Bronze Age (3500–1200 BC)

The Bronze Age is an era of human history identified on the basis of archaeological data, characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with the improvement of the processing of metals such as copper and tin obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them. 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.

Stages of the Bronze Age

Early Bronze Age

The Maykop culture in the North Caucasus is the probable place of the invention of bronze. The line that separated the Copper Age from the Bronze Age was the collapse of the Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province (1st half of 4 thousand) and the formation of ca. 35/33 centuries Circumpontic metallurgical province. Within the Circumpontian metallurgical province, which dominated during the early and middle Bronze Age, copper ore centers of the South Caucasus, Anatolia, and the Balkan-Carpathian region were discovered and began to be exploited. To the west of it, the mining and metallurgical centers of the Southern Alps and the Iberian Peninsula functioned. The place and time of the discovery of methods for producing bronze is not known with certainty. It can be assumed that bronze was discovered in several places at the same time. The earliest bronze items with tin admixtures were discovered in Iraq and Iran and date back to the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. But there is evidence of an earlier appearance of bronze in Thailand in the 5th. millennium b.c. e.

Middle Bronze Age

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

Late Bronze Age

The beginning of the Late Bronze Age is the collapse of the Circumpontic metallurgical province at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennia and the formation of a whole chain of new metallurgical provinces, which to varying degrees reflected the most important features of mining and metallurgical production practiced in the central centers of the Circumpontic metallurgical province.

Among the metallurgical provinces of the Late Bronze Age, the largest was the Eurasian steppe metallurgical province (up to 8 million square km), which inherited the traditions of the Circumpontic metallurgical province. Adjoining it from the south were the Caucasian metallurgical province and the Iranian-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.

At the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Another qualitative transition took place in the nature-society system, the Copper Age began, and after about half a millennium - bronze age.

By 3500 B.C. copper was smelted and processed throughout the Mediterranean and much of Europe. Bronze products appeared simultaneously in the space from Spain to Thailand around 3300 BC. Technologies for making bronze appeared simultaneously over vast territories.

Modern bronze is an alloy of 85% copper and 15% tin. Almost all bronze before 3000 BC. consisted of copper and arsenic (5%). Linguistic analysis indicates that words denoting copper, bronze, lead, arsenic and even iron arose among the peoples inhabiting Asia Minor.

In the Bronze Age, almost the entire spectrum of substances not found in nature appeared - non-native metals, ceramics, glass, fabrics. In the entire subsequent history of mankind, only one fundamentally new class of substances has been discovered since then - plastics. The wheel became widespread, determining the creation of a new type of mobile vehicle and making mass migrations possible.

At the same time, the Bronze Age came as the decline of a magical (magical) human culture, from which everything miraculous disappeared - the perception of the world became more and more pragmatic.

The Dublin History Museum contains 1,300 Bronze Age objects and only 30 axes and one copper sword. No tin items were found at all.

The problem is that in order to smelt bronze, you must first learn about the properties of the alloy of tin and bronze. To learn about the properties of tin, you need to experiment with it. To experiment with tin, it must be brought from somewhere in the Middle East (where bronze appeared), where it is not available. To bring tin to the Middle East, you need to understand its value, know about its properties and, in general, know that such a metal exists.

It turns out that in the Middle East they were aware of tin, and since practically no tin products were found, the ancient metallurgists understood that tin only makes sense when alloyed with copper. From this we can conclude that

The Bronze Age is a historical and cultural period that replaced the Eneolithic in advanced cultural centers, characterized by the spread of bronze metallurgy, the use of bronze as the main material for the production of tools and weapons. It is customary to limit the Bronze Age to a chronological framework from the end of the fourth millennium BC. before the beginning of the first millennium BC. For individual regions, dating of the Bronze Age varies significantly; many countries did not know it at all. In the Bronze Age, nomadic cattle breeding and irrigated agriculture, writing, and slavery appeared (Middle East, China, South America). Bronze is an alloy of copper with tin, as well as other metals (lead, arsenic), differs from copper in its lower melting point (700-900 ° C) and greater strength, which led to its spread in primitive society. The Bronze Age was preceded by the Copper Age, a transitional period from the Stone Age to the use of metals. In turn, the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age.

The Bronze Age was singled out as a special degree in the history of mankind by the ancient Roman philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus. The scientific substantiation of the Bronze Age on archaeological material was given in the first half of the 19th century by Danish scientists K. Thomsen and E. Worso. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the Swedish archaeologist O. Montelius, using the typological method he created, classified and dated archaeological sites of the Bronze Age of Europe. The French scientist J. Dechelet made a great contribution to the study of the Bronze Age in Europe. At the same time, a comprehensive study of archaeological monuments of the Bronze Age began, and archaeological cultures began to be distinguished. In Russia in the pre-revolutionary period, archaeologists V.A. Gorodtsov and A. A. Spitsyn identified the main cultures of the Bronze Age in Eastern Europe. In Soviet times, research was carried out in the Caucasus by G.K. Nioradze, E.I. Krupnov, B.A. Kuftin, A.A. Jessen, B.B. Piotrovsky; on the Volga - P.S. Rykov, I.V. Sinitsyn, O.A. Grakova; in the Urals - O.N. Bader, A.P. Smirnov, K.V. Salnikov; in Central Asia - S.P. Tolstov, A.N. Bernshtam, V.M. Mason; in Siberia - S.A. Teploukhov, M.P. Gryaznov, V.N. Chernetsov, S.V. Kiselev, G.P. Sosnovsky, A.P. Okladnikov.

