Bronze Age (3500–1200 BC)

the historical period that replaced the Chalcolithic (Copper Age). It is characterized by the production and use of bronze tools and weapons, the emergence of nomadic cattle breeding, irrigated agriculture, writing, and slave states (late 4th - early 1st millennium BC). Changed to the Iron Age in the 1st millennium BC.

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BRONZE AGE

the historical period that replaced the Chalcolithic and is characterized by the spread of metallurgical bronze, bronze tools and weapons at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. Later in some regions. In the Byzantine century, nomadic cattle breeding and irrigated agriculture, writing, and slave-owning civilizations appeared. Changed to the Iron Age.

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BRONZE AGE

stage of human history, characterized by the spread of bronze metallurgy, bronze tools and weapons at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. (later in some regions). It was preceded by the Chalcolithic. Scientists divide it into 3 periods: early, middle, late. In B. century. Cattle breeding, agriculture, and crafts developed; writing appeared. Changed to the Iron Age.

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BRONZE AGE

one of the three centuries of general archaeological periodization (Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages). The era of the spread of bronze (an alloy of copper and tin in a ratio of 9:1). Compared to copper, bronze melts at a lower temperature, produces fewer cracks during melting, and most importantly, tools made from it are harder and more durable than copper ones. The casting of bronze tools required rare tin, which led to the development of the tin trade and the spread of technical innovations and knowledge. In Asia B. c. coincides with the emergence of civilization, so this name is practically not used here. Early B. century. in Eastern Europe it has not yet been sufficiently studied. Late B.

V. (cultures: ancient Yamnaya, Srubnaya, Abashevskaya, Andronovo, Catacomb, etc.) - the period of formation of large ethnocultural communities and migrations.

In America, bronze was used until 1000 AD. (Argentina). The Aztecs knew her, but she did not play such a big role as in the Old World. In the Near and Middle East of the 3rd millennium BC, in Europe - 2nd millennium BC. B.v. follows the Chalcolithic and predates the Iron Age.

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Bronze Age

Bronze Age, prehistory, a period characterized by the production of cutting tools and weapons made of bronze, i.e. an alloy of copper and tin. Recognition of the advantages of this alloy was slow; various types were tried. proportions before finding the optimal one (10% tin). Therefore, it is just as difficult to determine the exact time of transition from the “Copper Age” to the B.V. as from it to the “Iron Age”. It is now generally accepted that the technologist, the breakthrough in bronze production, was achieved in different places at different times: between 3500 and 3000. BC. on Bl. East, Balkans and Southeast. Asia and not earlier than the 15th century. AD among the Aztecs of Mexico. The ability to make a new alloy spread slowly and to limited areas, since tin deposits were not found everywhere. Thus, in Africa south of the Sahara, in Australasia and almost everywhere in America there was no B.v. at all. Although in the cultures of B.v. Many other metals also came into use, but it was precisely due to the high cost of tin that two important events occurred. Firstly, the international trade, and, secondly, social stratification has noticeably increased, i.e. those who could acquire or produce bronze consolidated their power over those who could not.

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BRONZE AGE

(English Bronze age, German Bronzezeit), in the system of three centuries, the second period when bronze became the main material for tools and weapons. The significance of bronze also lay in the fact that it required the organization of trade in rare but necessary tin. Such trade soon entailed the rapid spread of ideas and technological innovations, therefore, in the study of biological warfare. emphasis was placed on typology. A detailed analysis was made possible by the rapid change in types of tools and weapons, as well as their frequent finds in treasures. In Asia B. c. coincides with the period of written sources, so its archaeological name is often omitted. In Western Europe, metalworking centers were located in the Aegean basin (Minoans, Mycenaeans - the first European civilizations), Central Europe (Unetic culture), Spain (El Argar), Britain (Ireland and Wessex culture) and Scandinavia. Late B. century. - a period of major movements of peoples, which were accompanied by the spread of fields of burial urns. They end with the appearance of iron. In America, bronze was used in Northern Argentina before 1000, and shortly thereafter also in Peru. Some Mexican peoples, incl. The Aztecs were familiar with bronze, but it never played the same role in the New World as in the Old, so the term B. century. illegal for America.

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BRONZE AGE

cultural-historical a period characterized by the spread of the manufacture of tools, weapons, jewelry and utensils from bronze. Approx. chronological B.V. framework: con. 3rd - beginning 1st millennium BC e., and in various regions of the globe, due to the peculiarities and unevenness of the sources. development, B.v. arose and developed at different times. Bronze, an alloy of copper with an admixture of other metals, ch. arr. tin differs from copper in its fusibility (700-900?), higher casting qualities and significantly greater strength, which is why it is widespread. B.v. was preceded by the Copper Age (otherwise Chalcolithic or Eneolithic), when, along with stone, copper products, forged and cast, were used. Already in the Chalcolithic era, covering the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. e., in countries such as India, Mesopotamia and Egypt, the first early slave-owning societies arose. state In B. century. they have reached their highest development. The oldest bronzes. guns were found in South. Iran and Mesopotamia and date back to the 24th-23rd centuries. BC e. In Egypt, bronze. the industry spread to the beginning. 2nd millennium BC e., but penetrated into the more southern regions of Africa later. In India, ancient bronzes. the guns date back to the early 2nd millennium BC e. In China, bronze began to be widely used in the Yin era (from the 18th century BC). In America B. c. had self-sufficiency. history: arose much later (in the 1st millennium AD) and ended with the arrival of Europeans. To the Center and Yuzh. America in B. c. there were slave owners. state The turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. e. was a time of widespread distribution of bronzes. industries in M. Asia, Syria and Palestine, Cyprus and Crete, where slaveholding also arose at this time. states. In the 2nd half. 2nd thousand slave owners. states developed in a number of regions of Greece. At the same time, the slave owner. the system strengthened in India and China. In other parts of the Old World in the Middle Ages. Major changes took place in the structure of primitive communities, which moved from matriarchal relations to patriarchal ones with the development of domestic slavery. B means. parts of countries with a primitive communal system in the Middle Ages. Tribal alliances formed, many of which reached the highest form of politics. organization of primitive society, characterized by F. Engels and V. I. Lenin as a system of military democracy. An important feature of B. century. is the fact that bronze. industry nowhere completely replaced stone, from which they continued to make cutters, arrows, teeth for sickles, flat and drilled axes, and many others. etc. Therefore, in B. century. in plural districts in northern Europe, Asia and Africa, remote from the advanced centers, the old Neolithic was preserved. way of life, archaic matriarchal orders. primitive communities of hunters and fishermen (see Neolithic), but metallic ones also penetrated them. tools and weapons that to a certain extent changed their lives. Changes and differences in societies. structure and culture of tribes and states in B. century. were due to the diversified development of production. forces - metallurgy, p. farming (with the introduction of arable farming and pastoralism), crafts and trades - in different historical sources. conditions that gave different socio-political. results, but everywhere causing much faster arrival. movement compared to previous ones. time. A major role in accelerating the pace of economic activity. and societies. development department regions played in B. c. establishment of exchange ties, especially between the districts of deposits of metals, salt, mining of rare rocks and wood, mineral and organic. dyes, cosmetics substances, pearls, etc. For Wed. In Europe and Scandinavia, such an accelerator of cultural development was the so-called. the “amber route”, along which amber was exported from the Baltic states to the south, and weapons, jewelry, etc. from the more developed centers of the Balkans and Danube region penetrated to the north; in Brit. The export of tin played a role on the island. Thanks to the development of barter relations, improvements in technology and military technology. cases began to be transferred especially quickly. Study of the development of exchange ties in B. century. has for archaeol. research and important applied significance: on the distribution of certain things made in countries with a chronology recorded in writing, with greater accuracy than for predecessors. eras, dating back to archaeol. monuments of countries, even very remote from the advanced centers of ancient culture. In this regard, for the Front and Middle. The chronology of cultural history has acquired great importance in the East. development of Mesopotamia, Iran and India. Mn. archaeol. monuments and entire periods in the history of the Caucasus, Wed. Asia, and through them more northern. regions of the USSR are determined by connections with these centers, reflected in archaeology. finds. For East and Center. Asia, Siberia and the Far East, the chronology of cultural history is no less important. development Dr. China. For all of Europe, the most important chronological. The determinant is the results of excavations on the island. Crete, especially at Knossos and Phaistos, well dated by imports from Egypt, Asia Minor and Syria, as well as research in ancient Troy, excavations at Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos. As a result of all these studies, the Cretan-Mycenaean (see Aegean culture) chronological was created. periodization of B. century. Southern Europe with the following divisions Ancient Minoan (Chalcolithic. ) period (4th-3rd millennium BC), Middle Minoan (2200 - 1550 BC), Late Minoan (1550-1150 BC). This periodization also formed the basis of the chronology of the North. Greece. Varying in details, chronological. systems, proposal different authors agree that B. v. Europe mainly falls in the 2nd millennium BC. e. These definitions were tested physically. methods using C14 isotopes. Its results confirm the assignment of the earliest monuments in Europe containing bronze. products, to the end 3rd and beginning 2nd millennium BC e. Within this period, the countries of Europe experienced different stages of cultural history. development. B.v. in Crete - the time of formation and development of slave ownership. states, more similar to other eastern ones than to ancient ones. They already had writing - hieroglyphic, etc. system A, which has not yet been deciphered. In mainland Greece, the same process began in the 18th-17th centuries. He reached a particularly high development in the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e., when the states that had the so-called written language strengthened here. systems of B., in which they see the most ancient Greek. letter of the Achaeans. In the countries of the Danube Basin. in B. c. The transition to the patriarchal-tribal system was completed. Archaeol. cultures are represented here in meaning. to the extent a continuation of the local Eneolithic. cultures, they are all basically agricultural. In Bulgaria, the most typical for B. century. is the Karanovo IV-V culture. Several are known in Hungary. archaeol. cultures, the monuments of which, apparently, mark the emergence and development of tribal unions. The union of the B. c. tribes can be considered the most ancient. Pecel, or Baden culture, the monuments of which date back to the 3rd millennium BC. e. and occupy a vast territory. from the south of Germany to Transcarpathia and Transylvania. They were left to the farmers. population that already had cart transport. The Pechli tribes, like the later tribes of the Pashto culture, had connections with the population of the Eastern steppes. Europe. In the beginning. 2nd millennium BC e. on the territory South Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia are spreading the so-called. Unetica culture, characterized by a high level of bronze casting. In the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e. the Lusatian culture arises, the monuments of which are several. local variants occupy an even more extensive territory than the Unetice ones, reaching in the north of Brandenburg, in the west of Frankfurt am Main, and in the east, spreading to the east. parts of Poland, Transcarpathia and Transylvania. This culture in most regions is characterized by a special type of cemeteries (see Fields of funeral urns culture), containing the burned remains of the dead. It belongs to a farmer. population, ethnic the composition of which there is no consensus among experts. In Romania, B. c. crops are the so-called Monteoru culture and later Noa culture. On Wednesday. and Sev. Germany and South Scandinavia in the end 3rd and 1st half. 2nd thousand distributed in several. local variants of beaker cultures close to each other, decorated, especially at a later stage, with corded ornaments. The most interesting phenomenon in the history of Europe early. 2nd millennium BC e. represents the spread of bell-shaped Beaker cultural monuments from Spain to Poland, Transcarpathia and Hungary (see Bell-shaped Beaker culture). The population that left these monuments moved from west to east among local tribes. It is believed that these were bronze metallurgists who carried their products all the way to Britain, Italy, Povislenye and the Danube region and smelted high-quality ones. metal. In B. century. Italy should note the monuments of the Remedello type, close to the Unetice ones, but preceding them in time. From ser. 2nd millennium BC e. all in. Italy is spreading, possibly under the influence of the Swiss. lake pile settlements, so-called. terramaras are settlements on stilts, built not over a lake, but on damp flooded areas of river valleys (especially the Po River). During excavations of both pile buildings and terramars, a large number of tools, utensils (including those made of unstable materials - bone, wood, fabric), grains and seeds are discovered. In con. 3rd millennium BC e. (and along C14 in its 2nd half) in the Rhine regions of Germany, on the upper reaches of the Danube and in the East. In France, the so-called Michelsberg culture, or chassis culture. It is distinguished by powerful and extremely extensive fortifications - ditches, ramparts, and in France, stones. walls, indicating the formation of new social relations, which made it possible to carry out the meaning. labor force cooperation. B.v. on the territory Most places in France are characterized by settlements of farmers who left a huge number of mounds with complex burial structures, often megalithic. type (see Megalithic cultures). In northern France, as well as along the coast of the Northern Sea, megalithic architecture continued to be built. structures - dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs. Particularly famous is the one dating back to the 18th century. BC e. cromlech - sun temple at Stonehenge in England. In B. century. In this country, the skill of bronze casters, who had local reserves of tin, reached a high level of development. The same can be said about Spain, in the south even at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. e. A unique El-Argar culture arose. Later, in the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e., in southern Spain, cultural development, ch. arr. in metallurgy centers, reached a particularly high level, expressed, in particular, in the emergence of populous, well-fortified settlements consisting of stones. houses built on cobbled streets. These villages are close to the ancient Minoan ones in Crete and Greece, but in Spain the development of cities based on them dates back to the early period. century, i.e. by the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e. -***-***-***- Synchronistic table of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures on the territory of the USSR

