals. Intended for archaeologists, historians, museum workers and geologists studying noble metals and copper, the book is also a useful resource for students, graduate students, experts and anyone interested in the use of various minerals at different stages of humanity’s development.

This book of Springer Proceedings in Geoarchaeology and Archaeological Mineralogy contains selected papers presented at the 7th Geoarchaeology Conference, which took place during October 19–23, 2020, at the South Urals Federal Research Center, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Miass, Russia. The Proceedings combine studies in archeometry, geoarchaeology, and ancient North Eurasian technologies, including paleometallurgy, stone tools investigation, past exploitation of geological resources, bioarchaeology, residue analysis, pottery, and lithics studies. This book also specializes in various non-organic materials, rocks, minerals, ores, and metals, especially copper and metallurgical slags. Many types of research also use modern analytical methods of isotopic, chemical, and mineralogical analysis to address the composition and structure of ancient materials and the technological practices of past human populations of modern Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia. This book is intended for archaeologists, historians, museum workers, and geologists, as well as students, researchers from other disciplines, and the general public interested in the interdisciplinary research in the field of archaeology and archaeological materials, strategies and techniques of past quarrying, mining, metallurgy and lithic technologies at different chronological periods in Eurasian steppe and adjacent forest zone.

This book unites studies in the fields of archaeometry, geoarchaeology, and ancient technologies, based on cases from northern Eurasia, and includes archaeometallurgy, stone tools investigation, exploitation of geological resources in the past, bioarchaeology, residue analysis, pottery and lithics investigation, and use of the GIS in archaeology. The book of Springer Proceedings in Geoarchaeology and Archaeological Mineralogy contains selected papers presented at the 8th Geoarchaeology Conference, which took place during September 20–23, 2021, at the South Urals Federal Research Center, the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Miass, Russia. A study of non-organic materials, rocks, minerals, ores, metals and metallurgical slags is a special focus of the book. Many papers also use modern analytical methods of isotopic, chemical, and mineralogical analysis to study the composition and structure of ancient materials and the technological practices of past human populations of Modern Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Mongolia. The book is intended for archaeologists, historians, museum workers and geologists, as well as students, researchers from other disciplines and the general public interested in the interdisciplinary research in the field of archaeology and archaeological materials, strategies and techniques of past quarrying, mining, metallurgy and lithic technologies at different chronological periods in Eurasian steppe and adjacent forest zone.

This book presents general problems in geoarchaeology, and discusses geophysical solutions, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry applications, X-ray and isotope analyses and GIS technologies. It also examines practical reconstructions of technological processes used in ancient time, and investigates the use of minerals and rocks by ancient societies in the territories of modern Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, as well as the characteristics of ores, metallurgical slags and data on the composition and impurities of archaeological metals. Intended for archaeologists, historians, museum workers and geologists studying noble metals and copper, the book is also a useful resource for students, graduate students, experts and anyone interested in the use of various minerals at different stages of humanity’s development.