Periodization of the Bronze Age

During the Bronze Age, the formation, development and change of a number of metallurgical provinces took place; distinguish early, middle and late stages of the Bronze Age. The transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age is associated with the collapse of the Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province (first half of the fourth millennium BC) and the formation around 35-33 centuries BC. Circumpontian metallurgical province, which dominated throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Age. To the south of the central folded mountain belt in Eurasia (from the Alps to Altai), societies with a complex social structure and an economy based on agriculture in combination with cattle breeding, cities, writing, and states were formed in the Bronze Age. Further north, in the steppe regions of Eurasia, societies of pastoral nomads predominated. In the Middle Bronze Age (26-19 centuries BC), the area of ​​metal distribution expanded significantly to the north.
The beginning of the Late Bronze Age is associated with the collapse of the Circumpontic metallurgical province at the turn of the third and second millennia BC. In its place, new metallurgical provinces formed. The largest of them was the Eurasian steppe metallurgical province. Adjoining it from the south was a relatively small, but distinguished by the richness and variety of products and the nature of alloys, the Caucasian metallurgical province. The Iran-Afghan metallurgical province emerged in the Middle East. The East Asian metallurgical province occupied a vast territory from the Sayans and Altai to Indochina. The Mediterranean metallurgical province differed significantly from the European metallurgical province located to the north in production techniques and product forms. In the 13th-12th centuries BC. the so-called Bronze Age catastrophe occurred, when cultures collapsed or changed over a vast area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. For a number of centuries until the 10th-8th centuries BC. e. global migrations of peoples took place, and the transition to the early Iron Age began. The Bronze Age lasted longest in Europe among the Celtic tribes on the Atlantic coast.

Main centers of bronze distribution

The oldest bronze tools were found in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, in the south of the Iranian Plateau and date back to the fourth millennium BC. e. At the end of the fourth millennium BC. they spread to Egypt at the end of the third millennium BC. - in India, in the middle of the second millennium BC. e. - in China and Europe. No later than the first millennium BC, centers of bronze foundry production appeared in Black Africa. The African art of bronze casting reached its peak in the 11th-17th centuries in the countries of the Guinea coast. In America, the secrets of bronze casting were mastered in Peru during the period of the late Tiwanaku culture (6-10 centuries AD).
In the Bronze Age, the uneven historical development of different regions of the Earth clearly manifested itself. In the countries of the Near East with a developed manufacturing economy, states were formed during the Bronze Age. The productive economy determined their economic progress, the emergence of large ethnic communities, and the beginning of the disintegration of the tribal system. At the same time, in large areas remote from the advanced centers, the Neolithic way of life was preserved, but metal tools and weapons penetrated here, influencing the development of the population of these regions. The acceleration of the pace of economic and social development was facilitated by strong exchange ties, especially between areas of metal deposits. For Europe, the so-called Amber Route was of great importance, along which amber was exported from the Baltic states to the south, and weapons and jewelry were transported to the north.
During the Bronze Age in Asia, the development of urban civilizations in the Near and Middle East continued, and new urban civilizations appeared: Harappa in India, Yin and Zhou in China (14-8 centuries BC). At the beginning of the second millennium BC. The agricultural tribes of the southwest of Central Asia developed a proto-urban civilization of the ancient Eastern type (Namazga-tepe 5), which had connections with the cultures of the Iranian Plateau and Harappa. At the turn of the third - second millennium BC. The Caucasus region, with its rich ore base, became one of the metallurgical centers of Eurasia, supplying the steppe regions of Eastern Europe with copper products. In the third millennium BC. e. Transcaucasia was an area of ​​distribution of settled agricultural and pastoral communities - carriers of the Kuro-Araks culture, associated with the ancient Bronze culture of Asia Minor. From the middle of the third millennium to the end of the second millennium BC. In the North Caucasus lived pastoral tribes (Maikop culture, North Caucasian culture), which left rich burials of leaders.
The original Trialeti culture with painted ceramics was widespread in Transcaucasia in the 18th-15th centuries BC. In the second millennium BC. Transcaucasia was the center of bronze metallurgy, similar to the production of the Hittites and Assyria. At that time, the North Caucasian culture, which developed in contact with the catacomb culture, was widespread in the North Caucasus, and the dolmen culture was widespread in the Western Caucasus. In the second half of the second millennium BC. e. - beginning of the first millennium BC On the basis of the cultures of the Middle Bronze Age, cultures with a high level of metallurgy developed: Central Transcaucasian culture, Colchis culture (Western Caucasus), Koban culture (Central Caucasus), Kuban culture (Northwestern Caucasus), Kayakent-Khorochoev culture (Northeastern Caucasus).
In Europe, the first centers of statehood appeared in Crete (Knossos, Phaistos) at the end of the third - second millennium BC. This is evidenced by the remains of cities, palaces, and the emergence of writing (21-13 centuries BC). In mainland Greece, a similar process began later, in the 16th-13th centuries BC. city-states also already existed here - royal palaces in Tiryns, Mycenae, Pylos, royal tombs in Mycenae, writing system B, which is considered the oldest Greek letter of the Achaeans. Ancient Greece was the advanced center of Europe in the Bronze Age, and a number of farming and herding cultures flourished on its territory. In their midst, a process of property and social differentiation took place, as evidenced by the finds of bronze foundry workshops and treasure troves of the tribal nobility.
In the countries of the Danube basin, the transition to a patriarchal clan system was completed in the Bronze Age. The archaeological cultures of the Early Bronze Age (late third - early second millennium BC) were a continuation of earlier Chalcolithic cultures of an agricultural nature. At the beginning of the second millennium BC. In Central Europe, the Unetica culture, characterized by a high level of bronze casting, spread, and in the 15-13 centuries BC. - culture of burial mounds. In the second half of the second millennium BC. the Lusatian culture appeared (12-4 centuries BC). The vast territory of Central Europe was occupied by the burial field culture (1300-750 BC), characterized by corpse burning. In Central and Northern Europe at the end of the third and first half of the second millennium BC. In several local variants, there was a culture of battle axes (corded ceramics), which was named after drilled stone axes and corded ornamentation of ceramics. From the beginning of the second millennium BC. The territory from the Iberian Peninsula to the Carpathians was occupied by the Bell Beaker culture. The population that left monuments of this culture gradually moved from west to east. On the Apennine Peninsula, the Bronze Age is characterized by monuments of the late stage of the Remedello culture. From the middle of the second millennium BC. e. in the north of the peninsula, under the influence of alpine lake pile settlements, the so-called terramaras spread - settlements on stilts, built not over the lake, but on damp flooded areas of river valleys in the Po River basin. The Bronze Age in Western Europe left a large number of mounds with complex burial structures, often of the megalithic type - dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs. The megalithic complex Stonehenge in England is noteworthy; its early structures date back to the 19th century BC. The development of metallurgy is associated with the appearance in the south of the Iberian Peninsula from the end of the third millennium BC. e. developed culture with large settlements surrounded by walls with towers (Los Millares).