Produces relatively high development. forces in B. c. Europe led to the accumulation of intra-communal wealth. In the 1st half. 2nd millennium BC e., in addition to increasing food supplies. resources and, above all, livestock, this was reflected in the widespread appearance of treasures of products from community bronze foundries. 2nd half 2nd millennium BC e. throughout Europe are characterized by treasure troves of high quality jewelry. gold jewelry that belonged to the tribal nobility. Bronze Age on the territory of the USSR. Already in the Eneolithic. era population plural regions of the territory The USSR had a highly developed culture for that time and was closely connected with the contemporary advanced centers of Europe and Asia. Thus, the tribes of the Trypillian culture were close to the tribes of the Danube region, the Balkans and Asia. Eneolithic tribes of Transcaucasia and North. The Caucasus were in close contact with the population of the advanced centers of Mesopotamia and Anatolia, and the tribes of the south. districts Wed. Asia - with the cultural centers of Mesopotamia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tribes of the South Siberia and Transbaikalia had cultural ties with Dr. China (see Afanasyevskaya culture, Glazkovskaya culture and Kitoyskaya culture). All this means. to a large extent determined the features of the development of B. century cultures. on the territory THE USSR. Of particular importance was the Caucasus, which served to connect. a link between the steppe districts of the territory. USSR and cultural centers of Dr. East. How close these connections were is shown by the monuments of Maikop culture. Widespread throughout the North. The Caucasus from the Black Sea to the Grozny region, this culture of local settled farmers. tribes is characterized by the presence of the richest burial mounds of the tribal nobility, containing tools, weapons, jewelry and silverware, with drawings completely similar to those of other Mesopotamians of the 24th-22nd centuries. BC e. During excavations of burial mounds in Trialeti (Georgia), burials dating from the 20th to the 19th centuries were discovered. BC e., also containing the richest jewelry made in the traditions of the art of Dr. Mesopotamia and Anatolia. Just like the Maikop treasures, the Trialeti treasures indicate a high level of development of societies. relations and culture in the Caucasus in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. Research of mounds and burial grounds in Transcaucasia dating back to the middle and 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e., showed that this area was at that time the center of a highly developed local bronze metallurgy, very similar in the shape of products and the quality of the metal to the bronze foundry centers of the Hittites, Urartu, Luristan and Assyria. Cultural connections between the Caucasus and the Balkans and the Danube region can also be traced, apparently carried out by sea along the shores of the Black Sea. To the North Caucasus in the 1st half. 2nd millennium BC e. On the basis of the Maikop culture, several local cultures arose. More app. The region is distinguished by monuments of the so-called. North Caucasian culture; in the more eastern ones - in Pyatigorye, Kabarda and the Grozny region - unique forms arise that are most close to the catacomb culture of Southern Russian. steppes. It is possible that the Catacomb culture as a whole, and especially its metallurgy, developed in close connection with the cultures of the Caucasus. At a later time in the North. The influence of the timber-frame culture is noticeable in the Caucasus. In the mountainous regions in the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e. the related Colchian culture, Sevan, Khojaly-Kedabek culture (see also Mingachevir), Koban culture, etc. were formed. All these cultures are distinguished by a high level of metallurgy and ceramics. Their similarities, and at the same time their differences, probably reflect both the ancient kinship and differentiation of the Caucasians. tribes More northern districts of steppes and forest-steppes in the Byelorussian century. were inhabited by tribes, also in most places reaching the level of patriarch. relationships. Having arisen in close dependence on the Caucasus and initially concentrated in the Eastern steppes. Ciscaucasia and Manych, tribes of the Catacomb culture in the beginning. 2nd millennium BC e. widely settled in the steppe zone, reaching the Saratov Volga region, Voronezh, the Dnieper bend, the Odessa region and the Crimea. Monuments of the catacomb culture are also found in the Volga region. Preceding the catacomb in the steppes of the Lower. Volga and Dnieper Eneolithic regions. The Yamnaya culture is marked by the first acquaintance of its tribes with the use of wheeled carts and draft animals. The standard of living of the tribes of the catacomb culture was even higher - they knew a developed shepherd. cattle breeding, millet crops, bronze casting, and skillfully decorated dishes with imprints of cord and woolen braid. It is believed that the penetration of the Catacomb tribes into the Volga and their mixing with the local population led to the beginning. 18th century BC e. formation of timber frame culture. Well-armed bronzes. with “hanging” axes, spears and daggers, already knowing a riding horse, the tribes of the Timber culture quickly populated the steppes and penetrated far in the north to Murom, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Buguruslan, and in the east - to the river. Ural. All R. 2nd millennium BC e. these tribes mastered agriculture and bronze casting to perfection. As in the West. Europe, from this time in the steppes of Southern Europe. parts of the USSR have preserved the richest treasures of foundry masters in the form of bronzes. products, semi-finished products and foundry molds, as well as treasures of precious metal products that belonged to the tribal nobility. Population of the Srubnaya culture to the west of the Volga in the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. was subjugated by the Scythians and merged with them. On Wed. Dnieper in the end 3rd millennium BC e. The Middle Dnieper culture developed. Her 2nd, so-called. Gatninskaya, the step falls on the 1st floor. 2nd millennium BC e. The development of this culture is influenced by the Late Trypillian and Catacomb cultures, on the one hand, and on the other, it shows similarities with the Unetice forms of the West. In more western areas of Right Bank Ukraine, for example. in the Rivne region, burials with corded ceramics were discovered, similar to those common in this part of Ukraine at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. megalithic monuments of the late Eneolithic. From the 17th-16th centuries. BC e. in the West Monuments of the Komarov culture are distributed in Ukraine, Podolia, and also in southern Belarus. In more southern areas, it is distinguished by its proximity to the Lower Danube cultures of the B. century, left by the ancient Thracian population, in the northern. The same areas include a number of features of the so-called. Trzyniec culture of Poland. Mixed Komarovsko-Trzynets monuments are becoming widespread in Ukrainian-Belarusian. borderland over a very large area, extending to the east of the Dnieper. In Belarus at this time there were monuments of the Dnieper-Desninsky variant of the Middle Dnieper culture. In the Baltics, burial grounds with vessels decorated with a semblance of corded ornamentation and a large number of bronzes were found. products, ch. arr. 2nd floor 2nd millennium BC e. They are similar to the monuments of the Kaliningrad region. The Volga-Oka interfluve and the Vyatka Trans-Volga region in the 2nd millennium BC. e. occupied by hunting and fishing tribes of the late Neolithic, among whom settled tribes of the Fatyanovo culture, engaged in cattle breeding and producing high-quality goods. spherical earthenware, stone. drilled hammer axes and bronze. fork axes. Related groups of Fatyanovo tribes settled in the territory corresponding to modern times. Moscow, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl regions. and the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, possibly of different origins. Monuments of Moscow the groups have features of similarity with the Dnieper-Desninsky monuments, and the Chuvash ones - with the monuments of the steppe South and even the Caucasus. At a later stage of B. century. Bronze is known in the Volga-Oka interfluve and along the Kama. spears, celts and daggers so-called. Seima, or Turbino, type (see Seima culture, Turbino burial ground). They have become very widespread. Weapons of the Seima type were found in the Borodino (Bessarabian) treasure of the 15th-14th centuries. BC e. in Moldova, in the Urals, in Issyk-Kul, on the Yenisei, in the Baikal region. The richest workshop of Seima bronzes was found near the village. Samus near Tomsk. The influence of Seima forms of celts, spears and knives on the Chinese Yin era (14th-11th centuries BC) is undeniable. In Chuvashia, Trans-Volga region, south of the Kama and in Bashkiria there are burial mounds and sites of the Abashevo culture, spreading into the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e. and distinguished by a certain similarity with the Timber-frame culture of the Volga region. In the steppes of the West. Siberia, Kazakhstan, Altai, etc. Yenisei from the 17th century. BC e. The Andronovo culture, which belonged to agriculturalists and pastoralists, is spreading. tribes, certainly related to the tribes of the Srubnaya culture from the southern Russian steppes. The Andronovo culture served as the basis for the formation of the Sauromatian tribes that belonged to northern Iran. language group. On Wednesday. Asia at the beginning of the Middle Ages Local farmers continued their development. cultures that arose back in the Eneolithic, in the south are cultures of the Anau type, in the north - the Kelteminar culture. Their connections with steppe cultures are discovered. Later, in the era of the Tazabagyab culture of Khorezm, the strong influence of the steppe tribes began to show itself, which was expressed in the penetration of the Andronovo culture into the south. limits Avg. Asia, Pamir and Tien Shan. To the south On the outskirts of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan there are settlements, burials and a large number of scattered finds, ch. arr. ceramics of the Andronovo-Tazabagyab type. The same finds were registered in the mean. number of places in the South-East. Iran and Pakistan, which indicates the advancement of Indo-European. population to the Indus. It is possible that this movement is directly related to the issue of the spread of the Aryan tribes. In con. 2nd millennium BC e. in Turkmenistan and Fergana, painted ceramics decorated with dark geometric patterns continue to exist. patterns on a red background, like those found on agricultural land. Chust settlement and Dalverzin settlement. Similar ceramics are found at this time in Xinjiang and near Lake. Lop Nor. In the last quarter 2nd millennium BC e. in South Bronze types are widespread in Siberia, Transbaikalia, Altai and to a certain extent in Kazakhstan. tools and weapons, which are especially characteristic of the Karasuk culture of Altai and Yenisei and the tomb culture of Transbaikalia. They are associated with the cultures of Mongolia, Northern. and Center. China of the Yin and Zhou eras (14-8 centuries BC). Their connection is confirmed by the belonging of the majority of Karasuk people to Northern China. anthropologist type. In Siberia, Karasuk forms in the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. replaced by new Scythian-Siberian cultures such as the Mayemiri, Tagar and tiled graves (see Tagar culture, Tiled grave culture). Since that time, everywhere in the territory. The USSR is expanding iron production, before that from the end. 2nd millennium BC e. used only in the more southern regions of the country. B.v. stood out as a special stage in the history of culture back in antiquity. time by Lucretius Carus. In archaeol. science B. v. was introduced in the 1st half. 19th century date scientists K. Y. Thomsen and E. Worso. Means. contribution to the study of B. century. made by a Swede. archaeologist O. Montelius, who, using the so-called created by him. typological method, classified and dated archaeol. monuments of the Neolithic and B. century. Europe. Franz. scientist J. Deshelet created a typological periodization of stone and bronze monuments. and zhel. centuries France and Center. Europe. English scientist A. Evans proposed a periodization of the Minoan civilization; Until recently, this periodization underlay most chronological studies. archaeological definitions monuments throughout Europe. Montelius's students (N. Oberg and others) aggravated the error contained in the germ of his concept and the changes in archaeology. monuments began to be explained by the laws of development, supposedly determining not only the evolution of animal organisms, but also changes in the forms of things. At the same time, it was completely ignored that everything is archaeological. monuments are not the creation of nature, but of man. labor and therefore their development should be explained primarily not by the laws of nature, but by the laws of human development. society. At the same time, a desire for a comprehensive study of archaeology arose in a number of countries. monuments, as more responsive to the tasks of history. research. The so-called archaeol. culture. This direction has received widespread development in Russia. archaeol. science. V. A. Gorodtsov and A. A. Spitsyn identified the most important cultures of B. century. East Europe. After the victory of the October Revolution, the Soviets. archaeologists have identified a large number of B. century cultures: in the Caucasus (B. I. Krupnov, B. A. Kuftin, A. A. Jessen, B. B. Piotrovsky, G. K. Nioradze, etc.), on the Volga ( P. S. Rykov, I. V. Sinitsyn, O. A. Grakova, etc.), in the Urals (O. N. Bader, A. V. Zbrueva, A. P. Smirnov, K. V. Salnikov, etc. .), on Wednesday. Asia (S. P. Tolstov, A. N. Bernshtam, M. E. Masson, etc.), in Siberia (M. P. Gryaznov, V. N. Chernetsov, S. V. Kiselev, G. P. Sosnovsky , A.P. Okladnikov). Archaeological cultures of B. century. on the territory The USSR is studied from the perspective of history. materialism. It turns out that the economic and the social development of those societies, the remnants of which they are, are then examined on the basis of the study of socio-economic. development features of society., political. and cultural life of ancient tribes and peoples, their relationships, movements and future destinies (A. Y. Bryusov, Kh. A. Moora, M. E. Foss, T. S. Passek, S. V. Kiselev, M. I. Artamonov, etc.). A number of scientists in other countries, defining archaeol. culture, also strived for their history. study. Currently time of B. century culture are successfully studied in all socialist schools. countries (in Czechoslovakia - Jan Filip, Poland - J. Kostrzewski, Hungary - J. Banner). Among the bourgeoisie scientists, along with purely idealistic ones. directions, such movements also arise, representatives of which, while remaining idealistic. positions, pay attention to the works of Marxist archaeologists, especially in historical and economic. areas, use in their own way the achievements and methods of Marxist archeology (for example, the English archaeologist G. Clark). The most prominent among capitalist scientists. countries and closest to materialism was English. archaeologist G. Child, who gave a broad history in a number of books. a review of the relationships between the cultures of the Chalcolithic era and the Middle Ages, the Near East and Europe. In the field of studying B. century. The latest achievements are expressed primarily in the establishment of accurate chronological. archaeological relationships. facts (research on comparative chronology by K. Schaeffer (France), V. Milojicic (Germany), etc.). Of course, all this does not remove the ideology. differences separating the Marxist archeology. science from those idealistic. directions to which the majority of capitalist archaeologists belong. countries Lit.: World History, vol. 1, M., 1955; Clark J. G. D., Prehistoric. Europe. Economical essay, trans. from English, M., 1953; Child G., At the Origins of Europe. civilization, trans. from English, M., 1952; his, The Ancient East in the light of new excavations, trans. from English, M., 1956; Masson V.M. and Merpert N.Ya., Questions of the relative chronology of the Old World, "CA", 1958, No. 1; Flittner N.D., Culture and art of Mesopotamia and neighboring countries, L.-M., 1958; Pendlebury D., Archeology of Crete, trans. from English, M., 1950; McKay E., The Ancient Culture of the Indus Valley, trans. from English, M., 1951; Dikshit S.K., Introduction to Archaeology, trans. from English, M., 1960; Go Mo-jo, Bronze. century, (Sb.), trans. from China, M., 1959; Kiselev S.V., Neolithic and Bronze. century of China, "CA", 1960, No. 4; Gorodtsov V. A., Bronze culture. era of Central Russia. (Report of the Historical Museum for 1914), M., 1916; Essays on the history of the USSR. Primitive communal system and the most ancient states, M., 1956; Bryusov Ya., Essays on the history of the tribes of Europe. parts of the USSR in the Neolithic. era, M., 1952; his, Archaeological cultures and ethnic communities, in the collection: CA, vol. 26, M., 1956; Passek T.S., Periodization of Tripolye settlements, M.-L., 1949; hers, Early agricultural (Trypillian) tribes of the Dniester region, M. , 1961; Popova T. B., Tribes of the Catacomb Culture. M., 1955; Krivtsova-Grakova O. A., Steppe Volga region and the Black Sea region in the Late Bronze Age, M., 1955 (MIA, No. 46); her, Chronology of monuments of Fatyanovo culture, in: KSIIMK, v. 14, M.-L., 1947; Jessen A. A., From the history of ancient metallurgy of the Caucasus, in: IGAIMK, v. 120, M.-L., 1935: Kuftin B. A., Archaeol. excavations in Trialeti, vol. 1, Tb., 1941; Krupnov E.I., Ancient history of the North. Kavkaza, M., 1960; Piotrovsky B.B., Archeology of Transcaucasia, Leningrad, 1949; Tr. YUTAKE, vol. 7 and vol. 10, Ash., 1956-61; Tolstov S.P., Ancient Khorezm, M., 1948; Tolstov S.P. and Itina M.A., The problem of Suyargan culture, "CA", 1960, No. 1; Kiselev S.V., Ancient history of the South. Siberia, (2nd ed.), M., 1951; Dikov N. N., Bronze. century of Transbaikalia, Ulan-Ude, 1959; Okladnikov A.P., Neolithic and Bronze. century of the Baikal region, part 3, M., 1955 (MIA, No. 43); his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; Kiselev S.V., Study of bronzes. centuries on the territory USSR for 40 years, "CA", 1957, No. 4; Draw a long time ago? history? Ukrainian? PCP, K., 1957; Filip J., Pravek? Ceskoslovensko, Prague, 1948; Kostrzewski J., Wielkopolska w pradziejach, Warsz. - Wr., 1955; Mildenberger G., Mittel-Deutschland. Ur-und Fr?hgeschichte, V. - Lpz., 1959; D'chelette J., Manuel d'arch?ologie prehistorique, celtique et gallo-romaine, (v.) 2, R., 1912; Montelius O., Die ?lteren Kulturperioden im Orient und in Europa, (Bd) 1-2, Stockh., 1903-23; Van den Berghe L., Arch?ologie de l'Iran ancien, Leiden, 1959; Schaeffer C., Stratigraphie compar?e et chronologie de l'Asie occidentale, Oxf., 1948; Milojcic V., Chronologie der j?ngeren Steinzeit Mittel-und S?dosteuropas, B., 1949; Mellaart J., Anatolia and the Balkans, "Antiquity", 1960, v. 36, No. 136. S. V. Kiselev. Moscow. Bronze Age

