Early Bronze Age. Late Bronze Age Late Bronze Age

Bronze Age- the archaeological era that followed the Copper Age. This period was characterized by the production of bladed weapons and tools from bronze, the emergence of the first cattle breeders, writing, and state formations based on the slave system. The Iron Age replaced this era in the first millennium BC.

The emergence of a historical term
Hesiod was the first to use the concept of the Bronze Age in his writings, dividing the history of human development into five eras.

After archeology was transformed into an independent scientific branch of knowledge, a periodization of the prehistoric development of mankind was developed. It was based on the division of materials of labor tools. Historical stages can be traced most clearly in the Middle Eastern lands and the Mediterranean. For example, archaeological finds of Ancient China do not allow us to distinguish full-fledged Bronze and Iron Ages.

Features of the era
At the end of the fourth millennium BC. e. humanity began to discover the beneficial properties of metal and use them in their lives. After the discovery of bronze, its development and distribution, it began to play an important role in people's lives. Mining and smelting metal required specialized knowledge and skills. That is why foundry and blacksmithing subsequently became separate professions.

Land cultivation moved to a new level, which made it possible to improve production. Now people could run family households and keep the surplus produced. This created favorable conditions for the further emergence of private property and property stratification.

During the Bronze Age, mining and metallurgical areas were formed on the territory of Central Kazakhstan and a number of other lands, which had a significant impact on the development of nearby regions.

Bronze contributed to the expansion of ties between state entities and exchange relations. So tools and weapons spread to areas where there were no metal deposits. Wars began over the right to own raw materials, livestock and agricultural land. Talented military leaders appeared, whose powers were then expanded to govern countries, and thus the cult of the leader began. Even after death, the leader continued to be worshiped. In the era of the appearance of metal, the custom arose of constructing special graves - mounds. The splendor of the tombs and their size testified to the status and property status of the deceased.

Agriculture and various crafts during the Bronze Age developed especially actively in Central Asia.

All types of metal processing and casting from forging to engraving are becoming popular and in demand creativity. The production of metal jewelry is developing on a large scale: rings, hoops, tiaras, earrings, brooches for clothes, as well as buckles. Weapons with decorations on the handles were valued; the most common were images of the animal world. In burials of the Bronze Age, frequent artifacts include: festive vessels made of metal, decorated with fine engraving. Archaeologists have found many small sculptures. It is characteristic that most of them are male, which reflects obvious changes in the social structure.

Most of the finds are decorated with ornaments of the animal world (beak, claws, eyes, head, etc.). A new direction, “animal style,” emerged in decorative and applied arts.

Classification of periods
Before the Bronze Age, most territories experienced the Neolithic Age, but in some regions the chain of development was supplemented by the Chalcolithic Age (age of copper and stones). Although certain regions (for example, the southern lands of the Sahara) immediately stepped into the Iron Age.

The Bronze Age is divided into: early, middle and late.

Early. Metal tools were first used in the Middle East, where copper was mined from the fourth millennium BC. Most of the bronze product contained tin impurities. The first finds in Iran date back to the end of the fourth millennium BC. In the Caucasus, bronze items were made containing arsenic.

The actual beginning of the era is 35-33 centuries. BC, when the Circumpontic province became the main center for bronze production.

Cultures are divided into 2 main groups of communities in Eurasia. In the south of the Sayan Mountains there lived state formations with agricultural and cattle breeding farms. They had a developed social structure, which later formed states. To the north of the Eurasian steppes lived tribal communities of nomads.

Average. Covers the period up to the 19th century. BC e. and is characterized by the expansion of the region of use of bronze objects. Now the northern lands are moving to a new level of development.

Late. Accounted for 3 and 2 thousand BC. e., at this time the Circumpontic province finally disintegrated. In return, new metallurgical regions are emerging. The most famous and largest in terms of area covered was the Eurasian steppe province for metal production. The metallurgical regions were famous for producing quality products in a variety of patterns and shapes.

At 13-12 Art. BC. A transformation of cultures began across a vast area spanning Eurasia. It lasted for several centuries and was characterized by the migration of peoples. Scientists call this time period the Bronze Age catastrophe, which became the beginning of the Iron historical era. The Bronze Age lasted longest in Atlantic Europe, surviving during the period of migration of Celtic tribes.

The Bronze Age became the second late period of the Metal Age. It covers centuries from the 25th to the 11th BC. and is divided into three stages:

• Early - XXV to XVII centuries.
• Middle - XVII to XV centuries.
• Late - XV to IX centuries.

The Bronze Age is characterized by the improvement of tools of labor and hunting, but scientists still cannot understand how they came to the idea of ​​smelting copper ore using a metallurgical method.

Bronze was the first metal, often obtained by adding antimony or arsenic, and its properties were superior to soft copper: the melting point of copper was 1000°C, and that of bronze was about 900°C. Such temperatures were achieved in small crucible furnaces with a sharp bottom and thick walls. Molds for casting tools of labor and hunting were made of soft stone and poured with clay spoons.

Development led to improvement; some pastoral tribes switched to nomadic cattle breeding, while sedentary tribes continued to develop and switched to plow farming, which marked the beginning of social changes within the tribes.

In addition, the culture of the Bronze Age begins to change: patriarchal relations are established in the family - the power of the older generation is strengthened, the role and position of the husband in the family is strengthened. Witnesses are the paired burials of a husband and wife with traces of the woman’s violent death.

The stratification of society begins, social and property differences between the wealthy and poor strata become more and more: large multi-room houses with a clear layout appear, rich settlements grow, concentrating smaller ones around them. Gradually expanding, they form the first cities in which trade and crafts actively develop, and writing begins in the Bronze Age. This was a very important moment.

The art of the Bronze Age developed along with the improvement of tools: it acquired clear, strict outlines, and geometric patterns were replaced by multi-colored drawings of animals. During this period, sculpture, ornaments (in the decoration of tools and household items), and plastic appeared. It was in the ornaments that a symbolic visual language emerged, which each clan had its own. Ornamental painting had the character of amulets: they protected food vessels from evil spirits, attracted abundance, and gave health to the family.

The famous paintings of Karakol are interesting, depicting strange creatures in whose figures animal and human features were intertwined. The combination of full face and profile in one human image brings these figures closer to ancient Egyptian art - all these paintings reflected the cosmogonic ideas of the ancients about the origin of man, about the interactions of people and gods during the transition to the world of the dead. Such drawings were made in black, white and red paint on the walls of burial boxes, and traces of drawings made in red paint were found on the skulls of the dead.

In addition to the necessary tools, they learned to make cast and forged bronze and gold copper jewelry, which was decorated with chasing, stones, bone, leather and shells.

The Bronze Age was the predecessor of the Iron Age, which raised civilization to a higher level of development.

The Bronze Age is the second, later phase of the Early Metal Age, which replaced the Copper Age and preceded the Iron Age. In general, the chronological framework of the Bronze Age: 35/33 - 13/11 centuries. BC e., but they differ among different cultures.

There are early, middle and late stages of the Bronze Age. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, the zone of cultures with metal covered no more than 8-10 million km², and by its end their area increased to 40-43 million km². During the Bronze Age, the formation, development and change of a number of metallurgical provinces took place.

The primary center of the origin of metallurgy is now associated with a significant region of the Middle East, stretching from Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean in the west to the Iranian Plateau in the east. There, bronze is found in the monuments of the so-called “pre-ceramic Neolithic” (late 8th - 7th millennium BC). The most famous among them are Chayenu Tepezi and Catal Guyuk in Anatolia, Tell Ramad in Syria, Tell Magzalia in northern Mesopotamia. The inhabitants of these settlements did not know ceramics, but had already begun to master agriculture, cattle breeding and metallurgy. The oldest copper finds in Europe, dating back to the second quarter of the 5th millennium BC, also do not go beyond the Neolithic. It is noteworthy that the first copper products are concentrated in the Balkan-Carpathian region, from where they subsequently move to the middle and southern part of Eastern Europe.

The first appearance of copper products was largely associated with the manufacture of jewelry from nuggets and malachite and therefore had little influence on the development of human society.