Bronze Age in Russia and neighboring countries

In the steppe zone of Eastern Europe at the beginning of the second millennium BC. lived tribes of the Catacomb culture, engaged in pastoralism, agriculture, and bronze casting. Along with them lived the tribes of the Yamnaya culture. The development of the Urals metallurgical center led in the middle of the second millennium BC. to the emergence of the Timber Frame culture on the basis of the Yamnaya culture in the Volga region. The tribes of the Srubnaya culture were armed with bronze “hang-butt” axes, spears, daggers, mastered the riding horse, and spread to the steppe along both banks of the Volga, and to the east - to the Ural River. The tribes of the Srubnaya culture own treasures of bronze items, semi-finished products, foundry molds, and items made of precious metals. In the first half of the first millennium BC. they were assimilated by their related Scythians.
In the 16th-15th centuries BC. The Komarov culture began to spread in the Carpathian region and Podolia. In the northern regions it has features characteristic of the more western Trzyniec culture. Volga-Oka interfluve and Vyatka Trans-Volga region in the second millennium BC. occupied by hunting and fishing tribes of the late Neolithic, among whom settled tribes of the Fatyanovo culture, who were engaged in cattle breeding and produced spherical pottery, stone drilled hammer axes and copper “loop-butted” axes. During the Bronze Age, bronze spears, celts, and daggers of the Seima or Turbino type became widespread in the Volga-Oka interfluve and on the Kama. Weapons of the Seima type were found in the Borodino (Bessarabian) treasure of the 14th-13th centuries BC. e. (Moldova), in the Urals, in Issyk-Kul, on the Yenisei.
In the Middle Volga, in the Urals, in the Don region there are burial mounds and sites of the Abashevo culture of the second half of the second millennium BC. In the steppes of Western Siberia and Kazakhstan to Altai and Yenisei from the middle of the second millennium BC. e. inhabited by agricultural and pastoral tribes of the Andronovo culture. In the middle and second half of the second millennium BC. e. tribes of the Andronovo culture penetrated into Central Asia and created a number of local cultures there, of which the most famous is the Tazabagyab culture of Khorezm. The spread of the steppe inhabitants may have been caused by the decline of agricultural civilization in the southwest of Central Asia (Namazga 6). In the last quarter of the second millennium BC. Bronze tools and weapons of the Karasuk culture spread in Southern Siberia and Altai, and in Transbaikalia - the tomb culture.

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.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Bronze Age- an era of human history identified on the basis of archaeological data, characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with the improvement of the processing of metals such as copper and tin obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them. The Bronze Age is the second, later phase of the Early Metal Age, succeeding the Copper Age and preceding 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.

General periodization

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.

Early Bronze Age

The boundary that separated the Copper Age from the Bronze Age was the collapse of the Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province (1st half of 4 thousand) and the formation of ca. 35/33 centuries Circumpontic metallurgical province. Within the Circumpontian metallurgical province, which dominated during the early and middle Bronze Ages, 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, metalliferous cultures are known in Egypt, Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan, all the way to Pakistan.