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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Period = from:1200 till:3500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:100 start:1200 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:50 start:1200 PlotData =

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.

see also

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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

Links

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.

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.

Bronze Age

a historical and cultural period characterized by the spread of bronze metallurgy in advanced cultural centers and its transformation into the leading material for the production of tools and weapons. In other territories, at the same time, the development of the Neolithic continued or a transition to the development of metal was made. Approximate chronological framework of the Middle Ages: end of the 4th - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. Bronze, an alloy of copper with other metals (lead, tin, arsenic, etc.), differs from copper in its fusibility (700-900°C), higher casting qualities and significantly greater strength, which determined its distribution. B.v. preceded by the Copper Age, otherwise Chalcolithic, or Chalcolithic, - transitional period from stone (see Stone Age) to metal (metal objects dating back to the 7th millennium BC have been found).

The oldest bronze tools were found in Southern Iran, Turkey and Mesopotamia and date back to the 4th millennium BC. e. Later they spread to Egypt (from the end of the 4th millennium BC), India (late 3rd millennium BC), China (from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC) and in Europe (from the 2nd millennium BC). In America B. c. had an independent history, here the metallurgical center was the territory of Peru and Bolivia (the so-called late Tiwanaku culture, 6-10 centuries AD). Question about B. v. in Africa has not yet been resolved due to insufficient archaeological knowledge, but the emergence here of a number of independent centers of bronze foundry production no later than the 1st millennium BC is considered undoubted. e. The art of bronze casting in Africa flourished in the 11th-17th centuries. in the countries of the Guinea coast.

The unevenness of historical development, which emerged in previous periods, in the B. century. appears quite sharply. In advanced centers with a developed manufacturing economy in the Bronze Age, early class societies took shape and the most ancient states were formed (in the countries of the Near East). The productive economy spread in a number of vast areas (for example, the Eastern Mediterranean) and outside these centers, causing their rapid economic progress, the emergence of large ethnic associations, and the beginning of the decomposition of the clan system. At the same time, in large areas remote from the advanced centers, the old, Neolithic way of life, the archaic culture of hunters and fishermen, was preserved, but metal tools and weapons also penetrated here, which to a certain extent influenced the general development of the population of these areas. In the Middle Ages, history played a major role in accelerating the pace of economic and social development of individual regions. the establishment of strong exchange ties, especially between areas of metal deposits (for example, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe). For Europe, the so-called The Amber Route, along which amber was exported from the Baltic states to the south, and weapons, jewelry, etc. penetrated to the north.

In Asia B. c. was a time of further development of previously established urban civilizations (Mesopotamia, Elam, Egypt, Syria) and the formation of new ones (Harappa in India, Yin China). Outside this zone of ancient class societies and states, cultures develop in which metal products, including bronze, are distributed, and the primitive system undergoes intensive decomposition (in Iran, Afghanistan).

A similar picture in the era of B. century. can also be observed in Europe. On Crete (Knossos, Phaistos, etc.) B. c. (late 3rd-2nd millennium BC) - the time of the formation of early class society. This is evidenced by the remains of cities, palaces, and the appearance of local writing (21-13 centuries BC). In mainland Greece, a similar process occurs somewhat later, but here too in the 16th-13th centuries. BC e. an early class society already exists (royal palaces in Tiryns, Mycenae, Pylos, royal tombs in Mycenae, the writing system of the so-called B system, which is considered the oldest Greek letter of the Achaeans). The Aegean world was in the era of B. century. a kind of cultural center of Europe, on the territory of which there existed a number of cultures of farmers and pastoralists who had not yet gone beyond the framework of the primitive system in their development. At the same time, the accumulation of intra-community wealth and the process of property and social differentiation also occur among them. This is evidenced by the finds of treasures of community bronze casters and treasures of jewelry that belonged to the family nobility.

In the countries of the Danube basin in the Middle Ages, the transition to a patriarchal clan system apparently was completed. Archaeological cultures of the early Byelorussian century. (late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC) represent to a large extent a continuation of local Chalcolithic cultures, all of them mainly agricultural. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The so-called Unetica culture, characterized by a high level of bronze casting, spreads throughout Central Europe, and in the 15-13th centuries. BC e. - Kurgan burial culture. In the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The Lusatian culture emerges: several of its local variants occupy an even larger territory than the Unetice culture. This culture in most areas is characterized by a special type of cemeteries (see Burial fields of the culture) containing corpses burned. In Central and Northern Europe at the end of the 3rd and 1st half of the 2nd millennium, cultures close to each other were widespread in several local variants, characterized by drilled stone “battle” axes and corded ornamentation of ceramics. From the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. there is a spread of monuments of bell-shaped beaker culture over a vast territory from modern Spain to Poland, Transcarpathia and Hungary (See Bell-shaped beaker culture). The population that left these monuments moved from west to east among local tribes. In B. century. Italy should note monuments such as the late stage of the Remedello culture (See Remedello culture). From the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. in Northern Italy they are spreading, perhaps under the influence of the so-called Swiss lake pile settlements. Terramars - settlements on stilts, built not over the lake, but on damp flooded areas of river valleys (especially the Po River). B.v. on the territory of France, in most places, settlements are characterized by farmers who left a huge number of mounds with complex burial structures, often of the megalithic type (see Megalithic cultures). In northern France, as well as along the coast of the North Sea, megalithic structures continued to be built - Dolmens, Menhirs, Cromlech and. Particularly noteworthy is the cromlech - the temple of the sun in Stonehenge in England (its early buildings date back to the 19th century BC). The development of metallurgy is associated with the appearance in southern Spain from the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. a highly developed culture with large settlements surrounded by walls with towers (Los Millares and others).

Bronze Age on the modern territory of the USSR. As in Western Europe, the tribes that lived here developed within the framework of the primitive system. The highest level was reached by the settled agricultural tribes of the southwest of Central Asia, where at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. A local proto-urban civilization of the ancient Eastern type is emerging, revealing connections with the cultures of Iran and Harappa (Namazga-Tepe V). However, the Caucasus with its rich ore base was of even greater importance in this era. The Caucasus was one of the largest metallurgical centers in Eurasia, supplying at the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. copper products from the steppe regions of Eastern Europe. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. Transcaucasia was an area of ​​distribution of settled agricultural and pastoral communities - carriers of the so-called Kuro-Araks culture, in a number of respects associated with the ancient bronze culture of Asia. From the middle of the 3rd millennium to the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the North Caucasus, cultures of pastoral tribes flourished with rich burials of leaders (Maikop culture, North Caucasian culture). In Transcaucasia there is an original culture with painted ceramics - the Trialeti culture of the 18th-15th centuries. BC e. (see Trialeti). In the 2nd millennium BC. e. Transcaucasia was the center of a highly developed bronze metallurgy, very similar to the production of the Hittites and Assyria. At that time, the North Caucasian culture was widespread in the North Caucasus, developing in contact with the Catacomb culture (See Catacomb culture), and in the Western Caucasus - the dolmen culture. In the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. - early 1st millennium BC. e. on the basis of the previous cultures of the Middle Bronze Age, new cultures with a high level of metallurgy are emerging: in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan - the Central Transcaucasian archaeological culture, in Western Georgia - the Colchis culture, in the Central Caucasus - the Koban culture, in the North-West - the Kuban culture, in Dagestan and Chechnya - Kayakent-Khorochoev culture.

In the steppe zone of the European part of the USSR at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. tribes of the Catacomb culture settled, who knew advanced pastoralism, agriculture, and bronze casting. Along with them, tribes of the ancient Yamnaya culture continued to exist (see Yamnaya culture). The progress of the latter and the development of the Urals metallurgical center determined in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. the formation of the timber-frame culture in the Trans-Volga region (See Timber-frame culture). Well armed with bronze “hang-butted” axes, spears and daggers, and already knowing a riding horse, the tribes of the Srubnaya culture spread into the steppes and penetrated far in the north to the areas of the modern cities of Murom, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Buguruslan, and in the east - to the river. Ural. They own the richest treasures of foundry masters found by archaeologists in the form of bronze products, semi-finished products and foundry molds, as well as treasures of products made of precious metals - the property of the tribal nobility. Tribes of the Srubnaya culture in the 1st half of the 1st millennium BC. e. were subordinated to their related Scythians and merged with them.

From 16-15 centuries. BC e. The Komarov culture spreads across the territory of modern Western Ukraine, Podolia, as well as Southern Belarus. In the northern regions, it has a number of features characteristic of the so-called Trzyniec culture (See Trzyniec culture) of Poland. The Volga-Oka interfluve, the Vyatka Trans-Volga region and neighboring territories in the 2nd millennium BC. e. occupied by hunting and fishing tribes of the late Neolithic, among whom settled tribes of the Fatyanovo culture (See Fatyanovo culture), who were engaged in cattle breeding and produced high-quality spherical pottery, stone-drilled hammer axes, and copper “loop-butted” axes. In the era of B. century. in the region of the Volga-Oka interfluve and on the Kama, bronze spears, celts and daggers of the so-called Seima, or Turbino, type are known (see Seima burial ground, Turbino burial ground), which have become very widespread. Weapons of Seima types were found in the Borodino (Bessarabian) treasure (See Borodino treasure) 14-13 centuries. BC e. in Moldova, as well as in the Urals, Issyk-Kul, and Yenisei.

In Chuvashia, Trans-Volga region, Bashkiria and the Don region there are burial mounds and sites of the Abashevo culture (See Abashevo culture) 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. In the steppes of Western Siberia, Kazakhstan, Altai and the middle Yenisei from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. there was a broad ethnocultural community called the Andronovo culture (See Andronovo culture). It belonged to agricultural and pastoral tribes.

Complexes of archaeological sites close to these cultures were widespread in the middle and 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. in Central Asia. Of these, the most famous is the Tazabagyab culture of Khorezm. The strong influence of the steppe tribes found expression in the penetration of the Andronovo culture into the Tien Shan and the southern reaches of Central Asia. Perhaps the spread of the steppe people was partly caused by the decline of sedentary agricultural civilization in the southwest. Central Asia (Namazga VI). Peculiar monuments of the steppe tribes of the Bronze Age were discovered in southwestern Tajikistan (Bishkent). It is suggested that the spread of steppe bronze cultures is associated with the settlement of Indo-Iranian tribes.

In the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. e. in Southern Siberia, Transbaikalia, Altai and partly in Kazakhstan, types of bronze tools and weapons are distributed that are especially characteristic of the Karasuk culture (See Karasuk culture) of Altai and Yenisei and the local (so-called tomb) culture of Transbaikalia. They are also known in the cultures of Mongolia, Northern and Central China during the Yin and Zhou eras (14-8 centuries BC).