The entire periodization and relative chronology of the cultures of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages of Western Asia and Balkan-Danube Europe is built, first of all, on a stratigraphic basis. The predominant use of this method is explained by the fact that the main monuments with which archaeologists have to deal here are the so-called “those” - huge residential hills that arose from settlements that existed for a long time in one place. Houses in such villages were built from short-lived mud brick or clay.

In Western and Eastern Europe, Siberia, Kazakhstan, and most of Central Asia, there are no telli. The periodization of the monuments of the Early Metal Age, represented here mainly by single-layer settlements and burial grounds, is constructed largely using the typological method.

Chronology of cultures III-II millennium BC, i.e. mainly Bronze Age, is still largely based on the historical dates of the oldest written sources. For periods preceding the 3rd millennium BC, the only criterion for a correct chronological assessment can be considered the dates of radiocarbon analyzes.

It is very difficult to indicate a clear chronological framework for the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages for the territory of Russia and the former USSR. Across the vast expanses of Eurasia, noticeable fluctuations are found in the dates of the onset and development of the Early Metal Age.

The unevenness makes itself felt when trying to delineate the time boundaries of the Bronze Age. In the Caucasus and the south of Eastern Europe it lasts from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, and in the north of Eastern Europe and the Asian part of Russia it fits into the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC.

The economic specificity of archaeological cultures of the Early Metal Age also manifests itself differently in different regions. In the southern zone - in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, southern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus - powerful centers of metallurgy and metalworking, as a rule, are associated with the brightest centers of agriculture and cattle breeding. At the same time, there is a process of formation of their specialized forms, which in a given natural environment and at a given level of development of metal tools provide the greatest productivity. For example, in the arid, arid zone of the Middle East and southern Central Asia, it was during the Early Metal Age that irrigation agriculture arose. In the forest-steppe zone of Europe, slash-and-burn and fallow farming are spreading, and in the Caucasus, terrace farming is spreading.

Cattle breeding comes in a wide variety of forms. In South-Eastern Europe, traces of meat and dairy farming and domestic farming with a predominance of cattle and pigs in the herd are clearly visible. In the Caucasus and in the Zagros zone of Mesopotamia, a transhumance form of cattle breeding is being formed based on the breeding of sheep and goats. A specific form of mobile cattle breeding developed in the steppes of Eastern Europe.

A different picture is observed in the northern part of Eurasia: the appearance of metal tools did not cause noticeable economic changes here and were clearly less important than in the south. In the north, during the Early Metal Age, there was a process of improvement and intensification of traditional forms of appropriating economy (hunting and fishing) and only the first steps were taken in the development of cattle breeding. The development of agriculture begins here only at the very end of the Bronze Age.

In the socio-historical sphere, the era of early metal is associated with the decomposition of primitive communal relations.

Large Chalcolithic settlements eventually develop into Bronze Age cities, which are distinguished not only by a high concentration of population, but also by the highest level of development of crafts and trade, and the emergence of complex monumental architecture. The development of cities is accompanied by the emergence of writing and the emergence of the first Bronze Age civilizations in history.

The earliest Bronze Age civilizations arose in the great river valleys of the subtropics of the Old World. The corresponding period is characterized by archaeological materials from Egypt in the Nile Valley (starting from the second dynastic period), Susa “N” and “D” in Elam in the Karun and Kerkh valleys, late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys in Mesopotamia, Harappa in the Indus Valley in Hindustan, later - Shang-Yin in China in the Yellow River Valley. Among the extraterrestrial civilizations of the Bronze Age, one can name only the Hittite kingdom in Asia Minor, the Ebla civilization in Syria, and the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization of the Aegean basin of Europe.

BRONZE AGE, an era of human history identified on the basis of archaeological data, characterized by the leading role of bronze products. A number of important economic and technological innovations are associated with the Bronze Age: the wheel, the potter's wheel, and arable tools. The Bronze Age is the second, later phase of the Early Metal Age. In general, the chronological framework of the Bronze Age is 35/33-13/11 centuries BC, but it differs among different cultures. The Bronze Age is divided into early, middle and late stages. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, the zone of cultures with metal covered no more than 8-10 million km 2, and by its end the area of ​​their distribution increased to 40-43 million km 2. During the Bronze Age, the formation, development and change of a number of metallurgical provinces (MP) took place.

The boundary that separated the Copper Age from the Early Bronze Age (see map Early and Middle Bronze Age) was the collapse of the Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province (1st half of the 4th millennium) and the formation of the Circumpontic metallurgical province around the 35th/33rd century. Within the Circumpontian MP, which dominated during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, copper ore centers of the South Caucasus, Anatolia, the Balkan-Carpathian region, and the Aegean Islands were discovered and began to be exploited. To the west of it, the mining and metallurgical centers of the Southern Alps, the Iberian Peninsula, and the British Isles functioned; to the south and southeast, metal-bearing cultures were discovered in Egypt, Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

With the beginning of the Bronze Age, two blocks of human communities in Eurasia took shape and began to actively interact. To the south of the central folded mountain belt (Sayano-Altai - Pamir and Tien Shan - Caucasus - Carpathians - Alps), societies with a complex social structure, an economy based on agriculture in combination with livestock breeding, have formed; Cities, writing, and states appeared here. To the north, in the Eurasian steppe, warlike societies of mobile pastoralists developed.

In the Middle Bronze Age (26/25-20/19 centuries) there was an expansion (mainly to the north) of the zone occupied by metal-bearing cultures. The Circumpontic MP basically retains its structure and still remains the central system of producing metallurgical centers of Eurasia.

The beginning of the Late Bronze Age (see map Late Bronze Age) is the collapse of the Circumpontic MP at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennium and the formation of a whole chain of new MPs, which to varying degrees reflected the most important features of mining and metallurgical production practiced in the central centers of the Circumpontic MP. The largest among the MPs of the Late Bronze Age was the Eurasian steppe metallurgical province (up to 8 million km 2), which inherited the traditions of the Circumpontic MP. Adjoining it from the south were the Caucasian metallurgical province and the Iran-Afghan metallurgical province, which were small in area but distinguished by their special richness and variety of product forms, as well as the nature of the alloys. From Sayano-Altai to Indochina, production centers of the complex formation of the East Asian metallurgical province spread. The European Metallurgical Province stretched from the Northern Balkans to the Atlantic coast of Europe; its high-quality products of various forms are found mainly in rich and numerous treasures. Adjoining it from the south was the Mediterranean metallurgical province, which differed significantly from the European MP in production methods and product forms.

From the 13th/12th century BC, cultures disintegrated or changed almost throughout the entire space from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; for several centuries - until the 10th/8th century BC, grandiose migrations of peoples took place. The transition to the Early Iron Age begins.

Lit.: The bronze age civilization in Central Asia. Armonk/Ed. F. L. Kohl. N.Y., 1981; Chernykh E. N., Kuzminykh S. V. Ancient metallurgy of Northern Eurasia. M., 1989; Chernykh E. N. Ancient metallurgy in the USSR: the early metal age. N.Y., 1992; Chernykh E. N., Avilova L. I., Orlovskaya L. B. Metallurgical provinces and radiocarbon chronology. M., 2000; Harding A. F. European societies in the bronze age. Camb., 2000; Metallurgy in ancient eastern Eurasia from the Urals to the Yellow River. Lewinston, 2004.

With the onset of the Early Bronze Age at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. e. There are significant cultural changes. They can be traced across vast areas of Eurasia, but are especially evident in South-Eastern Europe. Here, bright Eneolithic cultures with painted ceramics disappear without a trace, and with them the metallurgical achievements of the Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province become a thing of the past. It is believed that the destruction of the province was associated with the first powerful migration of the ancient Indo-European tribes, whose migration covered a vast area around the Black Sea [Todorova X., 1979; Chernykh E.N., 1988].