The place and time of the discovery of methods for producing bronze is not known with certainty. It can be assumed that bronze was discovered in several places at the same time. The earliest bronze items with tin admixtures were discovered in Iraq and Iran and date back to the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. Bronze items containing arsenic were produced in Anatolia and on both sides of the Caucasus in the early 3rd millennium BC. e. And some bronze products of the Maykop culture date back to the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. Although this issue is controversial and other analysis results indicate that the same Maykop bronze products were made in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e.

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 husbandry, were formed; cities, writing, and states appeared here. To the north, in the Eurasian steppe, warlike societies of mobile pastoralists formed.

Middle Bronze Age

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

Late Bronze Age

The beginning of the Late Bronze Age is the collapse of the Circumpontic metallurgical province at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennia and the formation of a whole chain of new metallurgical provinces, which to varying degrees reflected the most important features of mining and metallurgical production practiced in the central centers of the Circumpontic metallurgical province.

Among the metallurgical provinces of the Late Bronze Age, the largest was the Eurasian steppe metallurgical province (up to 8 million km²), which inherited the traditions of the Circumpontic metallurgical province. 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 Sayan-Altai to Indochina, production centers of the complex formation of the East Asian metallurgical province spread. The diverse forms of high-quality products from the European metallurgical province, which stretched from the Northern Balkans to the Atlantic coast of Europe, are concentrated mainly in rich and numerous hoards. Adjoining it from the south was the Mediterranean metallurgical province, which differed significantly from the European metallurgical province in production techniques and product forms.

By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The spread of Indo-European tribes to the east and west begins. The Andronovo culture, associated with the Indo-Iranians, occupies vast areas of Central Eurasia (see Sintashta, Arkaim). The key to the success of the spread of the Indo-Europeans was the presence of such innovative technologies as the chariot and sword.

The influence of Caucasian newcomers from the west marked the Bronze Age cultures in Southern Siberia - primarily Karasuk and Tagar. Findings of identical weapons over an area of ​​thousands of kilometers (the so-called Seima-Turbino phenomenon) allow archaeologists to assume that over the native peoples of the forest belt of Eurasia since the 16th century. BC e. dominated by a certain mobile elite elite

Bronze Age in the Middle East

In the Middle East, the following dates correspond to 3 periods (the dates are very approximate):

• RBV- Early Bronze Age (3500-2000 BC)
• SBV- Middle Bronze Age (2000-1600 BC)
• PBB- Late Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC)

Each main period can be divided into shorter subcategories: as an example RBV I, RBV II, SBV IIa etc.

The Bronze Age in the Middle East began in Anatolia (modern Türkiye). The mountains of the Anatolian Plateau had rich deposits of copper and tin. Copper was also mined in Cyprus, Ancient Egypt, Israel, the Armenian Highlands, Iran and around the Persian Gulf. Copper was commonly mixed with arsenic, yet the region's growing demand for tin led to the creation of trade routes leading out of Anatolia. Copper was also imported via sea routes into Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia.

The Early Bronze Age is characterized by urbanization and the emergence of city-states, as well as the emergence of writing (Uruk, 4th millennium BC). The Middle Bronze Age saw a significant shift in power in the region (Amorites, Hittites, Hurrians, Hyksos and possibly Israelites).

The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competition between the powerful states of the region and their vassals (Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites, Mitannians). Extensive contacts were established with the Aegean civilization (Achaeans), in which copper played an important role. The Bronze Age in the Middle East ended with a historical phenomenon, which among professionals is usually called the bronze collapse. This phenomenon affected the entire Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Bronze Age divisions

The Ancient Near Eastern Bronze Age can be divided as follows:

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Align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:20 shift:(25,-5) bar:Phase color: era from: 3300 till: 3500 text:RBV 0 from: 3300 till: 3000 text :RBV I from: 3000 till: 2700 text:RBV II from: 2700 till: 2200 text:RBV III from: 2200 till: 2100 text:RBV IV from: 2100 till: 2000 text:SBV I from: 2000 till: 1750 text :SBV II A from: 1750 till: 1650 text:SBV II B from: 1650 till: 1550 text:SBV II C from: 1550 till: 1400 text:PBV I from: 1400 till: 1300 text:PBV II A from: 1300 till: 1200 text:PBV II B bar:Period color: age from: 3300 till: 2100 text:Early Bronze Age (RBV) from: 2100 till: 1550 text:Middle Bronze Age (SBV) from: 2100 till: 1550 shift: (25,-20) text:(Intermediate Bronze Age) from: 1550 till: 1200 text:Late Bronze Age (LBA) bar:Age color: period from: 3300 till: 1200 shift:(-25,0) text:Bronze century

Europe

The Bronze Age saw the penetration of Indo-European tribes into Europe, which put an end to the centuries-long development of Old Europe. The main cultures of the Bronze Age in Europe are Unetice, Burial Fields, Terramar, Lusatian, Belogrudov.

Aegean Islands

The first city-states formed in the 17th-16th centuries. BC e. - Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos - had close cultural and trade ties with Crete, Mycenaean culture borrowed a lot from the Minoan civilization, the influence of which is felt in cult rituals, social life, and artistic monuments; undoubtedly, the art of building ships was adopted from the Cretans.