B.v. It was highlighted as a special stage in the history of culture back in ancient times by the ancient Roman philosopher Lucretius Carus. In archaeological science, the concept of “B. V." introduced in the 1st half of the 19th century. Danish scientists K. Thomsen and E. Worso. Significant contribution to the study of B. century. made at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Swedish archaeologist O. Montelius, who, using the so-called typological method he created, classified and dated archaeological sites of the Neolithic and Middle Ages. Europe, as well as the French scientist J. Dechelet. At the same time, a comprehensive study of archaeological sites began. The so-called archaeological cultures began to stand out (See Archaeological culture). This direction has also been developed in Russian archaeological science. V. A. Gorodtsov and A. A. Spitsyn identified the most important cultures of B. century. Of Eastern Europe. Soviet archaeologists identified a large number of B. century cultures: in the Caucasus (G. K. Nioradze, E. I. Krupnov, B. A. Kuftin, A. A. Jessen, B. B. Piotrovsky, etc.), on the Volga (P. S. Rykov, I. V. Sinitsyn, O. A. Grakova, etc.), in the Urals (O. N. Bader, A. P. Smirnov, K. V. Salnikov, etc.), in the Middle Asia (S. P. Tolstov, A. N. Bernshtam, V. M. Masson, etc.), in Siberia (S. A. Teploukhov, M. P. Gryaznov, V. N. Chernetsov, S. V. Kiselev , G. P. Sosnovsky, A. P. Okladnikov, etc.). Soviet archaeologists and foreign Marxist archaeologists are studying the archaeological cultures of the Middle Ages. from the standpoint of historical materialism. The economic and social development of those societies of which they are remnants, the social and political features are clarified. and the cultural life of ancient tribes and peoples, their relationships, movements and future fate (A. Ya. Bryusov, H. A. Moora, M. E. Foss, T. S. Passek, M. I. Artamonov, N. Ya. Merpert and others).

In bourgeois science, along with the idealistic trend, there are trends that approach the materialist understanding of historical processes (English scientists G. Child, G. Clarke); scientists in these trends pay attention to the work of Marxist archaeologists, especially in the historical and economic field.

Lit.: World History, vol. 1, M., 1955; Gorodtsov V. A., Cultures of the Bronze Age in Central Russia (Report of the Historical Museum for 1914), M., 1916; Jessen A.A., From the history of ancient metallurgy of the Caucasus, in the collection: Izv. state Academy of the History of Material Culture, V. 120, M.-L., 1935; Kuftin B.A., Archaeological excavations in Trialeti, vol. 1, Tb., 1941; Piotrovsky B.B., Archeology of Transcaucasia, Leningrad, 1949; Kiselev S.V., Ancient history of Southern Siberia, M., 1951; him. Study of the Bronze Age on the territory of the USSR for 40 years, “Soviet Archaeology”, 1957, No. 4; his, The Bronze Age of the USSR, in the collection: New in Soviet Archeology, M., 1965; Smirnov A.P., Essays on the ancient and medieval history of the peoples of the Middle Volga and Kama region, M., 1952; Popova T. B., Tribes of the Catacomb Culture, M., 1955; Krivtsova-Grakova O. A., Steppe Volga region and the Black Sea region in the Late Bronze Age, M., 1955; Merpert N. Ya., From the ancient history of the Middle Volga region, in the book: Materials and research in the archeology of the USSR, vol. 61, M., 1958; Okladnikov A.P., Neolithic and Bronze Age of the Baikal region, part 3, M., 1955; his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; Krupnov E.I., Ancient history of the North Caucasus, M., 1960; Tolstov S.P., On the ancient deltas of Oxus and Jaxartes, M., 1962; Martirosyan A. A., Armenia in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages, Yerevan, 1964; Central Asia in the Age of Stone and Bronze, M.-L., 1966; Masson V.M., Proto-urban civilization of the south of Central Asia, “Soviet Archaeology”, 1967, No. 3; Salnikov K.V., Essays on the ancient history of the southern Urals, M., 1967; Drawings of the ancient history of the Ukrainian RSR, K., 1957; Pendlebury D., Archeology of Crete, trans. from English, M., 1950; McKay E., The Ancient Culture of the Indus Valley, trans. from English, M., 1951; Child G., At the Origins of European Civilization, trans. from English, M., 1952; him. The Ancient East in the light of new excavations, trans. from English, M., 1956; Clark J. G. D., Prehistoric Europe. Economic essay, trans. from English, M., 1953; Dechelette J., Manuel d'archeologie prehisto-rique, celtique et gallo-romaine, 2, P., 1910; Montelius 0., Die älteren Kulturperioden im Orient undin Europa, 1-2, Stockh., 1903-23; F i I i p J., Pravěké Československo Úvod do studia dějin praveku, Prague, 1948; Kostrzewski J., Wielkopolska w pradziejach, 3 wyd., Warsz.-Wroclaw, 1955; M i Idenberger G., Mitteldeutsch-lands Ur- und Frühgeschichte , B.-Lpz., 1959; Berghe L. Vanden, Archéologie de I"lran ancien, Leiden, 1959; Schaeffer C., Stratigraphie comparée et chronologie de l'Asie occidentale, Oxf. , 1948; Milojčić V., Chronologie der jüngeren Steinzeit Mittel-und Sudosteuropas, B., 1949; Piggott S., Ancient Europe, from the beginnings of agriculture to classical antiquity, Chi., 1966: Gimbutas M., Bronze age cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, The Hague -, 1965; Mozsolics A., Bronzefunde des Karpatenbeckens, Bdpst, 1967.

S. V. Kiselev, V. M. Masson.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

See what the “Bronze Age” is in other dictionaries:

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The historical period that replaced the Chalcolithic and is characterized by the spread of bronze metallurgy, bronze tools and weapons to the end. 4 beginning 1st millennium BC e. (later in some regions). In the Bronze Age, nomadic cattle breeding and irrigation... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The historical period (end of the 4th beginning of the 1st millennium BC; in some regions later), which replaced the Chalcolithic and is characterized by the spread of bronze metallurgy, nomadic cattle breeding and irrigated agriculture. Changed by the Iron Age... Historical Dictionary

At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The collapse of the Circumpontian metallurgical province is completed. The entire previous system of cultural and production relations in Northern Eurasia is being rebuilt. The boundaries of new ethnocultural formations and production systems took on completely different shapes in the Late Bronze Age. Three metallurgical provinces are associated with the spaces of the former northern block of the Circumpontic province (the Balkan-Carpathian region, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus): Eurasian, European and Caucasian. The centers of metallurgy and metalworking in the south of Eastern and partly Western Siberia were included in the system of the Central Asian province, and the southern regions of Central Asia - in the system of the Iranian-Afghan province. These processes were accompanied by the disappearance of old cultures, active migrations of large groups of the population, the formation of new cultures and communities, which radically changed the entire course of ethnocultural history in the northern zone of Eurasia.

The formation and development of Late Bronze Age cultures were largely associated with landscape and climatic changes. The early and final phases of the development of these crops occur against the backdrop of particularly sharp climate aridization.

In the Late Bronze Age, there was a significant expansion of the zone of cultures with productive forms of economy, especially in the northern, northeastern and eastern directions. The world of metalliferous cultures reaches the European North and covers the vast expanses of Northern and Central Asia. Throughout this entire zone, the technology of making tin bronzes as the leading type of copper-based alloys and thin-walled casting of tools and weapons was quickly and widely spreading. Hundreds of new deposits of copper and tin ore were discovered here. In the Donetsk Ridge, in the Caucasus and the Urals, in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, Sayano-Altai, the Baikal region and Transbaikalia, the scale of mining and the production of copper and bronze increased significantly. In the famous Kargaly mines in the Southern Urals and in the copper ore deposits of Dzhezkazgan and Kenkazgan in Kazakhstan, several million tons of ore were mined over the 3-4 centuries, from which a huge amount of copper was smelted. Trade and exchange of metal, as in previous eras, were the most important factor in the development of cultures of the Late Bronze Age.

During this era, in most of the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe - from the Dnieper and Seversky Donets in the west to the Minusinsk Basin in the east - a pastoral economic and cultural type of producing economy was formed. The basis for the livelihood of the cultures of this zone was, first of all, pastoralism, but not agriculture, as was previously believed. The endless and rich grass stands of the steppe and forest-steppe made it possible to graze a huge number of large and small cattle and horses, as well as create a sufficient supply of feed for the winter.

Transhumance and semi-nomadic cattle breeding was practiced mainly in the mountainous and semi-desert regions of the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Middle and Central Asia. Agriculture, and on a limited scale, appeared in this part of Eurasia only at the end of the Bronze Age. The cultures of the Northern Black Sea region, the Caucasus and the south of Central Asia inherited the agricultural and pastoral economic and cultural type that was formed here at the dawn of the Early Metal Age. The northern forest-steppe and southern forest zone are part of a diversified economy with a dynamic combination of producing and appropriating activities. The latter remain the basis for the livelihoods of the population of the deep forest and taiga regions of Eastern Europe and Siberia, differing only in the mobile or sedentary lifestyle of societies of hunters and fishermen.

The Late Bronze Age is a time of active ethno- and cultural-genetic processes in Northern Eurasia. Many archaeologists and linguists believe that it is in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe that the further division of the Indo-European language family takes place - the separation of the Indo-Iranian group, identified in modern science with the population of the Srubnaya and Andronovo communities. In Western and Central Europe, another block of cultures is being formed (the so-called cultures of burial fields or cultures of burial urn fields), with which the origins of the German-Baltic-Slavic proto-linguistic unity are connected. An array of Proto-Finnish-Ugric peoples was concentrated in the forest belt of Eastern Europe and Western Siberia. The border between forest and forest-steppe was a natural boundary that separated and united the cultures of the ancient Finno-Ugrians and Indo-Iranians. The ancestral homeland of the peoples of the Altai language family was in Southern Siberia, in the Sayano-Altai regions. The stages of the history of the North Caucasian language family, the ancestral home of which is localized by linguists in the Western Asian region, remain debatable.

In the ethnic history of the Old World, a colossal role belongs to the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe, which were the ancestral homeland of the peoples of the Indo-Iranian language group. It is with the bearers of the latter that it is rightful to identify the term “Aryans, Aryans,” which served as the self-name of a certain Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European tribes, which later divided into Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian branches. Many scientists associate the death of the ancient Indian civilizations of Mohenjodaro and Harappa with the invasion of the northern steppe peoples. The resettlement and infiltration of speakers of Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian dialects was a long process
a process that was not accompanied by a change in the indigenous population in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Hindustan and Iran. At the same time, the alien tribes adopted the lifestyle and culture of the local peoples. Nevertheless, migration routes are archaeologically recorded in the material culture of the aboriginal population. This is, first of all, the appearance of molded ceramics, metal products, funeral complexes, new subjects and images in rock art, characteristic of the northern steppe peoples, as well as the spread of wheeled transport and the cult of the horse.

Echoes of active migration processes on the territory of Eurasia at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age are recorded in Hittite documents, Vedic texts, and the Iranian Avesta. They brought to us the first written information about the ancient Indo-Aryans and Indo-Iranians, which, along with linguistic data, are used to reconstruct the vocabulary associated with the material and spiritual culture of the tribes of the Late Bronze Age. According to research, these tribes were engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture; special importance was attached to horse breeding; Chariots were used in warfare. They had developed metallurgy and other crafts, a complex social-hierarchical structure of society, and the concept of “king” was used. The title of ruler meant literally "ruler of the claws." The term "chariot-mounted" was used to refer to the privileged military nobility. A class of priests emerged, which regulated the system of legal, moral and ethical norms through complex rites and rituals.

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE EURASIAN METALLURGICAL PROVINCE

The Late Bronze Age within Russia and the former USSR is associated with the formation and development of the Eurasian Metallurgical Province (EAMP). The period of existence of the cultures included in it was the XVIII/XVII - IX/VIII centuries. BC. (within the framework of traditional chronology). In its heyday, the territory of the EAMP extended from Left Bank Ukraine in the west to Sayan-Altai in the east, from the foothills of the Caucasus and the oases of Central Asia in the south to the forest regions of Siberia and Eastern Europe in the north.

The creation of such a colossal system was due to the industrial and ethnocultural consolidation of mobile pastoral tribes of the steppe and forest-steppe and the settled population of the forest zone. The closest and longest interaction between forest (proto-Finno-Ugric) and steppe (Indo-Iranian) peoples occurred precisely in the Late Bronze Age. Most likely, it was at this time that there was a massive introduction of vocabulary related to metallurgy, cattle breeding and agriculture into the languages ​​of the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples, and the proto-Finno-Ugric language into Indo-Iranian speech.

The following categories of metal products are becoming common and most used in the main centers of the Eurasian province: 1) axes; 2) celts with lateral and frontal ears; 3) spear tips with and without slots on the wings of the pen; 4) socketed and stalked arrowheads; 5) double-edged knives and daggers with flat and rod-shaped handles with and without stop; 6) sleeved and flat adzes and chisels; 7) massive cleaver sickles; 8) various jewelry (bracelets, pendants, rings, hryvnias, etc.).

Inventory of the Abashevo cultural and historical community:
1 - plan of the Pepkinsky mound; 2 - reconstruction of the appearance of the Abashevo man; 3 - options for women's hats; 4 - threads and plaques; 5 - spectacle pendant; 6-12 - ceramics; 13 - clay mold for casting an ax; 14 - drilled ax; 15, 16 - wedge-shaped ax and chisel; 17-19- arrowheads; 20- axe; 21, 22 - knives; 23- plow; 24, 25 - flat and sleeved adzes; 26 - spear tip; 27 - clay crucible; 28, 29 - bracelets; 30 - hryvnia; 31 - harpoon (3-5, 20-26, 28-31 - copper and arsenic bronze; 14-18 - stone; 19 - bone)

In the development of cultures and centers of metalworking in the Eurasian province, several chronological periods are outlined - the phase of addition (XVIII/XVTI-XVI centuries BC); the formation in the steppe and forest-steppe of the Timber-Andronovo block of crops and the stabilization of the main production centers (XVI-XV/XIV centuries BC); restructuring of the cultures of the Srubna-Andronovo world and relocation of the main centers of metalworking to the forest and forest-steppe zones (XV/XIV-XII/XI centuries BC); the last phase is associated with the growing processes of destruction and collapse of the Eurasian province (XII/XI-IX/VIII centuries BC).