The localization of the Indo-European ancestral home is still the subject of heated debate. Some researchers place it in the Carpathian-Danube region, others - in the western part of the steppe region of Eurasia (Caspian region, Northern Black Sea region), others - in Western and Asia Minor [Dyakonov I.M., 1982; Gamkrelidze T.V., Ivanov V.V., 1984]. However, many prefer to see the carriers of the Northern Black Sea kurgan cultures of the Bronze Age in the role of the most ancient Indo-Europeans. Among them, special attention is paid to the Yamnaya culture, or rather, a historical community that bears many features identified on the basis of an analysis of the Indo-European “proto-language” [Petrukhin V. Ya., Raevsky D. S., 1998]. This analysis indicates that it originated and developed among mobile cattle breeders and horse breeders who knew the wheel and wheeled transport, used vans on wheels, mastered the rudiments of agriculture, and developed the skills of processing copper and bronze. The way of life of the Yamnaya tribes most closely matches the proposed picture, so their connection with the ancient Indo-Europeans looks quite likely.

According to archaeological data, it is known that the Yamnaya tribes made long migration throws from the Northern Black Sea region to the west and southwest. Perhaps it was they who destroyed the Balkan-Carpathian population of the Eneolithic. Be that as it may, the first pit burials with crumpled and painted bones appear in the southeast of Europe (in Romania, Bulgaria, the lower and middle Danube region) precisely at the turn of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages.

Apparently, during their long campaigns, the Yamnaya tribes not only spread Indo-European speech, but also spread new metal processing technologies and new types of tools and weapons, different from the Chalcolithic, in the northwestern part of the Circumpontic region. A previously unknown stereotype of metallurgical production is associated with the formation of the Circumpontic Metallurgical Province (hereinafter referred to as the CMP), which existed during the Early and Middle Bronze Age on a vast territory located mainly around the Black Sea. It covered the Balkan-Carpathian region, the south of Eastern Europe up to the Urals, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, southwestern Iran, Anatolia, Aegean, and Levant (Fig. 11). Thus, the former regions of the Balkan-Carpathian province were completely included within the CMP, forming its northwestern periphery.

The Circumpontic province united cultures that differed greatly in geographical location, in the nature of the production economy, and in the specific habitats of the population. In the northern zone of the province, the prerequisites have developed for the establishment of shepherding as the dominant form of the economy. Cultures that practiced mobile forms of cattle breeding predominated here (Novotitarovskaya culture of the Kuban region, Yamnaya cultural and historical community of the south of Eastern Europe, Usatovo culture of the northwestern Black Sea region). The pastoral population of this zone left us many burial grounds, mostly mounds, and very few settlements, as a rule, with very thin cultural layers.

In the southern zone of the province, on the contrary, cultures predominated whose tribes were engaged primarily in agriculture, only supplemented by cattle breeding. The habitats of their bearers are represented by long-term residential hills, thick in terms of cultural deposits - tells. They are represented in the area of ​​the Ezero culture in the Balkans, the Troy I culture in Anatolia, the Kuro-Araks culture of Transcaucasia, etc. (Fig. 33). The degree of social development of the population of southern, sedentary agricultural cultures was generally higher. This makes itself felt in the appearance on their territory already in the early Bronze Age of state-type associations with a developed urban structure and writing (Mesopotamia, southwestern Iran).

Despite the differences in economic structure and level of social development, both zones show many similarities. This similarity, in addition to metal products and partly ceramics, which will be discussed later, is manifested in the closeness of funeral rites: burials are performed, as a rule, in rectangular pits, in which those buried lie crouched on their backs or on their sides. The similarity can also be seen in the fact that along the entire Black Sea ring in the Early Bronze Age, fortified settlements with ramparts and ditches and even stone fortresses appeared. They were known here both in earlier and later times. But never before have they represented such a massive and regular phenomenon. Apparently, military clashes between the tribal groups that were part of the province were of a regular nature and played a significant role in shaping the stereotype of its material culture and production [Chernykh E.N., 1989]. But the model of its formation, apparently, should also be associated with the peaceful interaction of its constituent population. Its coordinated development, repeated mixing, and close interaction developed not only through military skirmishes, but also through close exchange and cultural contacts.

Rice. 33. The northern part of the Circumpontic metallurgical province in the early Bronze Age (according to E. N. Chernykh with additions by N. V. Ryndina). Location diagram of archaeological sites and centers of metal production: 1 - culture of Troy I (center of metallurgy); 2—Ezero culture (center of metalworking); 3 - Transylvanian focus; 4 – Brno-Lišní-Jevizovice culture; 5 - Yamnaya community (a center of metallurgy and a center of metalworking); 6 – Usatovo culture (center of metalworking); 7 – Sofievskaya culture (center of metalworking); 8—Novotitarovskaya culture; 9 - Maikop culture (center of metallurgy); 10 – Kuro-Araks culture (center of metallurgy); 11 — borders of the CMP; 12—proposed boundaries.

In the history of the CMP, two main phases can be distinguished. The first dates back mainly to the 3rd millennium BC. e., without going beyond its last third; second - last third III - first half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The first phase can be associated with the Early Bronze Age, while the second, late phase is associated with the Middle Bronze Age.

Most production centers of CMP are characterized by five main types of tools and weapons: 1) socketed axes; 2) double-edged knives and daggers, mostly with handles; 3) tetrahedral awls with a thickening stop on the back of the gun; 4) chisels - tetrahedral or round in cross-section, also with a thickening stop; 5) adzes - flat, relatively wide and thin (Fig. 34). This set of diagnostic items could vary in different foci both in quantitative relationship with each other and in some details of the form. This set, moreover, could appear in various foci not only in a standard form, but also in an enriched or depleted form. For example, socketed axes, almost ubiquitous in the hearths of the northern zone, are much less common in the south. For the outbreaks of the southern zone, on the contrary, tetrahedral “bayonets” with a stop and leaf-shaped spears with a stop are typical, which are practically absent in the northern part of the province [Chernykh E.N., 1978b].

Rice. 34. A set of products characteristic of the Early Bronze Age within the Circumpontic metallurgical province. 1-5 - socketed axes and a mold for casting them, open from the “belly” side of the ax; 6-7 - flat adzes; 8-10, 15, 16 - double-edged dagger knives; 11, 12, 17-19 - chisels with a thickening stop; 13, 14 - awls with a thickening stop.

As already noted, the technology of metal production in centers of CMP has so far been little studied. Under these conditions, the finds of casting molds made of clay and stone, the analysis of which makes it possible to establish the features of foundry technologies, become of particular importance. The specificity of early Bronze Age foundry is clearly evident when studying the forms in which socketed axes, the largest and functionally most important CMP tools, were produced. It turned out that throughout the vast territory of the province in the Early Bronze Age, a similar tradition of obtaining them with the help of two main types prevailed: 1) bivalve, completely open from the “belly” side of the ax; 2) double-leaf, completely open from the “back” side of the ax. The “belly” of an ax is considered to be that side of it that faces down when it is attached to the handle; “back” refers to the edge facing up.

Within the framework of the CMP, already in the early phase of its development, the mass distribution of the first artificial bronzes began. They are represented mainly by copper-arsenic alloys. Arsenic bronzes dominate the Early Bronze Age in the Caucasus, Anatolia, and Aegean basin. In the northeast of the Balkans and in the steppe zone of southern Eastern Europe, pure copper continued to be used along with alloys of copper and arsenic. In the northern, peripheral regions of the Central MP (northwest Balkans, Volga region, Southern Urals), tools were cast from pure copper for a long time; artificial alloys were not mastered here in the Early Bronze Age. The ore sources to which the Early Bronze Age metals are associated are not always clear. However, it is believed that the main mining areas, the raw materials of which fed the centers of the CMP, were the Caucasus, Anatolia, Balkan-Carpathia and the Urals.

What is the advantage of copper-arsenic alloys compared to copper? Adding even a small amount of As to copper (0.5-1%) significantly increases its fluidity, that is, the ability to fill all, even the smallest, cavities of the casting mold without premature solidification. The presence of arsenic in the alloy prevents the formation of a number of brittle components in it, which are extremely undesirable during forging. The main difficulty when working with arsenic bronze was that even with slight heating (for example, during forging), arsenic volatilized, which was noticeable to anyone, even someone not experienced in metallurgy. Arsenic was removed from the alloy in the form of white vapors formed by the oxides of this metal. The toxic fumes of arsenic, which made metallurgists suicide bombers, were distinguished by a characteristic garlic odor, which made it possible to unmistakably distinguish this harmful alloy from pure copper. According to most researchers, it was the volatility and toxicity of arsenic vapor that caused arsenic, as an additive to copper, to gradually give way to tin. And yet, despite the shortcomings and complexity of working with arsenic bronzes, their discovery was a giant step forward in the technical progress of primitive societies [Ravich I. G., Ryndina N. V., 1984].