East Asia

China

Historians differ on the time frame within which the Bronze Age in China should be placed. The problem lies primarily in the term itself: it was originally intended to designate a historical period that began with the displacement of stone tools by bronze and ended with the replacement of the latter by iron ones - that is, the use of new material automatically meant the obsolescence of the old one. In relation to China, however, attempts to define clear boundaries of the era are complicated by the fact that the advent of iron smelting technology did not have a clear one-time impact on the use of bronze tools: they continued to be used simultaneously with iron ones. The earliest finds of bronze items date back to the Majiayao culture (3100 - 2700 BC); from this point on, society gradually entered the Bronze Age.

The origins of Chinese bronze metallurgy are associated with the Erlitou culture. Some historians believe that the corresponding historical period should be attributed to the Shang dynasty, others are convinced that we should be talking about the earlier Xia dynasty. In turn, experts from the US National Gallery of Art define the Bronze Age in China as the period between 2000 and 771 BC. e., linking its beginning, again, with the Erlitou culture, and its sudden completion with the fall of the Western Zhou dynasty. This interpretation provides clarity of time boundaries, but does not sufficiently take into account the continued importance and relevance of bronze for Chinese metallurgy and culture as a whole.

Since the given dates are later in comparison, for example, with the discovery of bronze in Ancient Mesopotamia, a number of researchers see reason to believe that the relevant technologies were imported into China from outside, and not developed by the inhabitants of the country independently. Other scientists, on the contrary, are convinced that Chinese bronze metallurgy could have formed autonomously, without external influences. Proponents of borrowing, in particular, cite the discovery of Tarim mummies, which, in their opinion, may indicate a path of borrowing technology from the West.

Iron has been found in China since the historical period associated with the Zhou dynasty, but the scale of its use is minimal. Chinese literature dating back to the sixth century BC. e., indicates the presence of knowledge in iron smelting, but, nevertheless, bronze, even after this moment, continues to occupy a significant place in the results of archaeological and historical research. Historian William White, for example, argued that bronze was not supplanted by iron until the end of the Zhou Dynasty (256 BC), and bronze products constituted the majority of metal vessels until the beginning of the Han Dynasty (221 BC .) .

Chinese bronze artifacts, as a rule, either have a utilitarian-applied nature (spear tips, adze blades, etc.), or are examples of ritual utensils - more carefully made samples of everyday items (vessels, tools, weapons, etc.) . As an example, large sacrificial tripods known under the name “Din” can be cited, although there were other specific forms, characterized by certain differences. Those ancient Chinese ritual utensils that have survived to this day are usually richly decorated, often using taote motifs - in other words, stylized images of the faces of animals or demons, as well as a variety of abstract symbols. Many large items also bear inscriptions, forming the bulk of surviving examples of ancient Chinese writing; with their help, historians and archaeologists trace the course of Chinese history, especially during the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BC).

In particular, Western Zhou bronze utensils “document” vast layers of history that are not described in surviving texts, authored by people of different ranks or positions in society. For obvious physical reasons, the probability of preservation of records on bronze is significantly higher than that of manuscripts. These records are usually divided into four main parts: a reference to the date and place of events, the name of the incident being recorded, a list of goods transferred to the artisan in exchange for the product, and a dedication. The relative reference points provided by these vessels have allowed historians to associate them with specific periods within the Western Zhou, and, therefore, to trace the evolution of not only the products themselves, but also the events described on them.

Indochina

North Africa

Ancient Egypt and a number of neighboring cultures of northeast Africa (such as Nubia) played an important role in the history of the Bronze Age. European cultures of the Bronze Age penetrated into northern Africa (for example, traces of the Bell-Beaker culture were discovered in Morocco), metallurgy penetrates there only during the time of Phoenician colonization, around 1100 BC. e., and in the rest of Africa metallurgy spreads later, but begins immediately with iron processing.

Bronze Age architecture

In the Bronze Age, monumental architecture gained predominant importance, the emergence of which is associated with the development of religious ideas, with the cult of ancestors and nature, that is, with the spiritual ideas of society. Megalithic structures were erected by the efforts of the entire primitive community and were an expression of the unity of the clan.