In the early phase of the EAMP, two large blocks of crops and production centers emerge. The first of them is associated with the Babinskaya, Abashevskaya, Sintashta, Petrovskaya and early Srubnaya cultures. The activity of the metallurgical and metalworking centers of the block covered large areas of the Eastern European steppes and forest-steppes, the Southern Trans-Urals, Northern and Central Kazakhstan.

The second block of cultures of producing centers is localized in the mountains and foothills of the Sayano-Altai, Western Siberian forest-steppe, Trans-Ural taiga, forests of Eastern Europe and is associated primarily with the Seima-Turbino monuments.
The ore base of the first block of deposits included both previously exploited deposits of cuprous sandstones in the Urals, as well as newly developed primary deposits of the Southern Trans-Urals, Mugodzhar, and northern and central regions of Kazakhstan. It is noteworthy that the Caucasus ceased to serve as the most important source of copper and bronze for the steppe and forest-steppe cultures of Eastern Europe, as it was in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Arsenic bronze, still noticeable in the Abashevsky and Sintashta hearths, as well as silver began to be smelted in the Urals (Tash-Kazgan and Nikolskoye mines). The Seima-Turbino centers used tin and tin-arsenic bronzes. The appearance of these easy-flowing alloys became possible with the discovery and beginning of development of the richest copper and tin ore sources in the north of the Altai mountainous country. In subsequent phases of development of the Eurasian province, Rudny Altai will become the most important supplier of tin, a precious alloy of antiquity, to trans-Eurasian trade routes.

In the western centers of the EAMP, the production of tools and weapons continues, in which one can easily recognize the traditional set characteristic of the production of the previous Circumpontic province: socketed axes, flat and grooved adzes and chisels, handle double-edged knives and daggers, forged spear tips, etc. The production of sickles begins -cutters and lamellar sickle-shaped tools, the first cast objects with a “blind” (i.e., not through) sleeve (spear tips) appear. In the Seima-Turbino centers, socketed axes-celts, celts-scapulas, adzes, spear and dart tips, as well as curved-backed single-edged and lamellar double-edged knives and daggers are cast.

Among the first block of cultures and production centers of the early Late Bronze Age, the leading role belonged to the Abashevo cultural and historical community. The name comes from the village of Abashevo in Chuvashia, near which mounds of this type were first studied. The area is predominantly forest-steppe spaces of Eastern Europe from the Seversky Donets in the west to the interfluve of the Urals and Tobol in the east, in the south - with access to the steppe to the bend of the Volga and Don; individual burial grounds are known in the forest zone. In general, the Don-Volga, Middle Volga and Ural cultures are distinguished.

Monuments of the Abashevo community date back to the first third of the 2nd millennium BC. There are early and late periods in its development. However, in the center of the Russian Plain, there is also a layer of proto-Abashev antiquities dating back to the Middle Bronze Age. Its formation took place in the interaction of the southern cultures of the pit-catacomb circle and the northern ones - the area of ​​​​battle axes and corded ceramics. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Abashevites settle to the east (Southern Urals) and northeast (Middle Volga region). The late period is characterized by active contacts with the population of the Early Srub (Pokrovskaya) and Sintashta cultures. The monuments are represented by settlements, burial grounds, ore workings (Tash-Kazgan and Nikolskoye), treasures of metal products (Verkhne-Kizilsky, Krasnoyarsky, Dolgaya Griva).

The Abashevites usually settled along the banks of rivers, on elevated capes, on dunes, and rarely on the tops of rocky outcrops (Urals). Settlements with a thick cultural layer and the remains of ground, slightly deepened, less often dugout and semi-dugout buildings, sometimes surrounded by ditches, have been identified in the Don basin and the Southern Urals. The buildings were constructed using frame (pillar) construction; roof - gable or hipped; inside there is a hearth or several open hearths, utility and sacrificial pits, and sometimes a well.

Burials - from one to several - took place under round or oval mounds. In the Don region and in the Samara Volga region, burials in earlier mounds, as well as ground burial grounds, are known. In the Middle Volga and Oka, mounds were sometimes surrounded by ring ditches and pillar fences; in the Southern Urals, stone fences were built. The burial grounds are mostly small; large - up to 50 (Pelengersky 1) and even 100 (Podkletnensky) mounds - are an exception. Burials took place in rectangular or oval-shaped pits, less often in chambers with wooden or stone lining of the walls and sometimes with a ceiling made of logs, blocks or slabs of stone. The buried - single, less often in pairs, rows and collective - were laid on their backs with their arms bent, sometimes on their left side, in a slightly flexed position. There are known cases of dismembered and partial skeletons, as well as cenotaphs. The buried were accompanied by ceramics, copper and silver jewelry, sometimes knives and awls, stone and bone items.

Among the Abashevo monuments, the single Pepkinsky mound in the Volga region (Mari El) stands out. Three burials were discovered under a low oval mound. One of them amazed researchers with its size and the picture that appeared after clearing. At the bottom of the trench (10.2 x 1.6 x 0.65-0.7 m) with a wooden ceiling and birch bark covering the bottom rested the remains of 27 skeletons and two separately placed skulls. All belonged to men who died violent deaths and were buried in a mass grave. Almost every skeleton showed signs of severe trauma and mortal wounds - chopped and shot damage inflicted by a copper ax and flint arrowheads. Some skulls bear traces of incisions left, as anthropologists assume, during scalping. One of the cores (a blacksmith-foundry) was accompanied by a unique set of tools (a clay mold for casting axes, crucibles, stone anvils, a hammer, hammers and abrasives).

Inventory of “elite” late Abashevo burials:
1-5 - ceramics; 6-8 - bone cheekpieces; 9, 10 - stone arrowheads; 11 - ax; 12, 13 - spear tips; 14 - knife; 15 - adze; 16 - pommel-spatula made of bone; 17 - stone mace; 18 - bone buckle (11-15 - copper and bronze)

Only at the late stage of the Abashevo community in the Middle Don region do burials with characteristic military equipment, sacrifices of horses, dogs, and small cattle appear (Kondrashkinsky, Selezni 2). Apparently, these are the graves of representatives of the elite of society - leaders, priests and their immediate circle. They were accompanied by a specific set of signs of power, namely: stone maces, bone pommels-spatulas, copper battle axes, spearheads, knives-daggers, a chariot set (bone stitched and disc-shaped cheekpieces, belt distributors, belt buckles).

The material culture of the Abashevo population is original. Ceramics are represented by flat-bottomed pots, jars, and bowls with an admixture of shells in the dough. The bell-shaped and sharp-ribed vessels with geometric ornamentation, especially magnificent on funerary vessels, are original. Many metal tools were found - narrow-butted axes, flat adzes, spearheads with an open socket, double-edged knives with crosshairs and interception, weakly curved sickle-shaped tools, fishing hooks and harpoons. Jewelry made of copper, silver and billon gives a bright color to the culture: bracelets, spectacle pendants made of wire, temple pendants with 1.5 turns, hryvnias, plaques, threaded spirals made of a thin plate, but above all - cast sewn-on plaques-rosettes - a characteristic ethnographic a sign of Abashevo women's costume, especially the headdress. Stone (arrowheads, axes, hammers, pestles, anvils, etc.), bone (cheek-pieces with monolithic and inset tenons, buckles, clasps, spade pommels, arrowheads, etc.) and clay (crucibles, wheel models) products are unique. .

The life support system of the Abashev tribes was based on pastoralism, metallurgy and metalworking and was supplemented by other branches of economic activity: hunting, fishing, home crafts and gathering. There is no direct evidence of agricultural occupation (i.e. remains of cultivated cereals).

The activities of the Don metalworking and South Ural metallurgical centers are connected with the Abashevo community. The second of them was the basic one and provided the population of the entire community with metal. Smelting and processing of “pure” and arsenic copper, as well as silver and billons, was carried out in specialized centers (Beregovsky, Tyubyaksky, etc.) in the bend of the river. Belaya and the foothills of the Urals, rich in forests.

In the processes of cultural genesis of the Late Bronze Age, the Abashevo community - along with the Seima-Turbino community - played a pivotal role. In the area of ​​this community, a pastoral economic and cultural type and stereotypes of metallurgy and metalworking technology were formed, which took root in the steppe and forest-steppe of Eastern Europe, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan in the subsequent phases of the development of the Eurasian metallurgical province. The historical destinies of the Don-Volga and Ural Abashevo cultures are directly related to the formation of steppe and
forest-steppe cultures of the Volga-Ural region - Sintashta, early Timber and Petrovskaya.

At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the Babin culture played an important role in cultural and historical processes in large areas of steppe and forest-steppe from the Danube to the Volga. Due to its characteristic ceramics with ridges, it is also called the Multi-Wall Pottery culture. It is represented by hundreds of settlements and burial mounds, as well as treasures. It is assumed that among them is the famous Borodino (Bessarabian) treasure near Odessa. The core of the culture is in the Dnieper-Donets interfluve, and its origins are in the later cultures of the Pit-Catacomb world, as well as the area of ​​battle axes and corded ceramics. The historical fate of the Babinskaya culture is connected with the formation of monuments of the Srubnaya and Sabatinovskaya cultures of this region.

Cultural and historical processes in the center of the Eurasian steppe belt in the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. associated with the transformation of the late Pit-Catacomb and Abashevo antiquities. They led to the formation of the Sintashta, as well as the Petrovka and early Srubnaya cultures.

The Sintashta culture, named after the eponymous complex of monuments in the south of the Chelyabinsk region, stands out among the steppe block of cultures and production centers of the early Late Bronze Age with a number of striking features. Its range is compact - it is a small area (400×200 km) along the eastern slope of the Ural ridge. About 20 fortified centers are known here (sometimes they are wrongfully called proto-cities) with corresponding surroundings (burial grounds, sanctuaries, settlements); the most famous are Sintashta, Arkaim, Ustye in the Chelyabinsk region and Alandskoye in the Orenburg region. The round or rectangular shape of defensive walls and ditches and the radial structure of densely built blocks give these centers the appearance of fortresses, more reminiscent of southern urbanized villages (Altyn-Depe, etc.) than ordinary steppe ones. The dispute about whether the Sintashta settlements were fortresses, shelters, sacred, metallurgical or trade centers is far from resolved. Most likely, they were multifunctional. Dwellings are built of clay and log frames, sometimes mud bricks. In the depths of the dwelling there was a well, a hearth, and utility pits.

The Sintashta burial mounds and ground burial grounds (Sintashta, Crooked Lake, Bolshekaragansky) are located on the edge of the terrace or on the watershed at the confluence of small rivers. Burials in the mounds are located linearly or in a circle. In some cases they overlap each other, forming tiered complexes. Burials - individual or collective - were made in ground pits, pits, catacombs, and sometimes in wooden chambers covered with logs. The predominant position of the buried was slightly crouched on the left side; an extended position on the back with legs bent at the knees was also recorded.

The militarized nature of Sintashta society is noteworthy. Extraordinary burials are known that contain chariot complexes (remains of war chariots, dug-in wheels, bone cheekpieces). Often they were accompanied by the burial of 1-3 pairs of horses in the grave itself or in a special compartment. The male burials contain numerous weapons (copper and bronze battle axes, spearheads, daggers, stone maces, arrowheads, etc.). They contain many tools (flat and grooved adzes and chisels, plate and sickle-shaped tools, knives, awls, fishhooks and harpoons made of copper and bronze, stone hammers, abrasives, etc.), as well as jewelry and ceramics (pots with a wide neck and sharp-edged banks). Ornaments in the form of grooves, triangles, rhombuses, and meanders covered the entire vessel or most of it. There are two groups of vessels in size: small, with a volume of up to 7 liters, and large, with a volume of 8 to 50 liters. The first ones were tableware, while the larger ones were used to store food and water and prepare food.

Sintashta culture:
1 - women’s headdress (bronze, silver, beads, stone)’, 2 - bead; 3 - mace; 4, 11, 13-16 - ceramics; 5 - pommel-spatula made of bone; 6-9 - arrowheads; 10 - ax; 12 - bone cheekpiece (2, 3, 6-10 stone)

The Sintashta culture is characterized by a high level of development of homestead and transhumance cattle breeding, metallurgy and metalworking. The main categories of products from the Sintashta metallurgical center were manufactured according to Circumpontian stereotypes. For the casting of blanks and subsequent forging of tools and weapons, mainly low-alloy arsenic bronze, as well as “pure” copper, were used. A small part of the objects (knives and jewelry) are made of tin bronze and billon. The same alloy recipes and level of technology are characteristic of the territorially close Ural Abashevo centers.

Reconstruction of the burial chamber (Sintashta burial ground):
in the lower chamber there is a funeral cart with the remains of the deceased, in the middle chamber there is a burial
in the top there are burials of sacrificial animals, on top of the chamber there is a sacrificial fire and a mound mound

The nature of the funeral rite, the presence of fortified centers with complex fortifications, and craft specialization suggest that the Sintashta tribes had a developed social structure. Three social groups are outlined: warriors, priests and ordinary community members.

The transformation of cultural formations in the Asian steppe at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age is certainly associated with the initial Western impulse, as a result of which the post-Neolithic population groups of this vast region adopted new economic and social stereotypes. The result was the formation of the Andronovo cultural and historical community. The name was given after the burial ground near the village of Andronovo in the Minusinsk Basin. This community consists of two independent cultures - Alakul and Fedorovskaya, occupying different territories and at the same time a vast common space, having peculiar features of funeral rituals, ceramics, types of metal tools. Archaeologists sometimes classify monuments of the early stage of the Alakul culture as a special Peter the Great culture.

Metal products of the Sintashta culture:
1 - spear tip; 2 - battle ax; 3, 4 - flat adze and sleeved chisel; 5,6 - sickle-shaped tools; 7, 8 - arrowheads; 9 - fishing hook; 10-12 - knives; 13 - spectacle pendant

Monuments of the Peter the Great type were first studied in the village. Petrovka on the river Ishim in northern Kazakhstan - hence the name of the culture. Its origins are in the Southern Trans-Urals and adjacent areas of Kazakhstan. The resettlement of Peter's tribes to the east was stimulated by the discovery and development of the richest copper ore deposits in the Trans-Urals and Kazakhstan, which from that time on would become the basis for the producing centers of the Eurasian province.