Apparently, artificial alloys based on copper and arsenic were first discovered in Anatolia and the Caucasus. In both regions, evidence of their use dates back to the Neolithic period. Without a doubt, these regions have a priority role in the emergence and development of metallurgy of pulp and paper industry.

When starting to characterize specific foci of CMP, it should immediately be noted that their study is uneven in comparison with foci of CDMP. It manifests itself both in the analytical coverage of the material and in the territorial one. The best studied areas are the Caucasus, the Northern Black Sea region, the Balkans, and partly Asia Minor. More southern regions are still awaiting their detailed analysis. Taking into account the actual state of knowledge of the materials, we will concentrate our attention on the consideration of cultures and associated foci that geographically gravitate towards the Black Sea basin.
Let us turn first of all to Anatolia. Within its boundaries, in the Early Bronze Age, a special role apparently belonged to the Western or Trojan center of metal production (see Fig. 33). Its products are represented by collections of metal from Troy I and a number of island settlements of the Aegean Sea (Poliochni, Thermi, Emporio, etc.). It consists of socketed axes, concave-bladed daggers, knives, and flat adze-chisels. All these products are cast from arsenic bronzes. The source of their receipt is not entirely clear; most likely they are associated with deposits in Central Anatolia.

Before moving on to a more detailed description of the culture of Troy I, a few words about the history of research and stratigraphy of the Trojan tell, called the Hissarlik Hill. Initially, in 1870-1890, excavations of the monument were carried out by G. Schliemann. Then they were continued, making a great contribution to the systematization of the finds, by V. Derpfeld. From 1932 to 1938 An American archaeological expedition under the leadership of K. Blegen worked in Troy. Currently, excavations have resumed under the leadership of the German archaeologist M. Korfman. In Troy, glorified by Homer, 9 layers (“cities”) dating back to the 3rd millennium BC were identified. e. until the Roman era. Six lower villages of Troy are associated with the Bronze Age. The materials from the first settlement were used to identify the culture of Troy I.

The inhabitants of Troy I built rectangular houses from large blocks of stone, the so-called “megarons”. They consisted of a long hall with an adjoining portico open to the courtyard. In the main room there was a round hearth, and along the walls there were stone seats covered with clay or plaster. The village was surrounded by a stone wall with towers and narrow gated entrances, often called “entrance corridors.”

In the residential houses of the Troy I culture, grain and other food supplies were stored in large vessels. Identification of grains showed that the local population grew wheat, barley, and millet. In addition, it was engaged in gardening: burnt figs and grape seeds were found in Poliochni. Cattle breeding, based on the breeding of cows, goats, sheep and pigs, played a significant role in the economy. Tools and weapons made of flint, obsidian and various types of stone were still used. These are knives, sickle inserts, wedge-shaped axes, adzes, drilled battle axes, hammers, mace heads. Many spindle whorls and loom weights indicate the development of weaving.

Hand-made ceramics are dark grey, brown or red in color. Its surface is carefully polished, sometimes decorated with carved geometric designs filled with white paste (Fig. 35).
Typical are vessels on a ring base, jugs with an obliquely cut neck, jugs with a beak-shaped spout, three-legged jugs and pots, as well as cylindrical lids for them with horn-shaped handles.

Economic and trade relations of the Troyan center of metallurgy lead mainly towards the Balkan Peninsula within the boundaries of the Ezero type center [Chernykh E.N., 1978a]. This center of metalworking, associated with the territory of the culture of the same name, covered in the 3rd millennium BC. e. areas of the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula and the Lower Danube valley within Northern Bulgaria and Southern Romania. The Western, or Trojan, hearth of Anatolia and the Ezero-type hearth of South-Eastern Europe are related by arsenic bronzes of similar composition, as well as similar types of tools, and above all adzes of various types, large and small chisels, and daggers. However, local metalworking also has its own distinctive features. They manifest themselves in the sporadic use, along with arsenic metal, of “pure” copper for casting tools. In addition, in the area of ​​the Ezero-type hearth, socketed axes with a long blade are represented in significant series; in Anatolia they are very rare (Fig. 36). It is noteworthy that the collection of finds from the Ezero culture also contains molds for making such axes. Unfortunately, at present we cannot say anything definite about the ore sources of copper and arsenic used by local craftsmen. Most likely, the craftsmen worked using imported raw materials, from which they forged and cast finished products. They were not involved in metal smelting [Chernykh E.N., 1978a].

Typological parallels between Anatolia and the northeastern Balkans in the Early Bronze Age are not limited to metalwork. In Tell Ezero near the Bulgarian city of Nova Zagora, especially in its upper layers, ceramics similar to the dishes of Troy I were found (the same shapes of bowls, jugs, lids). Tools and weapons of the Ezero culture, made of stone, flint, bone and horn, show significant proximity to the Trojan collections; decorations from these monuments are completely identical to the Trojan ones [Merpert N. Ya., 1983]. All these materials suggest that in the territory of the Balkan-Danube region, northwestern Anatolia and some Aegean islands, a close culture developed, the bearers of which can probably be considered ethnically related tribes.

Rice. 36. Metal finds of the Ezero culture, marking the specifics of the metalworking center of the same name. 1, 2 - tesla; 3-8, 11, 12 - daggers; 9, 10 — bits; 13-16 - socketed axes.

Only the topography of the villages and the nature of the construction of housing differ in their specific character [Ezero..., 1979]. Telli of the Ezero culture are located mainly near rivers, lakes or other water sources. It has been established that most of the settlements were built on the remains of tells from the Chalcolithic era. But the new culture does not reveal any connection with the previous era. Some telli were surrounded by stone walls. Ezero, for example, in the late period of its existence had a double line of defense: one wall enclosed the upper platform of the hill, the other was placed beyond its base (V horizon). Residential buildings are built from wooden posts woven with wicker and coated with clay. All of them are rectangular with an entrance from the end side. The wall opposite the entrance often ends in an apsidal curve. In most houses, massive horseshoe-shaped stoves, open hearths, areas for drying grain, and grain grinders were found.

Residents of the villages were engaged in agriculture based on the cultivation of barley, wheat, vetch, peas, grapes, and also raised small cattle and pigs. Cattle, typical of the Eneolithic, lose their numerical superiority.

Thus, the formation of the Ezero culture and other cultures of the Balkan-Carpathian region in the Early Bronze Age indicates a sharp break with the traditions of the local Chalcolithic and BKMP. Apparently, the local population was displaced by tribes that moved here from the steppe zone of Eastern Europe.

In the history of the southern zone of the Central MP in the Early Bronze Age phase, the Kura-Araks metallurgical center of Transcaucasia stands out noticeably. Tribes of the Kuro-Araks culture occupied the territory of southern and central Transcaucasia, eastern Anatolia, northwestern Iran, Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and partly northern Ossetia (Fig. 33). It is difficult to precisely localize production centers for metal smelting and processing within this huge zone. But, apparently, they gravitated towards the rich copper deposits of the Lesser Caucasus. The reality of this assumption is indicated by data on some copper ore outcrops with ancient workings such as adits and drifts. An example of this is the deposits of the Kafan ore field in Armenia [Gevorgyan A. T., 1980]. According to the chemical composition of the Kafan ores, they could serve as a source of copper for the metallurgists of the Kura-Araks culture.

At two settlements of the Kura-Araks culture (Amiranis-Gora in Georgia and Baba-Dervish in Azerbaijan), furnaces associated with the metal production process were found [Makhmudov et al., 1968; Kushnareva K. Kh., Chubinishvili T. N., 1970]. However, the question of whether they are metallurgical, i.e., intended for smelting metal from ores, or foundry, i.e., associated with the melting of finished copper, has not yet been resolved. There is no doubt about the presence of their own metalworking, although mastery of metallurgical processes, according to a number of indirect observations, is also very likely. At a number of settlements, not only finished bronze products were found, but also tools for their production: nozzles, crucibles, lyakki, casting molds (Fig. 37). A lot of slags have been discovered, which, unfortunately, have not yet been studied by special, natural scientific methods [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a; Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994b].