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Notes

1. Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province // BRE. T.2. M., 2005.
2. Eurasian steppe metallurgical province // BRE. T.9. M., 2007.
3. Caucasian metallurgical province // BRE. T.12. M., 2008.
4. Iranian-Afghan metallurgical province // BRE. T.11. M., 2008.
5. East Asian metallurgical province // BRE. T.5. M., 2006.
6. European metallurgical province // BRE. T.9. M., 2007.
7. Meotian archaeological culture // BRE. T.20. M., 2012.
8. Catacomb culture // BRE. T.13. M., 2008.
9. Arias // BRE. T.2. M., 2005.
10. Kargaly // BRE. T.13. M., 2008.
11. Arkaim // BRE. T.2. M., 2005.
13. Lchashen // BRE. T.18. M., 2011.
14. Luristan bronzes // BRE. T.18. M., 2011.
15. Martini, I. Peter. Landscapes and Societies: Selected Cases. - Springer, 2010. - P. 310. - ISBN 90-481-9412-1.
16. Higham, Charles. Encyclopedia of ancient Asian civilizations. - Infobase Publishing, 2004. - P. 200. - ISBN 0-8160-4640-9.
17. Chang, K. C.: "Studies of Shang Archaeology", pp. 6-7, 1. Yale University Press, 1982.
18. . Nga.gov. Retrieved January 17, 2010. .
19. Li-Liu; The Chinese Neolithic, Cambridge University Press, 2005
20. Retrieved May 13, 2010
21. Jan Romgard (2008). "". Sino-Platonic Papers.
22. Barnard, N.: "Bronze Casting and Bronze Alloys in Ancient China", p. 14. The Australian National University and Monumenta Serica, 1961.
23. White, W. C.: "Bronze Culture of Ancient China", p. 208. University of Toronto Press, 1956.
24. Erdberg, E.: "Ancient Chinese Bronzes", p. 20. Siebenbad-Verlag, 1993.
25. Shaughnessy, E. L. "Sources of Western Zhou History." University of California Press, 1982.
27. Dong Son // BRE. T.9. M., 2007.
28. Lung Hoa // BRE. T.18. M., 2011.
29. N.I. Kirei. Ethnography of the peoples of Africa. M. 1983, p.26

Literature

• Chernykh E. N., Avilova L. I., Orlovskaya L. B. Metallurgical provinces and radiocarbon chronology. M., 2000
• Chernykh E. N., Kuzminykh S. V. Ancient metallurgy of Northern Eurasia (Seima-Turbino phenomenon). M., 1989
• A.F. Harding. European Societies in the Bronze Age. Camb., 2000
• Chernykh E.N. Ancient Metallurgy in the USSR. The Early Metal Age. Cambridge, 1992
• Metallurgy in Ancient Eastern Eurasia from the Urals to the Yellow River. Linduff (ed.). K., The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. 2004.
• The Bronze Age Civilization in Central Asia. Armonk. Kohl F.L. (ed.). N.Y., 1981

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An excerpt characterizing the Bronze Age