Petrovsky settlements were sometimes fortified with clay ramparts and ditches (Petrovka 2, Novonikolskoye 1, Kulevchi 3). Most of the villages had a pronounced metallurgical specialization. Evidence of this is a significant series of copper and bronze tools and production residues (slags, ingots, splashes, crucibles and flasks, foundry molds, scrap products).

Adults were buried under low earthen mounds (Petrovka, Verkhnyaya Alabuga). Children's burials were carried out outside the mounds. The mound covered one or more graves (up to 30). The buried were accompanied by rich grave goods - weapons, jewelry, parts of war chariots, as well as sacrificial animals (horses). The deceased rested on their left or right side, sometimes in an extended position on their back. In rare cases, women were buried in large central pits with a rich and varied set of jewelry, including luxurious leather-based braids.

Ceramics of the Petrovskaya culture are represented by flat-bottomed pots and jars, sometimes with a rib at the top or profiled. Ornaments in the form of triangles and rhombuses, horizontal zigzags and lines are applied in the upper and bottom parts of the vessels, rarely over the entire surface. Inventory includes stone maces, axes and arrowheads, bone cheekpieces and arrowheads. Metal weapons and tools are represented by battle axes, spearheads, flat and socketed adzes, chisels and hooks, sickle-shaped tools, knives, awls and needles. Various decorations. Among them, the specifically Peter's type are cross-shaped pendants and overlays. The tools are made mainly of pure copper, weapons and decorations are made of tin bronzes.

The eastern impulse for the formation of the Eurasian province is associated with the spread of monuments of the Seima-Turbino type in the forest and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia - from Sayano-Altai to Northern Finland. These monuments include 6 large ground necropolises (Rostovka, Satyga, Turbino, Ust-Vetluga, Seyma and Reshnoye), small and conventional burial grounds, single burials in the area of ​​foreign cultural cemeteries (Sopka 2), burial of a shamanic set (Galich treasure), a sanctuary in Kaninskaya cave on Pechora, isolated finds of bronze weapons and foundry molds. All major necropolises are confined to large waterways, often at the mouths of large rivers. However, settlements that could be associated with these burial grounds are still unknown.

In most graves, human remains are missing or not preserved; perhaps some of these graves are cenotaphs. Ceramics were rarely placed in them. Burials of blacksmiths and foundry workers stand out (Rostovka, Sopka 2, Satyga). The grave goods are of a distinct military nature (bronze celt axes, spearheads, knives, daggers, coins, stone arrowheads, leather and bone armor and shields, etc.), which allows us to consider the Seima-Turbino burial grounds as military necropolises. The very forms of metal weapons and tools, bone plate armor, and jade jewelry were previously completely unknown in most cultures of Northern Eurasia. Casting made it possible to decorate axes with relief belts, triangles and rhombuses, and daggers and spearheads with sculptural figures of animals and people. Daggers belong to weapons of princely rank - each of them is unique. Their handles with figures and heads of animals (horses, argali, bulls, moose, snakes) and humans were cast using lost wax models. The knife from Rostovka has a sculptural top molded onto it - a figure of a horse and a skier holding it by the reins. Unique jade jewelry was found in the necropolises - rings, bracelets, beads, not typical for other cultures of the Eurasian province.

Inventory of the Turbinsky burial ground:
1,2 - jade and bronze bracelets; 3-5 - arrowheads; 6-8, 13 - insert knives; 9- suspension; 10, 11 - Celts; 12, 14 - axes; 15-18- spear tips; 19 - adze; 20 - sickle-shaped weapon; 21-23 - knives and dagger (3 8, 13, 14 - stone; 16, 18 - billon; 9-12, 15, 17,
19 23 - bronze)

In the Turbinsky burial ground (now within the city of Perm), 10 clearly recorded burials and 101 conventional ones were discovered. 80-90 single finds have also been identified, which can be associated with both graves (including cenotaphs) and sacrificial complexes. Groupings of graves are outlined in the necropolis area. More than 3,000 objects were found here, mainly flint (arrowheads, knives, inserts for composite tools, scrapers, staples, plates) and metal (celts, axes, spearheads, knives and daggers, coins, bracelets, temple rings, pendants) items, as well as 36 jade rings.

Inventory of the Rostovkinsky burial ground:
1, 4, 7, 8 - knives; 2, 9 - awls; 3- chisel; 5, 6 - ceramics; 10, 11 - daggers; 12-15 - spear tips; 16, 17 - celts (1-4, 7, 8, 10-17 - bronze, 9 - bone and bronze)

In the Rostovka burial ground, located on the southern outskirts of Omsk, 38 ground graves and a number of accumulations of things outside the graves were discovered. Burials were made in subrectangular pits. The funeral rites are varied - deposition of a corpse, burning of a corpse on the side with the placement of charred bones in a grave pit, burials without skulls, burial of a skull. Even in ancient times, many burials were subjected to destruction and desecration, probably with the aim of causing irreparable damage to the “enemy” - they dug up the grave, smashed the skulls, stirred up the upper part of the body, and threw the remains out of the pit. At the same time, the inventory, including bronze weapons, gold, jade, lapis lazuli and crystal rings and beads, remained untouched. Talc and clay casting molds were found in two graves. All ceramics were found outside the graves.

Galich treasure found near the village. Turovskoe in the Kostroma region, contained mainly things of ritual and cult purpose - a dagger with a snake-headed handle, curved lancet knives, figurines of idols crowned with masks, masks-masks, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, “noisy” jewelry, etc. It is assumed that this a set of things that accompanied the burial of a shaman, or a cenotaph with cult clothing and the corresponding attributes of shamanic ritual practice.

Kaninskaya cave is located in the upper reaches of the river. Malaya Pechora in the Komi Republic. Sacrifices were performed in the depths of the grotto. These include damaged copper and bronze knives and daggers, but mainly flint and bone arrowheads.

Monuments of the Seima-Turbino type are considered as a kind of transcultural phenomenon: they are distributed over vast areas surrounded by many cultures, contacts with which were obvious, but they do not have their own strictly defined territory. The mobility, dynamism, and aggressiveness of the carriers of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon is obvious - from the stage of formation of this culture at the very beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. and its rapid advance to the west and northwest until its extinction.

Two components formed the basis of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. The first was localized in the steppes, forest-steppes and foothills of Altai and is associated with the tribes of metallurgists and horse breeders (Eluninskaya, Loginovskaya, Krotovo and other cultures). It was in this Altai environment that fundamentally new examples of socketed weapons and images of art (horses, bulls, rams, camels, etc.) arose. The second component - Sayan - goes back to the mobile hunters and fishermen of the southern zone of the East Siberian taiga, known from the monuments of the Glazkov, Shivers and other cultures of the Baikal region and the Angara basin. The bearers of these cultures achieved perfection in the manufacture of flint, jade and bone implements; They also knew bronze casting, making, in particular, the simplest forms of double-edged plate blades, scraper knives, and files. They brought all these achievements, as well as images of the taiga world (snake, elk, bear, etc.) into the culture of the Seima-Turbino tribes. The organic fusion of the Altai and Sayan components into a single culture probably occurred in the forest-steppe foothills between the Ob and Irtysh.

The transitions and migrations of the Seima-Turbino tribes were rapid. The first stage took place in Western Siberia. Most likely, the first clashes with the Peter the Great tribes in the Irtysh forest-steppe forced the Seima-Turbino groups to move towards the Urals along more northern routes. Upon reaching the Urals, the Abashevo component is included in the Seima-Turbino populations. The Eastern European stage was characterized by different directions of movement: along the Kama up and down to the Volga and the lower reaches of the Oka, to the north - to the Pechora and Vychegda basins, to the west along the Volga route - up to White Lake and the northern regions of Finland.

In the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia, a whole group of cultures is identified - Eluninskaya, Loginovoskaya and Krotovoskaya, to one degree or another involved in the formation of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. In the funerary and settlement monuments of these cultures (Elunino, Tsygankova Sopka 2, Chernoozerye 6, etc.) there are single examples of weapons of the Seima-Turbino type (knives, celts, spearheads) and three foundry molds for casting forked spearheads. Ceramics from the funeral feasts of the Rostovka burial ground are from Krotov and, in small quantities, from Peter. Vessels from the Satyga burial ground in the taiga Konda are close to the Krotov vessels. Settlement sites of other cultures of the West Siberian forest-steppe and southern taiga zone (Odinovskaya, Vishnevskaya, Tashkovskaya, etc.) are not associated with the formation of the Seima-Turbino antiquities. Metalworking of these cultures is based on the use of “pure” copper, but the first products made of tin bronze also appear.

Srubno-Andronovo world and its periphery

In the XVII-XVI centuries. BC. The process of forming the Eurasian metallurgical province is being completed, production centers are being stabilized and products are being significantly unified in the main regions of the EAMP. At this phase, the entire space of the Eurasian steppes and forest-steppes is occupied by monuments of the Srubnaya, Alakul and Fedorovsk cultures. The name of the log-frame culture goes back to the form of the funeral structure (log-house); others are associated with Lake Alakul and the village. Fedorovka in the Trans-Urals, where the first mounds of these cultures were excavated. The phase of active and dynamic existence of the Srubnaya and Alakul communities probably took place within the second quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. The conventional border between them is considered to be the Ural Mountains and the Ural River.

The Srubno-Alakul world is primarily a world of cattle breeders and metallurgists. Archaeological sources do not record any serious deviations from the economic-cultural model that developed in the previous time (pastoral cattle breeding). The number of rich and socially prestigious burials and the number of things in them are significantly reduced. The number of burials without grave goods is increasing. The dead were buried in a crouched position, usually on the left side, and were accompanied by one or more vessels, sometimes a copper or bronze knife and an awl. In general, the culture of the Srubna-Alakul world is surprisingly monotonous and standardized. This is manifested in house-building, burial mound rituals, ceramics and its laconic decoration, products made of metal, bone and stone, etc. In the shortest possible time, Srubny and Alakul cattle breeders mastered not only the space along large waterways, but also low-water deep forest-steppe and steppe landscapes. Judging by the number of known settlements (which number in the thousands), a real population explosion occurred during this era. Never later, until the colonization of the 18th-19th centuries, was there such a population density in the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe.

The formation of the Srubnaya-Alakul block of crops became a key moment in the stabilization of the producing centers of the Eurasian province. At this phase, in the main regions of the EAMP, a significant unification of metal products occurs, and tin and tin-arsenic bronzes are widespread. The vast majority of metal is concentrated primarily in steppe and forest-steppe centers. The centers of metalworking of the cultures of the northern forest-steppe and taiga zone are still relatively weak at this time. In the forms of products and metalworking technology of forest-steppe and southern taiga cultures (Pozdnyakovskaya, Prikazanskaya, Cherkaskulskaya, etc.), the influence of the log-frame and Alakul centers is especially noticeable. The production of cultures of the taiga zone and the eastern regions of Western Siberia (Samus and comb-pit ceramics) develops under the influence of the Seima-Turbino impulse.

The area of ​​the Alakul culture was significantly expanded in comparison with the Peter's culture to the Irtysh in the east, in the south - to the north of Central Asia. Defensive structures around villages are disappearing, and the size of dwellings is increasing. In many settlements, furnaces for smelting copper from ore were discovered, including those of complex design - with air-blowing channels for supplying oxygen to the smelting chamber.

Funerary goods of the Alakul culture:
1-5 - ceramics; 6-8, 13- pads; 9- bracelet; 10-temporal ring; 11- ring; 12 - suspension; 14, 15 - axes; 16-18 - knives; 19 - bone cheekpiece; 20, 21 - plaques (6-10 - bronze and gold foil, 11-18, 20, 21 - bronze)

Funerary goods of the Fedorovskaya culture:
1 - plan of a stone fence with a grave in the center; 2-4 - ceramics; 5 - clay brazier;
6 - bracelet; 7 - beads; 8 - stone pendant; 9-11 - pads; 12, 13 - temporal rings; 14 - wooden bucket; 15, 16 - knives; 17 - sickle (6, 7, 9-13, 15-17 - bronze)

Funeral structures in burial grounds are becoming more diverse - there are earthen and stone embankments, fences made of stone slabs (Alakul, Kulevchi 6). Inside the pit there is a frame or facing the walls with blocks with a wooden overlapping, stone boxes covered with slabs. The buried were accompanied by dishes with meat or dairy food. Most often these are profiled pots, decorated along the neck and body with meanders, triangles, and zigzag ribbons. In male burials, copper and bronze knives and awls are common; sometimes stone axes, maces, hammers, flint, bone and bronze arrowheads are found. Horse harness items are becoming rare. At the same time, shield cheekpieces, buckles and other bridle details are found mainly in settlements, but not in burial grounds. The burials of women were accompanied by a traditional set of bronze costume decorations (plaques, onlays, bracelets, rings, temple rings, beads, etc.), headdress (braids) and even shoes.

In the Alakul centers of metalworking in Central, Northern, Western Kazakhstan and Trans-Urals, tin bronze was used almost exclusively. Socketed axes, spear and arrowheads, stalked and socketed adzes, chisels, punches and mints, cleavers, double-edged and, less frequently, single-edged knives, various decorations (plaques, plates, bracelets, rings, pendants, etc.) were cast from this alloy. ). Most bracelets and rings are covered with thin gold foil, and many plaques, overlays and piercings are stamped with relief lines and patterns.

The leading form of economic activity was pastoral husbandry, primarily cattle breeding. It is possible that semi-nomadic cattle breeding was practiced in areas of dry steppes and semi-deserts. The horse played an important role - along with bulls, it began to be used in this era as a draft animal. Loads were probably transported by Bactrian camels, the bone remains of which were found in the layers of Alakul settlements. Previously, the presence of hoe-based floodplain agriculture was assumed, but there is no direct evidence of it - the remains of cereal grains - in archaeological sites. The metallurgical production of Alakul centers was the most powerful in the Eurasian province in terms of raw material resources. Alakul miners developed copper ore and polymetallic deposits of Mugodzhar, Northern and Central Kazakhstan, and Rudny Altai. Tin mining in the Kalba and Narym ranges, which at that time became the main source of bronze alloy for the entire Eurasian province, became of particular importance. Gold deposits were also developed in Northern Kazakhstan and Altai.