Rice. 37. Remains of foundry production from settlements of the Kura-Araks culture [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1993]. 1, 2, 11, 12 — clay nozzles; 3 - mold for casting a flat ax; 4, 5, 9 — molds for casting socketed axes; 6-8, 16 - molds for casting blank bars; 10 - melting furnace; 13 — mold for casting a spear; 14, 15—copper blanks and an ax-shaped ingot; 17 - Lyachki.

The metal collections of the Kuro-Araks culture include items generally characteristic of the early phase of the CMP. Among them are numerous awls with a thickened stop, knives and daggers, flat adzes, and socketed axes (Fig. 38). Rare finds include bronze chisel-shaped tools [Glonti M. G., 1982]. The group of decorations is significant and diverse. It includes beads, spiral temple rings, spiral bracelets, pins with semicircular, double-spiral, T-shaped heads. Unique bronze diadem. On the plate forming it, the figures of a deer and a bird are stamped with a punch ornament (Fig. 38 - 25). The morphological uniqueness of the Kura-Araks metal products is expressed quite clearly. Specific forms of products include pecking axes, bayonets, spearheads, sickles (Fig. 38 - 3, 4, 9, 23, 24). Most of the metal implements of the Kura-Araks culture are made of alloys of copper and arsenic.

Among the Kura-Araks monuments, settlements predominate, although many burial grounds are also known. Settlements are located not only in the plains, but also in the foothills and even mountainous areas. The population density was very high [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1993].

Houses in settlements of the Kura-Araks culture are usually round, sometimes equipped with additional rectangular rooms made of mud brick. The circular central rooms, covered with conical roofs, were paved with pebbles in concentric circles. On the pavement there was a round clay hearth with complex petal cutouts hanging over its central part. Thick petal walls were decorated with molded relief spirals. Sometimes hearth stands (barbecues) resembling a horseshoe in shape were placed next to round hearths [Munchaev R. M., 1975]. Vivid examples of such buildings were discovered at the Shengavit settlement, excavated on the territory of Yerevan. The round buildings of Shengavit are surrounded by a stone wall with towers and ditches.

At the settlements of the Kura-Araks culture, a lot of dark gray or black dishes were found, often polished to a mirror shine [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a; Munchaev R. M., 1975]. Along with unornamented vessels, ceramics with relief and later incised ornaments are found. Most often these are twisted spirals, concentric circles, rhombuses, triangles; images of people and animals are known (Fig. 39). The shapes of the dishes are varied: egg-shaped jugs, large wide-necked vessels with a rounded body, biconical pots.

Materials obtained from the settlements indicate that the people of the Kura-Araks culture were skilled farmers and cattle breeders. They sowed various types of wheat, barley, and millet. Flax was also cultivated and used for making textiles. Even in high mountain settlements grain reserves amounting to tens of kilograms are found (Galgalatli in Dagestan). It is obvious that wheat and barley crops reach 2500 m above sea level. In the mountainous zone, complex irrigation systems are being developed, and terrace farming is beginning to develop [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1993]. The discovery of a horny plow in the Georgian settlement of Kvatskhelebi indicates the use of animal draft power in arable farming [Kushnareva K. Kh., Lisitsyna G. N., 1997].

Cattle breeding probably played a minor role. Small cattle predominated in the herd, large cattle were represented by a small number of individuals. Remains of horse bones have been recorded in a number of monuments. Most likely, it came to the Caucasus from the Eastern European steppe peoples.

People of the Kuro-Araks culture buried their fellow tribesmen, as a rule, in ground burial grounds, sometimes under mounds. Burial grounds were often located near settlements. The position of the buried was most often crouched, the orientation of the deceased was arbitrary. The absence of strict canons in the funeral rite is also illustrated by the variety of burial pits. There are, sometimes even in the same burial ground, horseshoe-shaped, rectangular pits, pits with walls lined with mud brick or slabs of stone (stone box).

Rice. 40. The main types of bronze tools and weapons that make up the products of the Maikop metallurgical center. 1, 2 — socketed axes; 3, 7, 9 - tesla; 4-6, 10 - daggers; 8, 11 - awls; 12, 13, 16 — bits; 14 — bushed fork; 15 — cheekpiece.

The origin of the Kura-Araks culture is still controversial, but most researchers recognize its local, Transcaucasian roots [Munchaev R. M., 1975; Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a].

The radiocarbon dates obtained for the Kuro-Araks culture fall within the 29th-23rd centuries. BC e. However, the lower chronological boundary, apparently, will be further lowered to the 4th millennium BC. e. [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a].

In the North Caucasus, simultaneously with the Kura-Araks center, the activity of the Maikop metallurgical center developed. Its history covered the time from the end of the 4th to the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. e. [Munchaev R. M., 1994]. Most of the Maikop metal was obtained from excavations of funerary monuments, the distribution of which outlines the area of ​​this most interesting culture. It occupies the foothill and steppe zone of the North Caucasus from the Kuban region to Chechnya and Ingushetia (Fig. 33). And everywhere in this territory there are products made of arsenic bronzes, typical of the beginning of the Bronze Age (Fig. 40). Among the popular categories of tools are socketed axes cast in open double-leaf molds; flat adzes; chisels with a grooved blade and a thickening on the back of the tool; tetrahedral awls. Handled knives-daggers are represented in very characteristic forms. Most often, their blade has several protruding parallel ribs. There can be from two to five such ribs (Fig. 40 - 4, 5, 10). The standard set of “circumpontian” products is also supplemented by very specific shaped socketed two-pronged “forks” (Fig. 40 - 14), metal cheekpieces (Fig. 40 - 15), cauldrons and scoops. Thus, the typological isolation of some types of Maikop metal equipment allows us to speak about its local production.

For a long time it was believed that the Maikop tribes only processed metal, using imported Kura-Araks copper. Now it has become clear that they both mined and smelted it themselves. This is evidenced by the enrichment of a significant part of the Maikop metal with nickel (from 0.1 to 3% Ni). Nickel got into copper-arsenic bronze naturally not together with copper, but together with arsenic [Galibin V.A., 1991]. We have now found out that many of the known deposits of arsenic minerals in the North Caucasus contain nickel (NiAs). This means that not only the morphological originality of the local metal, but also its composition confidently speak of the existence of a Maikop metallurgical center. Its products included not only tools and weapons made of bronze, but also products made of precious metals - gold and silver. Their set is diverse and consists of various kinds of decorations and magnificent vessels, obtained by punching out a thin blank sheet.

Rice. 41. Finds in the burial of the large Maikop mound (compiled by S. N. Korenevsky). 1, 2 — silver vessels; 3-6 - ceramics; 7 - bit; 8 - ax; 9 - hoe; 10 — razor knife; 11 - adze; 12 - bladeless knife; 13 - ax-hoe.

There are two stages in the history of Maikop culture - early and late. The bulk of metal finds were collected in late monuments.

The Maykop culture is represented by rare settlements and numerous burials under mounds with large burial pits. At a later stage, dolmens appear under the burial mounds. This is the name for structures made of heavy stone blocks, four of which are placed vertically, and the fifth, overlapping them, lies horizontally.