The day after his son’s departure, Prince Nikolai Andreich called Princess Marya to his place.
- Well, are you satisfied now? - he told her, - she quarreled with her son! Are you satisfied? That's all you needed! Are you satisfied?.. It hurts me, it hurts. I'm old and weak, and that's what you wanted. Well, rejoice, rejoice... - And after that, Princess Marya did not see her father for a week. He was sick and did not leave the office.
To her surprise, Princess Marya noticed that during this time of illness the old prince also did not allow m lle Bourienne to visit him. Only Tikhon followed him.
A week later, the prince left and began his old life again, being especially active in buildings and gardens and ending all previous relations with m lle Bourienne. His appearance and cold tone with Princess Marya seemed to say to her: “You see, you made it up about me, lied to Prince Andrei about my relationship with this Frenchwoman and quarreled me with him; and you see that I don’t need either you or the Frenchwoman.”
Princess Marya spent one half of the day with Nikolushka, watching his lessons, herself giving him lessons in the Russian language and music, and talking with Desalles; she spent the other part of the day in her quarters with books, an old nanny, and with God's people, who sometimes came to her from the back porch.
Princess Marya thought about the war the way women think about war. She was afraid for her brother, who was there, horrified, without understanding her, by human cruelty, which forced them to kill each other; but she did not understand the significance of this war, which seemed to her the same as all previous wars. She did not understand the significance of this war, despite the fact that Desalles, her constant interlocutor, who was passionately interested in the progress of the war, tried to explain his thoughts to her, and despite the fact that the people of God who came to her all spoke with horror in their own way about popular rumors about the invasion of the Antichrist, and despite the fact that Julie, now Princess Drubetskaya, who again entered into correspondence with her, wrote patriotic letters to her from Moscow.
“I am writing to you in Russian, my good friend,” wrote Julie, “because I have hatred for all the French, as well as for their language, which I cannot hear spoken... We in Moscow are all delighted through enthusiasm for our beloved emperor.
My poor husband endures labor and hunger in Jewish taverns; but the news I have makes me even more excited.
You probably heard about the heroic feat of Raevsky, who hugged his two sons and said: “I will die with them, but we will not waver!” And indeed, although the enemy was twice as strong as us, we did not waver. We spend our time as best we can; but in war, as in war. Princess Alina and Sophie sit with me all day long, and we, unfortunate widows of living husbands, have wonderful conversations over lint; only you, my friend, are missing... etc.
Mostly Princess Marya did not understand the full significance of this war because the old prince never talked about it, did not acknowledge it and laughed at Desalles at dinner when he talked about this war. The prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Marya, without reasoning, believed him.
Throughout the month of July, the old prince was extremely active and even animated. He also laid out a new garden and a new building, a building for the courtyard workers. One thing that bothered Princess Marya was that he slept little and, having changed his habit of sleeping in the study, changed the place of his overnight stays every day. Either he ordered his camp bed to be set up in the gallery, then he remained on the sofa or in the Voltaire chair in the living room and dozed without undressing, while not m lle Bourienne, but the boy Petrusha read to him; then he spent the night in the dining room.
On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrei. In the first letter, received shortly after his departure, Prince Andrei humbly asked his father for forgiveness for what he had allowed himself to say to him, and asked him to return his favor to him. The old prince responded to this letter with an affectionate letter and after this letter he alienated the Frenchwoman from himself. Prince Andrei's second letter, written from near Vitebsk, after the French occupied it, consisted of a brief description of the entire campaign with a plan outlined in the letter, and considerations for the further course of the campaign. In this letter, Prince Andrei presented his father with the inconvenience of his position close to the theater of war, on the very line of movement of the troops, and advised him to go to Moscow.
At dinner that day, in response to the words of Desalles, who said that, as heard, the French had already entered Vitebsk, the old prince remembered Prince Andrei’s letter.
“I received it from Prince Andrei today,” he said to Princess Marya, “didn’t you read it?”
“No, mon pere, [father],” the princess answered fearfully. She could not read a letter that she had never even heard of.
“He writes about this war,” said the prince with that familiar, contemptuous smile with which he always spoke about the real war.
“It must be very interesting,” said Desalles. - The prince is able to know...
- Oh, very interesting! - said Mlle Bourienne.
“Go and bring it to me,” the old prince turned to Mlle Bourienne. – You know, on a small table under a paperweight.
M lle Bourienne jumped up joyfully.
“Oh no,” he shouted, frowning. - Come on, Mikhail Ivanovich.
Mikhail Ivanovich got up and went into the office. But as soon as he left, the old prince, looking around uneasily, threw down his napkin and went off on his own.
“They don’t know how to do anything, they’ll confuse everything.”
While he walked, Princess Marya, Desalles, m lle Bourienne and even Nikolushka silently looked at each other. The old prince returned with a hasty step, accompanied by Mikhail Ivanovich, with a letter and a plan, which he, not allowing anyone to read during dinner, placed next to him.
Going into the living room, he handed the letter to Princess Marya and, laying out the plan of the new building in front of him, which he fixed his eyes on, ordered her to read it aloud. After reading the letter, Princess Marya looked questioningly at her father.
He looked at the plan, obviously lost in thought.
- What do you think about this, prince? – Desalles allowed himself to ask a question.
- I! I!.. - the prince said, as if awakening unpleasantly, without taking his eyes off the construction plan.
- It is quite possible that the theater of war will come so close to us...
- Ha ha ha! Theater of war! - said the prince. “I said and say that the theater of war is Poland, and the enemy will never penetrate further than the Neman.
Desalles looked with surprise at the prince, who was talking about the Neman, when the enemy was already at the Dnieper; but Princess Marya, who had forgotten the geographical position of the Neman, thought that what her father said was true.
- When the snow melts, they will drown in the swamps of Poland. “They just can’t see,” said the prince, apparently thinking about the campaign of 1807, which seemed so recent. - Bennigsen should have entered Prussia earlier, things would have taken a different turn...
“But, prince,” Desalles said timidly, “the letter talks about Vitebsk...
“Ah, in the letter, yes...” the prince said dissatisfied, “yes... yes...” His face suddenly took on a gloomy expression. He paused. - Yes, he writes, the French are defeated, which river is this?
Desalles lowered his eyes.
“The prince doesn’t write anything about this,” he said quietly.
- Doesn’t he write? Well, I didn’t make it up myself. - Everyone was silent for a long time.
“Yes... yes... Well, Mikhaila Ivanovich,” he suddenly said, raising his head and pointing to the construction plan, “tell me how you want to remake it...”
Mikhail Ivanovich approached the plan, and the prince, after talking with him about the plan for the new building, looked angrily at Princess Marya and Desalles, and went home.
Princess Marya saw Desalles' embarrassed and surprised gaze fixed on her father, noticed his silence and was amazed that the father had forgotten his son's letter on the table in the living room; but she was afraid not only to speak and ask Desalles about the reason for his embarrassment and silence, but she was afraid to even think about it.
In the evening, Mikhail Ivanovich, sent from the prince, came to Princess Marya for a letter from Prince Andrei, which was forgotten in the living room. Princess Marya submitted the letter. Although it was unpleasant for her, she allowed herself to ask Mikhail Ivanovich what her father was doing.
“They’re all busy,” said Mikhail Ivanovich with a respectfully mocking smile that made Princess Marya turn pale. – They are very worried about the new building. “We read a little, and now,” said Mikhail Ivanovich, lowering his voice, “the bureau must have started working on the will.” (Recently, one of the prince’s favorite pastimes was working on the papers that were to remain after his death and which he called his will.)
- Is Alpatych being sent to Smolensk? - asked Princess Marya.
- Why, he’s been waiting for a long time.