The finale of the Alakul culture (XV/XIV centuries BC) is associated with the formation of monuments of the Alekseevsky-Sargarin type, studied in the Trans-Urals, Kazakhstan, Semirechye and Altai.

The monuments of the Fedorov culture do not form a continuous massif: they have been studied by several local groups in the Trans-Urals, Kazakhstan, the south of Western Siberia, the Minusinsk Basin, and the mountains of Central Asia. The origin and chronology of these monuments are a matter of debate. The most substantiated hypothesis is about the Central and Eastern Kazakhstan origins of the Fedorov culture. The antiquities of its early stage existed synchronously with the Alakul ones, and the late Fedorovsky monuments probably coexisted for some time with the Alekseevsky-Sargarin ones.

The basic principle of village planning is linear. The houses are located in 1-2 rows along the river bank. These are light frame dwellings or large multi-chamber semi-dugouts with thick walls. Industrial metallurgical structures on the territory of settlements are separated from residential ones (Atasu). The burial grounds are low mounds surrounded by round or rectangular stone fences (Fedorovsky, Putilovskaya Zaimka); Ground necropolises are also known. There are long-term monuments (30-120 or more structures) and small burial grounds (6-25 mounds). The number of graves in the mound is small - one or several. The pits are located in the center of the mound, in a circle or in a row. Burial chambers were built from stone, wood or clay, which gave the burial pits the appearance of a crypt dwelling. Stone boxes and cysts are especially characteristic of this culture. Fedorovites have a stable ritual of burning and placing ashes in the grave, but the ritual of corpse deposition is also common. There are known graves with burial goods, but without the remains of the deceased, as well as symbolic burials without grave goods and remains.

Ceramics are represented by two groups of vessels: ceremonial-ritual and household-household. The first - profiled pots with ornaments in the form of oblique triangles, rhombuses, meanders, forming complex carpet patterns - is concentrated mainly in burials, the second, pots and jars with simpler patterns - in the layers of settlements. Tin bronze was used to make socketed axes, hooks and arrowheads, double-edged and, less commonly, single-edged knives and daggers, cleaver sickles, and various decorations, often covered with gold foil. Particularly characteristic of Fedorov metalworking are bracelets with spiral-shaped “horned” ends, rings with a bell, overlays with a stamped pattern, and knife-shaped pendants.

The area of ​​the timber-framed cultural and historical community is the steppe, forest-steppe and semi-desert of Eastern Europe, the Southern Trans-Urals and Western Kazakhstan. The origin of timber-framed antiquities remains one of the most difficult problems in Bronze Age archeology. Previously, it was assumed that the original core of the Srubnaya culture developed on the basis of the Late Yamnaya culture in the Trans-Volga region. From here it supposedly began to spread west to the Dnieper and east to the Urals. It is currently assumed that the timber-frame culture of the Dnieper-Donets interfluve was formed on the basis of the local Babin culture with the participation of the population of the Don Abashevo culture. In the Don-Volga-Ural interfluve, the origins of early Timberian antiquities are associated with previous cultures - late Catacomb, late Yamnaya, Abashevo and Sintashta.

Within the timber-frame community, several local variants and even cultures are distinguished. Three stages of its development are outlined. Early Srubny corresponds to the beginning of the formation of these antiquities (XVII/XVI centuries BC). At this stage, the features of the Middle Bronze Age are clearly visible. The second and third stages (XVI/XV-XV/XIV centuries BC) are a period of formation, stable development, and then transformation of the timbered community. A characteristic feature of these stages is active interaction with the eastern Andronovo - Alakul and Fedorov - world, and then with the “Andronoid” cultures - Cherkaskul, Suskan, etc.

Monuments of the timber-frame community are represented by settlements, burial mounds and ground burial grounds, ore workings, treasures of copper ingots and tools, as well as random finds. Settlements are usually located on low river terraces. Dwellings - above ground, semi-dugouts and dugouts, with a gable or hipped roof - were built using a frame-and-post structure. The walls are made of turf, logs, and rarely flagstone. In large buildings, the residential part is most often separated from the utility part. Inside the dwellings there were one or more fireplaces, underground pits, and sometimes a well.

Srubnaya cultural and historical community:
1 - reconstruction of the home; 2-5, 14 - ceramics; 6, 9, 11, 13 - pendants; 7 - mace model; 8, 12 - pads; 10- clip; 15- bracelet; 16- ring; 17, 19 - spear tips; 18 - awl; 20-24 - knives and daggers; 25 - mace made of marble; 26 - bit; 27 - cleaver sickle; 28 - ax; 29, 30 - clay molds for casting an ax and cleaver sickles (6, 7 - bone; 8-13, 15-24,
26-28 - copper and bronze)

Kurgan burial grounds (Berezhnovka, Yagodnoye, Khryashchevka) are located on terraces or hills along river banks, less often on watersheds. They include a small number of mounds - from 2 to 10-15; single mounds and huge necropolises are rare. Grave structures - rectangular in shape - are represented by pits, wooden frames and stone boxes. They were often covered with logs or blocks. The buried lay crouched, usually on their left side in a pose of adoration. In the ground burial grounds (Smelovsky, Alekseevsky, Syezzhinsky) burials were located in rads. Parts of the carcasses of domestic animals were placed in the grave as funeral food, one or more vessels, sometimes along with a copper or bronze knife, an awl, and jewelry. In the eastern regions of the community, female burials with rich braids made by Alakul craftsmen from sheet bronze, gold and silver foil are known (Puzanovsky, Novo-Yabalaklinsky 1).

Ceramics from settlements and burial grounds are represented by jars, pot-shaped and sharp-edged vessels. It is decorated with horizontal and inclined lines, flutes, zigzag, herringbone, and geometric shapes. The burials contain wooden utensils, sometimes with bronze frames. A variety of tools and weapons made of stone are represented by drilled axes and maces, arrowheads, scrapers, hammers and mallets, anvils, ore grinders, abrasives, etc.; decorations are also known - beads, pendants. No less varied are products made of bone: handles of metal knives and awls, polishes and spatulas, piercings, needles and knitting needles, scoops and shovels, arrowheads, cheekpieces, rings, buttons, piercings, fortune telling dice, etc.

The mining and metallurgical production of the timber community was based on the cuprous sandstones of the Urals and Donetsk Ridge in eastern Ukraine. The main producing centers - Kargaly (dominant) and Donetsk - are located on the periphery of the community. Thin ore occurrences in the Middle Volga region were also exploited (Mikhailo-Ovsyanka and others). The distribution of copper from these centers was mainly latitudinal, within the Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe. A significant part of the metal, especially jewelry, came from the workshops of the Alakul community of Kazakhstan. Copper from the Kargalinsky mining and metallurgical center was used only in the Volga-Ural region, without crossing the eastern border of the timbering area. Despite the large import of raw materials and decorations from the east (tin and antimony-arsenic bronzes), the strategically important sphere of manufacturing tools and weapons remained in the hands of timber smiths and foundries, who used mainly “pure” Kargalin and Donetsk copper.

The scale of production activity of the Kargaly center - the largest mining, metallurgical and metalworking complex in Northern Eurasia - is striking. More than 70 villages of miners and metallurgists of the timber-frame community, many thousands of traces of surface and underground workings, have been discovered here. For the extraction and primary processing of ore, a huge number of copper, bone and stone tools were required.

Kargaly Mining and Metallurgical Center:
1 - site of the Gorny settlement (in the center) and traces of ancient and ancient mining operations, aerial photograph (black square - the location of the concentration of archaeological excavations); 2 - a labyrinth of recorded underground workings (at a depth of 10-15 m) at the Myasnikovsky site

Basic production of metal products was carried out in several specialized centers - Gorny 1 (Ural region), Lipovy Ov¬rag (Middle Volga region), Mosolovka (Don region), Usovo Lake (Eastern Ukraine), etc. But if the metalworking of Gorny was aimed at the production of mining tools tools (picks, picks, picks, wedges) used here, on Kargaly, then the products of Mosolovka and other centers (sickles, axes, spearheads, adzes and chisels) were intended primarily for external commodity exchange.

The main forms of tools and weapons in the centers of metalworking of the timber-frame community go back to the stereotypes of the previous Circumpontic Oovindia - these are axes, flat and grooved adzes and chisels, handle knives and daggers, etc. Axes and sickle-cleavers become more massive. New types of tools appear - celt adzes with an open sleeve. The technology of thin-walled casting of socketed spear tips, adzes and chisels is being introduced, but casting blanks and subsequent forging still remain the most important methods of shaping tools. Timber blacksmiths master the secrets of producing high-grade iron, from which a few more knives and awls are forged. Despite the abundance and variety of jewelry (bracelets, rings, pendants, overlays, beads, etc.) and the use of precious metals - gold and silver in their manufacture, the jewelry making of the timber-frame community is noticeably inferior in scale and quality to the eastern ones - Alakul and Fedorov.

Gorny is a settlement of miners and metallurgists of the timber community:
1 - anvil; 2, 3 - hammers; 4 - sledgehammer; 5, 9 - arrowheads; 6 - overlay; 7 - copper smelting and smelting waste; 8, 12 - molds for casting pickaxes and pruning sickles; 10 - bone playing (fortune-telling) dice; 11 - pickaxe (1-4, 8, 12 - stone; 5, 6, 9, 11 - copper and bronze)

Previously, it was traditionally believed that the log-frame community was characterized by a sedentary pastoral-agricultural type of economy. However, single grains of cultivated cereals (mainly millet) were found only in the Donetsk-Dnieper interfluve, in the border zone of the Srubnaya and Sabatinovskaya cultures. Perhaps this indicates the presence of floodplain agriculture here. For the main area of ​​the Srubna community, the leading form of economic activity was domestic and transhumance cattle breeding, and in the areas of the Cis-Caucasian and Caspian steppes and semi-deserts, its semi-nomadic form may have been practiced. Cattle breeding was the mainstay of subsistence; sheep, goats and horses played a lesser role.

The similarity between the features of funeral rites, ceramics, bronze, iron and bone tools and weapons of the timber-frame community and the cultures of the pre-Scythian and Scythian times in the south of Eastern Europe has long been noticed. Many researchers believe that archaeological cultures associated with historically known peoples - the Cimmerians and Scythians - are a continuation of the Srubnaya.

The population of the Srubnaya and Alakul communities had a noticeable impact on the culture and economy of the peoples of the forest belt of Eastern Europe and the northern forest-steppe of Western Siberia. However, the impact of the Srubna-Alakul world does not extend to the deep regions of the Eurasian taiga. The population of northern Eastern Europe is characterized by a rather primitive level of metalworking. An example of this is the culture of asbestos ceramics in Karelia. The population of this region does not accept new technologies and uses the same methods of forging and casting native copper, which took root here in the Eneolithic era. In the north of Eastern Europe, isolated examples of celtic axes are known (Vis 2), which can be associated with the reproduction of Seima-Turbino weapons. They have a characteristic detail - “false” ears.

Only in the borderlands of forest-steppe and forest, along the Oka, the middle reaches of the Volga and the lower reaches of the Kama, does a transformation of indigenous cultures take place. These cultures, primarily the Pozdnyakovskaya and early Prikazanskaya (Pozdnyakovo, Podbornoe, Zaymishche 3), adopted the new socio-economic structure and EAMP stereotypes associated with Abashevo and log metalworking. This was especially clearly manifested in the forms of socketed spear tips, double-edged handle knives, flat adzes, forged chisels with an open sleeve, pruning sickles, and various types of jewelry. The influence of southern forest-steppe cultures was also reflected in the selection of ceramics and the funeral rites of the Oka and Volga-Kama population.

Cultures of the northern periphery of the Srubna-Andronovo world (1-16 - Pozdnyakovsky; 17-19 - Cherkaskul; 20-29 - Chernoozersk-Tomsk variant):
1-3, 17, 18, 20-22 - ceramics; 4 - scraper; 5-7 - arrow and dart tips; 8 - spear tip; 9-11, 28, 29 - knives and daggers; 12, 23 - temporal rings; 13- overlay; 14, 15, 27 - bracelets; 16 - threads; 19 - mold for casting chisels and knives; 24, 25 - plaques; 26 - ring (4-7 - flint; 12 - bronze and gold foil; 19 - talc; 8-11, 13-16, 23-29 - bronze)

Similar processes took place in the northern forest-steppe and in the southern taiga zone of Western Siberia. Here, especially in the Tobol-Irtysh interfluve, the penetration of Alakul and Fedorov groups to the north is observed. Their interaction with the aboriginal population led to the formation of unique antiquities of the Koptyakov and Cherkaskul cultures (Koptyaki 5, Berezki 5g, Lipovaya Kurya, Palatki 1), called “andronoid” in the literature. They came here to replace the monuments of Tashkovo culture.

In the taiga zone of Western Siberia, cultures of comb-pit ceramics are localized (Saigatino-6, Volvoncha 1, Pashkin Bor 1), which differ only in the details of the decoration of the ceramics. Metalworking in this zone is represented mainly by casting molds of celtic axes. The reconstructed tools in shape and ornament (a belt of horizontal relief lines) resemble, on the one hand, the celts of the Turbino burial ground, and on the other, later examples of the Ananino and Kulai communities of the Early Iron Age.