The mound excavated in Maikop, on the Belaya River, a tributary of the Kuban, belongs to the early stage of the Maikop culture [Veselovsky N.I., 1897]. Under the 11 m high embankment there was a deep hole, divided in half by a wooden partition into two chambers - northern and southern. The northern chamber was once again divided into two compartments: northwestern and northeastern. Each chamber contained a burial. All the dead were lying on their sides with their legs bent and were painted red. In the large, southern chamber there was a man; he was literally strewn with gold jewelry. Among them, plaques with images of lions and bulls and multi-petal rosettes stood out. The plaques and rosettes had holes for sewing onto the fabric. Next to the skeleton lay 6 silver rods, the length of which reached more than 1 m. On four of them were mounted sculptured figures of bulls, two gold and two silver. Apparently, the rods supported the canopy, onto which gold plaques were sewn. At the eastern wall of the pit stood gold and silver vessels. Two silver vessels had chased images (Fig. 41 - 1, 2). One vessel depicts an entire landscape with mountains, trees, rivers and animals; on another vessel only strings of animals are shown. The broken, irregular line of mountain peaks depicted on the first vessel apparently corresponds to the outlines of the Caucasus Range as seen from Maykop, and this suggests its local production (Fig. 41 - 2). Analysis of the images on the second vessel (Fig. 41 - 1) made it possible to establish their significant closeness to the Mesopotamian toreutics of the Jemdet-Nasr era [Andreeva M.V., 1979], which may indicate its Middle Eastern origin. In addition to silver and gold vessels, the deceased was accompanied by vessels made of bronze and clay, as well as a magnificent set of bronze weapons and tools: socket axes, adze axe, hoe, razor knife, etc. (Fig. 41 - 7-13). Some of these finds (a hoe, a socketed axe-adze) again testify to the southern connections of the Maikop tribes.

The dead in the two northern sections of the grave were almost devoid of belongings; it is obvious that they had a subordinate position in relation to the main buried person.

There is no doubt that the mound in Maykop was poured over the ashes of the leader. It testifies to the significant accumulation of wealth among the tribal elite of Maikop society. Colossal property and, apparently, social differentiation indicate the beginning of the process of class formation among the Maikop tribes. Burials very close to the Maikop mound in ritual, but poor in grave goods, are known everywhere in the North Caucasus [Munchaev R. M., 1975].

Extremely rich mounds of the late stage of the Maikop culture are concentrated in Transkuban region near the village of Novosvobodnaya. Here the burials were made in dolmens hidden by a mound embankment [Popova T. B., 1963; Rezepkin A.D., 1991]. Inventory is becoming more diverse. It includes drilled stone axes, sickle inserts, asymmetrical arrowheads, black-polished dishes with ornaments in the form of molded cones, and various kinds of sacred objects. The number of metal products becomes more impressive, although the set of their categories is generally close to the early times.
In the late period of cultural development, as well as in the early period, ordinary, modest burials, with a small amount of grave goods, prevailed. Rich burials like those discovered near the village of Novosvobodnaya are rare.

The settlements of the Maikop culture are much less known than the funerary monuments. The most studied is the Galyugaevskoe settlement on the middle Terek [Korenevsky S.N., 1993]. Its cultural layer lies in the thickness of a low hill stretched along the ancient floodplain of the Terek. During the excavations of this settlement, three above-ground dwellings of oval-round shape were discovered. The walls of the dwellings are made of vertical posts, boards, rods, coated with clay. The remains of several open hearths were found on the earthen floor. A lot of dishes were found in the dwellings: pithos, jugs, pots, bowls, vats (Fig. 42). Some of this pottery was made using a potter's wheel, the oldest device of its kind throughout Eastern Europe. In addition to dishes, weights for looms, grain graters, graters, and sickle inserts were found. Metal products are represented by a bronze hoe and fragments of a dagger.

The economy of the Maikop tribes was based on a combination of hoe farming (hoes, grain graters) and domestic cattle breeding. No real cereals were found, but numerous bone remains clearly indicate the composition of the herd. It consisted of small and large livestock, pigs, and horses.

The Maikop culture has a dual-natural, North Caucasian-Foreign Asian character. Its genesis was attended by representatives of southern cultures, who advanced to the North Caucasus and mixed with the local population of the Eneolithic era that preceded the Maikop. The local roots of the culture are best illustrated by settlement materials. The richest burials with precious things that have Middle Eastern parallels indicate an alien component of its formation [Munchaev R. M., 1975; Munchaev R.M., 1994].

The striking feature of the Novotitarovskaya culture is the widespread use of wheeled transport in funeral practice in the form of massive wooden four-wheeled carts with disc-shaped, usually three-part wheels. These carts were installed on the edge of the grave in whole or disassembled form and apparently served to transport the body of the deceased to the burial place. Such van-carts, drawn by bulls or oxen, were apparently widely used in the everyday life of the Novotitarov tribes. In mobile forms of cattle breeding, when part of the population moved behind herds, they served as dwellings on wheels. Cattle breeding was based on the breeding of large and small cattle and horses. In coastal areas it was supplemented by agriculture. Its existence is evidenced by finds in burials of large grain grinders and pithos-shaped vessels for storing grain. There is even an image of a rala painted in red paint on a mat found in one of the graves [Gey A.N., 1991].

The presence of its own metalworking is illustrated by the burial of a blacksmith-foundry worker in the Lebedi I mound group [Gey A.N., 1986]. The burial inventory includes a stone anvil, stone forge hammers, a clay crucible for melting and two basins for pouring metal, simple and composite molds for casting socketed axes and flat adzes (Fig. 43). Apparently local metal production arose due to the connections of the Novotitarovsky population with the Caucasus.

It should be borne in mind that the metallurgical influences of the Caucasus in the Early Bronze Age extended far beyond the Kuban region. They had a decisive influence on the development of metalworking in the northern zone of the CMP. Under the influence of Caucasian craftsmen, independent production centers and centers emerged in the south of Eastern Europe, which adopted all the main characteristics of the metallurgical achievements of the Maikop and Kuro-Arak tribes [Chernykh E.N., 1978b].

At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Caucasian copper-arsenic metal in the form of ingots and finished products appears in the steppe and forest-steppe of the Northern Black Sea region, where the Yamnaya and Usatovo, and later the Catacomb and Poltavka populations lived. E. N. Chernykh established that Caucasian metal, the carriers of the processing traditions of which, apparently, were traveling craftsmen, quickly conquered vast areas from the Right Bank of the Dnieper in the west to the Volga region in the east. As the results of spectral analyzes show, it was especially popular among the Yamnaya cultural and historical community, whose history spans from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. until its last quarter. It should be remembered, however, that in some places the Yamnaya tribes survived until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. and exist alongside the populations of the catacomb cultures of the Middle Bronze Age.

The Yamnaya tribes mastered the gigantic spaces of the Caspian-Black Sea steppes. Their monuments are known from the Southern Urals and Trans-Volga region in the east to Moldova, the Northern Balkans and even the Middle Danube in the west (Fig. 33). In this vast territory, uniform in the types of ceramics and funeral rites, more than ten local variants of the Yamnaya community are distinguished.

The culture of the Yamnaya tribes is known to us mainly from excavations of burial mounds. About ten thousand of them have been studied so far. The first mounds in the form of earthen hills over the burials of ancient people appeared in the steppe zone back in the Eneolithic. But only the Yamnaya tribes gave their spread a universal character. Apparently, this is due to a change in the population’s ideas about the other world, which involved exalting ancestors with the help of a particularly complex funeral ritual. This ritual is quite uniform throughout the territory inhabited by the Yamnaya tribes. Earthen mounds cover grave pits that are predominantly rectangular in shape (Fig. 44). Most often, one deceased person lies crouched in a pit - on his back or on his side, but sometimes there is also an elongated position of the buried person. The pit is sometimes covered with wood or stone slabs. The bottoms of the graves and the bodies themselves, as a rule, are thickly sprinkled with ocher (Merpert N. Ya., 1974).

The overwhelming majority of pit burials are without inventory, and in rare cases, known finds are limited to vessels, flint arrows, scrapers, knives, bone awls and fishhooks, and bone pins with hammer-shaped heads (see Fig. 44). Sometimes graves contain items made of copper and copper-arsenic alloys. As a rule, they are confined to rich burials. Such burials are known in the Dnieper region. Recently they have been opened in the southern Urals. Particularly interesting are the finds discovered recently in the Boldyrevsky I burial ground, excavated in the Orenburg region [Morgunova N.L., 2000]. Here, under one of the largest mounds, lay the body of a man, laid on his right side. It was covered with an organic fiber mat, decorated with a white bark applique in the shape of unfurled bird wings. The head of the deceased was crowned with a “crown” of white bark. The implements placed in the grave were placed around a disk of meteorite iron, sprinkled with ocher and most likely of a sacred nature. It included numerous metal objects: a copper adze-plane with a welded blade made of meteorite iron, a chisel, an awl, a knife, a socketed spear tip and a dagger. The magnificent funeral ritual and the wealth of accompanying goods indicate the high social status of the buried man. Perhaps he was the leader of a tribe or a union of tribes.