When Mikhail Ivanovich returned with the letter to the office, the prince, wearing glasses, with a lampshade over his eyes and a candle, was sitting at the open bureau, with papers in his far-off hand, and in a somewhat solemn pose, he was reading his papers (remarks, as he called them), which were to be delivered to the sovereign after his death.
When Mikhail Ivanovich entered, there were tears in his eyes, memories of the time when he wrote what he was now reading. He took the letter from Mikhail Ivanovich’s hands, put it in his pocket, put away the papers and called Alpatych, who had been waiting for a long time.
On a piece of paper he wrote down what was needed in Smolensk, and he, walking around the room past Alpatych, who was waiting at the door, began to give orders.
- First, postal paper, do you hear, eight hundred, according to the sample; gold-edged... a sample, so that it will certainly be according to it; varnish, sealing wax - according to a note from Mikhail Ivanovich.
He walked around the room and looked at the memo.
“Then personally give the governor a letter about the recording.
Then they needed bolts for the doors of the new building, certainly of the style that the prince himself had invented. Then a binding box had to be ordered for storing the will.
Giving orders to Alpatych lasted more than two hours. The prince still did not let him go. He sat down, thought and, closing his eyes, dozed off. Alpatych stirred.
- Well, go, go; If you need anything, I will send it.
Alpatych left. The prince went back to the bureau, looked into it, touched his papers with his hand, locked it again and sat down at the table to write a letter to the governor.
It was already late when he stood up, sealing the letter. He wanted to sleep, but he knew that he would not fall asleep and that his worst thoughts came to him in bed. He called Tikhon and went with him through the rooms to tell him where to make his bed that night. He walked around, trying on every corner.
Everywhere he felt bad, but the worst thing was the familiar sofa in the office. This sofa was scary to him, probably because of the heavy thoughts that he changed his mind while lying on it. Nowhere was good, but the best place of all was the corner in the sofa behind the piano: he had never slept here before.
Tikhon brought the bed with the waiter and began to set it up.
- Not like that, not like that! - the prince shouted and moved it a quarter away from the corner, and then again closer.
“Well, I’ve finally done everything over, now I’ll rest,” the prince thought and allowed Tikhon to undress himself.
Frowning in annoyance from the efforts that had to be made to take off his caftan and trousers, the prince undressed, sank heavily onto the bed and seemed to be lost in thought, looking contemptuously at his yellow, withered legs. He didn’t think, but he hesitated in front of the difficulty ahead of him to lift those legs and move on the bed. “Oh, how hard it is! Oh, if only this work would end quickly, quickly, and you would let me go! - he thought. He pursed his lips and made this effort for the twentieth time and lay down. But as soon as he lay down, suddenly the whole bed moved evenly under him back and forth, as if breathing heavily and pushing. This happened to him almost every night. He opened his eyes that had closed.
- No peace, damned ones! - he growled with anger at someone. “Yes, yes, there was something else important, I saved something very important for myself in bed at night. Valves? No, that's what he said. No, there was something in the living room. Princess Marya was lying about something. Desalle—that fool—was saying something. There’s something in my pocket, I don’t remember.”
- Quiet! What did they talk about at dinner?
- About Prince Mikhail...
- Shut up, shut up. “The prince slammed his hand on the table. - Yes! I know, a letter from Prince Andrei. Princess Marya was reading. Desalles said something about Vitebsk. Now I'll read it.
He ordered the letter to be taken out of his pocket and a table with lemonade and a whitish candle to be moved to the bed, and, putting on his glasses, he began to read. Here only in the silence of the night, in the faint light from under the green cap, did he read the letter for the first time and for a moment understand its meaning.
“The French are in Vitebsk, after four crossings they can be at Smolensk; maybe they’re already there.”
- Quiet! - Tikhon jumped up. - No, no, no, no! - he shouted.
He hid the letter under the candlestick and closed his eyes. And he imagined the Danube, a bright afternoon, reeds, a Russian camp, and he enters, he, a young general, without one wrinkle on his face, cheerful, cheerful, ruddy, into Potemkin’s painted tent, and a burning feeling of envy for his favorite, just as strong, as then, worries him. And he remembers all the words that were said then at his first Meeting with Potemkin. And he imagines a short, fat woman with yellowness in her fat face - Mother Empress, her smiles, words when she greeted him for the first time, and he remembers her own face on the hearse and that clash with Zubov, which was then with her coffin for the right to approach her hand.
“Oh, quickly, quickly return to that time, and so that everything now ends as quickly as possible, as quickly as possible, so that they leave me alone!”

Bald Mountains, the estate of Prince Nikolai Andreich Bolkonsky, was located sixty versts from Smolensk, behind it, and three versts from the Moscow road.
On the same evening, as the prince gave orders to Alpatych, Desalles, having demanded a meeting with Princess Marya, informed her that since the prince was not entirely healthy and was not taking any measures for his safety, and from Prince Andrei’s letter it was clear that he was staying in Bald Mountains If it is unsafe, he respectfully advises her to write a letter with Alpatych to the head of the province in Smolensk with a request to notify her about the state of affairs and the extent of the danger to which Bald Mountains are exposed. Desalle wrote a letter to the governor for Princess Marya, which she signed, and this letter was given to Alpatych with the order to submit it to the governor and, in case of danger, to return as soon as possible.
Having received all the orders, Alpatych, accompanied by his family, in a white feather hat (a princely gift), with a stick, just like the prince, went out to sit in a leather tent, packed with three well-fed Savras.
The bell was tied up and the bells were covered with pieces of paper. The prince did not allow anyone to ride in Bald Mountains with a bell. But Alpatych loved bells and bells on a long journey. Alpatych's courtiers, a zemstvo, a clerk, a cook - black, white, two old women, a Cossack boy, coachmen and various servants saw him off.