Yamnaya pottery is most often round-bottomed, and the vessels have an ovoid shape. Their decoration is simple and consists of incisions arranged in horizontal zones, imprints of a comb stamp, and imprints of intertwined cord. At the final stages of community development, flat-bottomed dishes appear (Fig. 45).

Rice. 44. Inventory of monuments of the Yamnaya cultural and historical community. 1 - diagram of the burial structure; 2 — bone pin with a hammer-shaped head; 3, 4 — flint daggers; 5 — spear tip; 6 - flint knife; 7 -horn amulet; 8, 10 — stone hammer axes; 9 — a necklace made of bone piercings and pendants made of animal fangs.

The mobility of the Yamnaya population is evidenced by burials with wooden carts. There are especially many of them discovered in the steppes of Ukraine (Akkermen, Storozhevaya Mogila), although they are also known in Kalmykia. Carts come in two types: 1) a cart with a body in the form of a box on two or four wheels; 2) a cart with a van cover. The second type of cart, like that of the Novotitarovsky population, could serve as a movable dwelling. The carts were usually harnessed to oxen. In the last decade, bone objects were discovered in the burial mounds of Ukraine, considered by some researchers to be cheekpieces [Kovalyova I.F., 1993]. This recognizes the existence of harnessed horses among the Yamna population, which could be used for riding.

The spread of carts and horsemanship marked the beginning of a wider spread of mobile, nomadic forms of cattle breeding than in the Chalcolithic. There is debate about its specific forms. It seems most likely that Yamnaya nomadism was based on seasonal movements of the population along with herds within territories gravitating towards river valleys. The herd was dominated by sheep, goats and cattle; the humble place belonged to the horse.

Settlements on the territory of the Yamnaya cultural and historical community are rare. In the east, in the ancient habitat of the Yamnaya tribes, only temporary, seasonal sites are known. Their cultural layer is poor and in the vast majority of cases mixed (Merpert N. Ya., 1974). Single stationary settlements with traces of long-term habitation are known mainly in the Dnieper region. Here, in the zone of contact between the Yamnaya tribes and the early agricultural population, they settled on the land and switched to mixed agricultural and pastoral forms of farming. The Mikhailovskoe settlement on the Lower Dnieper became the most famous [Lagodovska et al., 1962]. Three layers have been discovered in the settlement: the first layer is associated with the pre-Pitmage period, the second - with the Early Pitmage period, and the third - with the Late-Pitmage period. The most interesting finds and architectural structures of the later layer. The village during this period had complex defensive structures. They consisted of stone walls up to three meters high and ditches. Inside the fence there were two types of dwellings: oval-shaped semi-dugouts and above-ground adobe rectangular buildings on a stone base. Flint products (scrapers, knives, arrowheads) and many copper objects (awls, knives, chisels, adze) were found in the cultural layer. Along with bone remains of livestock, hoes and sickle inserts were identified in the Mikhailovskoye settlement. Agriculture certainly existed here, although it played a secondary role. Many researchers believe that the genetic roots of the Yamnaya population should be associated with the Khvalyn-Srednestogov tribes of the Eneolithic [Vasiliev I.B., 1979; Turetsky M.A., 1992]. In their view, the main impulse that led to the widespread spread of the Yamnaya tribes in the south of Eastern Europe went from east to west. However, the process of formation of the Yamnaya community, ethnically heterogeneous in composition, also included the complex interaction of other population groups of the Caspian-Black Sea steppes (Merpert N. Ya., 1974).

To identify centers of metal production in the territory occupied by the Yamnaya tribes, mapping metal products taking into account the chemical composition of the raw materials from which they are made is of great importance. It is now obvious that at least two centers functioned in the Yamnaya area: the Dnieper - metalworking and the Volga-Ural - metallurgical. The first was located in the Dnieper region and possibly covered a significant part of Right Bank Ukraine and Moldova; the second operated in the Southern Urals, in the middle and lower Volga region.

Rice. 46. ​​Products of the Dnieper metalworking center, which operated in the area of ​​the Yamnaya tribes. 1-4 - awls; 5-9, 13, 14 - daggers; 10-12 — razor knives; 15, 16 - decorations; 17, 18 - tesla; 19-22 — socketed axes; 23 - casting mold for casting axes.

The Dnieper focus arose under the influence of cross impulses coming from the Balkans and the North Caucasus, although the role of the latter was decisive. Here, arsenic bronzes dominated the production, their composition being very similar to the metal of the late stage of the Maikop culture [Chernykh E.N., 1966]. However, along with this, there is a metal close to the Ezero culture. The metal products of this hearth are represented by double-edged daggers, razor knives, adzes, socketed axes, and awls (Fig. 46). This set of items, traditional for CMP, lacks only chisels. Most of the pit artifacts from the Dnieper region echo in form the finds of later monuments of the Maikop culture. However, their local production is not in doubt for three reasons. Firstly, metallographic research revealed very specific methods of processing their metal, noticeably different from those of Maikop. The technological scheme of cold forming forging of cast tool blanks, most popular among the pit craftsmen of the Dnieper region, is completely unknown in the Maikop environment [Ryndina N.V., 1998a; Ryndina N.V., 1998b]. Secondly, in the late cultural strata of the Mikhailovskoye settlement, in addition to finished metal products, tools and devices related to the process of their processing were discovered. Thus, a large number of stone hammers and anvils for forging metal were found here. The nozzle can be considered a particularly significant find; its clay tube was inserted into leather bellows to pump air into the copper smelter [Lagodovska et al., 1962]. Thirdly, the presence of local metal production is confirmed by the discovery of burials of foundry workers under mounds on Samarsky Island near Dnepropetrovsk and near the village. Verkhnyaya Mayevka in the area between the Orel and Samara rivers, the left tributaries of the Dnieper [Kovaleva et al., 1977; Kovaleva I.F., 1979]. In both burials, in addition to blacksmith tools, clay double-leaf casting molds for casting blanks of socketed axes were found.

The territory of another, Volga-Ural focus practically coincided with the local variant of the Yamnaya community of the same name. The collection of his metal products is associated with monuments of the steppe and forest-steppe Trans-Volga region and the southern Urals (Fig. 47). The awls and chisels of this collection are marked by morphological originality. Unlike the Dnieper tools, the thickening-emphasis on their handles is not always present. The socketed axes are also marked with their originality: they have the shortest blade of all the tools of this category known in the CMP.

Unique products from the burial grounds of the southern Urals, which have no analogues in other areas of the Yamnaya community, also speak about highly developed local metallurgical production (Fig. 47). These are a socketed chisel, a hatchet-claw, a double-headed hammer, a massive spear with an open socket, an adze-plane made of a copper rod with an iron blade at one end [Morgunova N.L., Kravtsov A.Yu., 1994].

Masters of the Volga-Ural metallurgical center very rarely use arsenic bronzes imported from the Caucasus in their production practice. Products made from it are rare. Most of the local products are forged and cast from pure copper. Its chemical composition corresponds to oxidized copper ores of the Kargaly deposit, located 50 km from Orenburg. Research conducted on the huge Kargaly ore field, measuring 50 X 10 km, recorded many thousands of ancient mines, adits, and “waste rock” dumps [Chernykh E.N., 1997c]. This oldest mining and metallurgical complex for all of northern Eurasia began to function already in the Yamnaya time [Chernykh E.N., 2001]. Proof of this is provided not only by geochemical data, but also by archaeological data. Thus, pieces of Kargalin ore were found in the grave goods of a number of pit mounds in the Volga-Ural region. An argument, albeit indirect, in favor of its active use in local metal production is the burial of a young foundry worker in the Pershinsky mound on Kargaly [Chernykh et al., 2000]. Apparently, the initial impetus for the development of local metallurgical activity also came from the Caucasus. The fact is that some knives and axes produced in the Volga-Ural workshops have a completely Caucasian appearance.

Rice. 47. Products of the Volga-Ural metallurgical center, which operated in the area of ​​the Yamnaya tribes. 1-6 - awls; 7, 16 — bits; 8-15, 20, 32 - knives and daggers; 17-19 - tesla; 21 - hammer; 22-28 — socketed axes; 29 — hatchet-hatchet; 30 — adze-plane with a wooden handle; 31 — spear tip; 33 - bracelet.

In the steppe zone of the North-Western Black Sea region, in the Early Bronze Age there was another metalworking center, the Usatovsky one (Fig. 33). It is compared with the Usatovo culture of the same name, although, apparently, it is more justified to talk not about a special culture, but about the Usatovo local version of late Tripoli, which was strongly influenced by tribes of Caucasian origin and bearers of the Yamnaya culture [Zbenovich V.G., 1974].

Settlements and burial grounds of the Usatov type are scattered between the lower reaches of the Prut and Danube in the west and the lower reaches of the Southern Bug in the east (southern zone of Ukraine, south of Moldova, southeast of Romania). Settlements (Usatovo, Mayaki near Odessa, etc.) are located on the edges of high plateaus, along the banks of rivers and estuaries. Sometimes they are fortified with ditches. Excavations revealed semi-dugouts and light above-ground dwellings. Mud houses, so characteristic of early and middle Tripoli, have not been identified in Usatovo settlements [Dergachev V. A., 1980].

Much more often than settlements there are burial grounds of the Usatovo type—mounds and ground ones [Patokova E.F., 1979; Dergachev V. A., Manzura I. V., 1991]. Often several burial grounds are concentrated in one place. In Usatovo there are two burial mounds and two ground burial grounds, in Mayaki there is one burial mound and one ground burial ground. Mounds up to 2.0-2.5 m high are surrounded at the base by cromlechs, which are rings of stone slabs. Cromlechs often contain vertical stone slabs decorated with relief or incised images of people and animals. It is believed that these structures are associated with the cult of the sun. Inside the cromlech there were rectangular grave pits (from one to five), which were often covered with stone blocks. They usually contain crouched corpses on the left side. Sometimes traces of red ocher are visible on the skull or leg bones of those buried. The burial mounds contain quite a rich inventory: tableware with paintings made in black, brown, and red paints; kitchen utensils with corded ornaments; metal tools, weapons and jewelry; tools made of flint and bone (Fig. 48). Particularly interesting are clay anthropomorphic images in the form of figurines with cubic bodies crowned with a long, elongated neck with a flattened head.

Ground burial grounds were built at the same time as the burial mounds. The funeral ritual here is the same as in the mounds, however, the inventory is extremely poor. The absence of complex stone and earthen structures, a modest set of funeral gifts makes one think that ordinary members of the community were buried in ground graves, while the mounds were intended for the burial of the elite of tribal groups - leaders, military commanders, tribal elders.

Rice. 48. Finds from Usatovo settlements and burial grounds [Zbenovich V.G., 1971]. 1-7 - vessels; 8-10 - flint tools; 11-13 - tools and decorations made of metal; 15-17 - clay sculpture; 18, 19—bone tools.

The economy of the Usatov tribes was dominated by cattle breeding. It apparently had a semi-nomadic character and was based on the breeding of sheep and horses. Agriculture was known, but did not play a significant role in the economy [Zbenovich V.G., 1974]. The production of products not related to agriculture and cattle breeding was carried out on the basis of household crafts. The tendency towards the emergence of specialized crafts appeared only in the development of metalworking. Direct evidence of its existence is the discovery at the Usatovsky settlement of a crucible with traces of copper smelting, as well as stone tools for forging and crushing ore.

For the reconstruction of the metalworking center within the Usatovo culture, the study of the typological uniqueness of local metal products plays an important role. Among the traditional set of tools for the TsMP (tetrahedral awls, flat adzes, chisels with an extension-stop), there are no socketed axes or knives with handles. Knives and daggers have a trapezoidal protrusion in the heel with small holes for attaching an applied handle made of bone or wood (Fig. 48).

The arsenic bronzes from which the Usatov products are made are no longer associated with Caucasian, but, most likely, with Balkan and Aegean sources. There are isolated examples of the use of “pure” copper, which, apparently, also dates back to the ore regions of the Balkan-Carpathian region. In addition to tools and weapons, the Usatov collections include a significant series of jewelry—rings, spiral pendants, and tubular piercings. Many of them are made of silver wire.

A metallographic study of the Usatov bronze objects showed that they were made using the casting technique in double-sided molds, and then modified by forging. Forging not only gave the tools their final appearance, but also, as a rule, strengthened their working edges [Ryndina N.V., 1971; Konkova L.V., 1979]. A technology different from the bulk of finds was discovered by large Usatov daggers. For a long time it was believed that after casting they were covered with silver foil, since their surface was distinguished by a silvery color. A metallographic study established that the illusion of “silvering” was created by arsenic, the concentration of which in the near-surface layer of thin castings increased due to delamination (liquation) of the copper-arsenic alloy cast in a cold mold. A similar technology for producing silver coatings was mastered by Anatolian craftsmen of the Early Bronze Age. It is likely that large Usatov daggers came to the Northwestern Black Sea region from Asia Minor [Ryndina N.V., Konkova L.V., 1982].

The integration of the Late Trypillian population with alien tribes of the Early Bronze Age led to the formation of another cultural group, which was called Sofievskaya after a burial ground excavated near Kiev. The Sophia monuments attract our attention with a set of metal objects, which are also usually considered within the framework of the CMP. Settlements are known on the right and left banks of the Middle Dnieper and four burial grounds (Sofievka, Chernin, Krasny Khutor, Zavalovka). The settlements are small, located mainly on the capes of the Dnieper loess terraces. They are characterized by recessed oval dwellings (Kruts V. A., 1977). Ground burial grounds differ sharply in ritual from the southern, Usatovo necropolises. They contain corpse cremations: burnt bone remains are placed in clay urn vessels or poured onto the bottom of small pits. Next to them are burial goods: pots and amphorae covered with brown or red engobe; flint sickles on large curved plates; stone battle axes-hammers; copper tools and decorations (Fig. 49). The uniqueness of the copper finds suggests that in the Middle Dnieper region there was also a special center of metalworking CMP. The set of tools includes flat adzes, chisels, awls, both round and tetrahedral. Knives-daggers are presented both with handles and without handles. Jewelry includes tubular piercings, beads, and plate bracelets. The Sofievsky hearth is dominated by items made from metallurgically “pure” copper, the source of which is not entirely clear. E. N. Chernykh considers it likely to be linked to the ore deposits of the Carpathian region.

Rice. 49. Finds from Sofievsky monuments [Zakharuk Yu. M., 1971]. 1, 6, 9, 10 - vessels; 2-4 - metal tools; 5, 7, 8, 11 - tools made of flint and stone.

Concluding the characteristics of the Early Bronze Age within the CMP, it should be emphasized once again that in the system of its centers in Eastern Europe, the influence of three mining and metallurgical regions of different strengths was observed: the Caucasus, the Balkan-Carpathian region and the Urals. The spread of Caucasian influences can be clearly seen along the routes of movement of metal and partly finished products: one route went along the coasts of the Azov and Black Seas to the Northern Black Sea region, the other, less intense, along the Volga to the Southern Urals. The impact of the Balkan-Carpathian region is less pronounced, although its metal raw materials reached the North-Western Black Sea region and the Middle Dnieper region. The role of the Southern Urals in the development of metallurgy in the Early Bronze Age looks even more modest. The Ural copper, associated with the Kargaly ore complex, dispersed only within the Volga and Urals regions. Thus, the direction and extent of trade and exchange contacts of the 3rd millennium BC. e. in the south of Eastern Europe were largely determined by the movement of metal from different ore sources.

On this day:

• Days of death
• 1898 Died Gabriel de Mortillier- French anthropologist and archaeologist, one of the founders of modern scientific archeology, creator of the Stone Age classification; also considered one of the founders of the French school of anthropology.