In the Ob-Irtysh interfluve, the penetration of Alakul and Fedorov groups into the northern regions of the forest-steppe was not so noticeable. In these areas, the sustainable development of the Krotovo culture continued. The monuments of its second stage are represented mainly by settlements (Inberen 10, Preobrazhenka 3, Kargat 6). Jar forms still dominate in ceramics, but the ornamental tradition (puncture-receding) inherent in the early stage of culture is being eliminated. The number of vessels with comb decoration and ridges under the neck has increased. Stone and bone processing remains at a high level. Bronze tools and weapons of the Seima-Turbino type disappeared, but products and foundry molds of the Andronovo type appeared (double-edged handle knives, spear tips with a “cuff” at the mouth of the socket, jewelry). The diversified economy of the Krotov tribes combined producing (cattle breeding, metalworking) and appropriating industries (hunting, fishing, gathering).

The traditions of Seima-Turbino metalworking took root in this era only in the taiga zone of Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Kuznetsk-Salair mountain system and in a narrow strip of belt forests of the Upper Ob region. The shapes of celt axes and spearheads, called the “Samus-Kizhirovsky” ones, differ from the Seima-Turbino ones in significant details (“false” ears, lush “carpet” ornament, “pseudo-fork”). They are characteristic of the Samus culture of the Upper and Middle Ob region, Kuznetsk Basin (Samus-4, Krokhalevka 1, Tanai-4). To the east, in the regions of Sayano-Altai, the Okunev and Karakol cultures of Sayano-Altai are developing (Okunev ulus, Chernovaya 8, Ozernoye, Karakol). These Siberian cultures are characterized by unique and similar anthropo- and zoomorphic subjects on ceramics, steles and slabs of burial chambers.

Inventory of Krotovo (1-8), Samus (9-11) and Okunev (12-22) cultures: 1-4, 15-18 - ceramics; 5-8, 13, 14 - knives and daggers; 9 — casting mold for casting a celt; 10.11 —
Celts; 12-ring 19-necklaces; 20, 21 — plates with images of female faces;
22 buckle (5-8, 10-14 - bronze; 19, 22 - stone; 20, 21 - bone)

Commonality of KVK and “andronoid” cultures

At the third stage of development of the Eurasian province, the main cultural and historical processes are characterized by two fundamental phenomena. The steppe spaces became an arena for the consolidation of the population of the Timber-Andronovo world, which ultimately led to the formation of a community of cultures with roller ceramics (KVK). This restructuring of steppe belt cultures was probably caused by the beginning of climate aridization, soil drying and deterioration of pastures. On the contrary, in the forest-steppe and southern taiga latitudes there is a mosaic of cultures, which smoothly turns into a monotonous picture of the world of forest hunters and fishermen with comb-pit ceramics inherent to these societies in the east and textiles in the west. During this period, the main centers of EAMP metalworking are relocating to the forest and forest-steppe zones. The mining and metallurgical centers of Sayan-Altai, Kazakhstan and the Urals send the bulk of the metal produced to these areas. Significant changes are occurring in production technology and in the morphology of metal products. Artificial alloys are used everywhere. Along with the production of double-edged knives and daggers, socketed axes, flat and grooved adzes and chisels, dating back to early Circumpontian stereotypes, mass production of socketed celt axes, spear and arrowheads, adzes, and single-edged knives began in the steppe and forest-steppe. Thin-wall casting technology is becoming leading in metalworking. New types of tools and weapons appear, such as massive cleaver sickles and slotted spear tips.

The community of KVK in the Asian and European steppes is characterized at an early stage by a noticeable unity of material culture. It got its name from a characteristic detail of the decoration of the vessels - molded ridges under the rim, along the neck or shoulders, sometimes with hanging ends in the form of a “whisker”. Roller pottery cultures covered the territory from Altai in the east to the Lower Danube and Eastern Carpathians in the west. It identifies two main zones - western (Thracian) and eastern. The border between them is between the Seversky Donets and Dnieper rivers.

The eastern zone of community extended from the Don-Donets interfluve in the west to the Upper Ob in the east and the northern semi-deserts of Central Asia in the south. It includes monuments of the Ivanovo type of the Eastern European steppe (they are sometimes also called Khvalynsky or late Srub) and Alekseevsky, Sargarinsky and Dandybay-Begazinsky - Asian. However, behind the different names of the monuments of the Asian steppes, in fact, lie antiquities that are uniform in their material culture. Common features in the cultures of the KVK community are manifested, in addition to ceramic traditions, in the rejection of burial rites under burial mounds, in house-building techniques, the spread of agriculture, and the structure of cattle breeding, in which the role of sheep and horses increases. The morphological composition of the metal implements also turned out to be very similar.

Fine monuments of Okunev culture:
1 - signs-symbols on stone steles; 2 - anthropomorphic figures with bird heads next to the mask (on a slab from the Tas-Khaza burial ground); 3.5 - masks on the vessel and stone slab; 4, 6-10 -
steles with multi-figure images

Treasures of copper and bronze objects are becoming widespread, especially in the western zone. In the eastern zone there are significantly fewer of them (Sosnovo-Mazinsky, Derbedenevsky, Karmanovsky, Tereshkovsky, Shamshinsky, etc.). The treasures included mainly sickles and celt axes, which were not found in burials. In the treasure from Sosnovaya Maza near the city of Khvalynsk on the Volga, the massive mowing sickles and daggers did not have casting seams and burrs removed after casting. Two copper ingots weighing 7-8 kg each were used to make the tools of this treasure.

During this period, in the forest-steppe and southern taiga regions of the Volga-Ural region, the process of “Andronization” of local cultures, associated with the spread of Fedorov and Cherkaskul antiquities, intensified. An example of this is the monuments of the Suskan and Prikazan types (Suskan 1, Lugovsoe 1, Kartashikha). Certain areas of the forest-steppe, in particular the upper reaches of the Don, remain within the sphere of the emerging KVK community (Melgunovo 3). In the Volga-Oka interfluve, monuments of the Late Dnyakovsky culture are replaced by antiquities of the culture of early “textile” ceramics (Tyukov Gorodok, Fefelov Bor 1, Dikarikha). It is assumed that a significant part of the population of the Pozdnyakovsky culture exodus to the southwestern regions and its contribution to the formation of monuments of the Bondarikha culture in Eastern Ukraine.

Inventory of a community of cultures with “roller” ceramics (eastern zone):
1, 2, 6, 7 - ceramics; 3,4 - bone cheekpieces; 5 - bracelet; 8, 10, 11 - linings; 9 - temporal ring; 12, 20 - mirrors; 13- axe; 14, 15 - pruning sickles; 16- spear tip; 17-19 - arrowheads; 21-23 - chisels and adzes; 24-26 - knives and daggers (5, 9, 10, 12-26 - copper
and bronze; 8, 11- bone)

In the Western Siberian forest-steppe, for some time, communities of the late Krotovo and Fedorov cultures coexisted. The most striking monuments of that era are the Chernoozersk settlement, the burial mounds and ground burial grounds Chernoozerye 1, Sopka 2, Elovka 1-2. There is a noticeable variety of options for the funeral rite: the position of the dead stretched out on the back and flexed on the side, sometimes with knees bent and raised up or in a sitting position; tiered burials are also noted. Among the inventory are stone and bone arrowheads, piercings and needles, bronze double-edged and single-edged knives and daggers, awls and needles, various jewelry (bracelets, pendants, rings, plaques, overlays, etc.). Ceramics from settlements and burial grounds are represented mainly in jar and pot-shaped forms. In the decoration, there is a combination of two ornamental traditions - comb-pit (Krotovo) and geometric (Andronovo) on funeral dishes, the rollers are preserved as a relic (Sopka 2).

During this period, part of the aboriginal population was pushed to the north. “Andronoid” cultures of the pre-taiga and taiga zones (Cherkaskul, Elovskaya, Suzgunskaya, etc.) differ from forest-steppe antiquities by the more noticeable inclusion of elements of forest cultures in the ornamental decor. Some features of the Andronovo (Fedorovka) ornamentation are also perceived by the cultures of the area of ​​comb-pit ceramics; but this world - from the Pechora basin in northeastern Europe to the Tomsk-Chulym Ob region in Siberia - with its complex appropriating economy retains the stability of internal development, which is also manifested in the nature of taiga metalworking (Samu-Kizhirovsky celt axes with an ornament of horizontal relief lines ).

At the end of the Bronze Age (XII/XI-X/IX centuries BC), the processes of destruction and disintegration of the Eurasian province intensified, accompanied by the redesign of the ethnocultural map of most regions of Northern Eurasia.

The community of KVK of the Asian and European steppes at a late stage of its development loses its former unity of material culture. Monuments of the Trushnikov, Dongal and Begazin types in Kazakhstan and in the south of Western Siberia, and of the Nur type in the Volga-Urals and Central Asian interfluves actually demonstrate the collapse of this community. The steppes east of the Seversky Donets are becoming empty. In the Asian steppes, population density also noticeably decreases, but it was at this time that settlements aspiring to the status of cities appeared in Central Kazakhstan. For example, the area of ​​the Kent settlement reaches 30 hectares, Buguly and Myrzhik - 14 and 3 hectares, respectively. There is an outflow of steppe communities to the northern forest-steppe, the foothills of Altai and Tien Shan and to the early agricultural oases of Central Asia.

The ethnocultural map of the forest-steppe and southern taiga spaces changes radically at the end of the Bronze Age. Integration processes are gaining momentum. The mosaic of cultures characteristic of the previous phase of the development of the EAMP is becoming a thing of the past: huge cultural and historical communities are being formed here. Monuments of common cultures with “textile” ceramics are spreading in the Volga-Oka basin and the forest Volga region. In the Volga-Kama region a Pre-Anya (Maklasheyev) community is taking shape. In the Urals and Trans-Urals, monuments of the Mezhovskaya and Barkhatovskaya cultures are replacing the “andronoid” ones.

The West Siberian forest-steppe and southern taiga regions of the Ob region become the zone of distribution of the Kornazhkin and Irmen cultures.

In these vast spaces, a kind of “renaissance” of aboriginal cultures is taking place, expressed in a noticeable increase in population, radical transformation and even the rejection of some stereotypes of the cultures of the Srubnaya-Andronovo world introduced in previous eras. This is especially clearly manifested in the widespread distribution of round-bottomed ceramics, its ornamental decoration, the gradual abandonment of the burial mound ritual, and the ethnographic originality of women's jewelry. The settlement sites of these cultures are represented mainly by settlements on the high and low banks of rivers and lakes. Some of them are fortified with ramparts and ditches. Burial grounds are ground or mounds with low embankments. Burials - elongated or crouched - were made in shallow pits or at the level of the buried soil. The graves are most often arranged in rows or groups.

The world of taiga Eurasian cultures continues to develop in line with established traditions, although it is experiencing certain outside influences. During this period, the local specificity of the regions becomes more expressive.

The Lebyazhskaya culture of the Northern Urals, the Atlymskaya, late Sugunskaya, Lozvinskaya, Barsovskaya, Elovskaya cultures of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia demonstrate the transformation of a once indivisible cultural space, the indicator of the unity of which was comb-pit ceramics. At the end of the Bronze Age, this ornamental tradition in various regions acquired a specific color due to the introduction of figured-stamped and serpentine (finely flowing) ornaments into canonical decorative schemes. The decorative features are actually the only criterion for identifying archaeological cultures in the taiga zone. No ordinary ground burials have been identified here and sanctuaries are widespread.

The system of producing centers of the EAMP at the end of the Late Bronze Age inherits the structure of the previous period. The mining and metallurgical centers of Rudny Altai and Kazakhstan continue to send the bulk of copper and bronze to the metalworking centers of forest-steppe and forest crops. Copper production in the Ural mining and metallurgical region is dying out and at the same time the import of Sayan arsenic copper and finished products is increasing, especially to the Irmen centers of the Ob-Yenisei interfluve. In the west, in the Dnieper-Donets borderland of the Eurasian and European (Carpathian) metallurgical provinces, the influx of Carpathian tin bronzes is increasing, but in the more eastern centers - Bondarikha and Maklasheyevsky - the influx of these bronzes is no longer noticeable.

More important changes are associated with the localization of metalworking centers in Eastern Europe. Steppe and forest-steppe centers almost completely cease their activities. In fact, the Volga-Ural region becomes a “wild field”. Only in the western regions of the forest-steppe is production of insignificant volume carried out by foundry workers of the Bondarikha culture. At the end of the Late Bronze Age, the main centers of metalworking - the Pre-Ananyinsky and textile ceramics cultures - were relocated
to the southern regions of the forest belt. In the Asian zone of the Eurasian province, the southern taiga centers, on the contrary, give way to the forest-steppe and Irmen centers.

At the end of the Bronze Age, the production of the same categories of tools, weapons and decorations as in the previous period continued. The set of metal implements itself does not change radically (socketed celts, spear and arrowheads, adzes, knives with one and two blades, various decorations). Only their forms are modified, determining the specifics of certain centers. The evolution of these forms will continue at the beginning of the Early Iron Age, but only in the taiga producing centers of the Ananino, Itkul, Proto-Kulai and other cultures.

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE CENTRAL ASIAN PROVINCE

The Central Asian metallurgical province covered the territory of Sayan-Altai, Transbaikalia, Mongolia, Northwestern and Northeastern China. Here, in the post-Andronovo era, a community of cultures of the Karasuk circle was formed (Karasuk, Lugavsk and slab graves, early stage), the monuments of which date back to the XV/XIV-IX/VTII centuries. BC. In the northern zone of the province, the most powerful was the Karasuk metallurgical center. Its activities were carried out on the basis of ore sources in the Sayan-Altai mining and metallurgical region. Foundry workers of the Karasuk and Lugavsk cultures used mainly copper-arsenic alloys, although earlier, in the Okunevskaya and Andronovo (Fedorovskaya) cultures, tin and tin-arsenic bronzes were common in the Minusinsk and Kuznetsk basins. The Andronovo heritage in metalworking cultures of the Karasuk circle is hardly noticeable, in contrast to the Seima-Turbino one, which was especially clearly manifested in the forms and decoration of surprisingly diverse single-edged curved knives and daggers.

Among the cultures of the Central Asian province, Karasuk is the most well studied. The main array of monuments is concentrated in the Minusinsk Basin. More than 1,600 stone burial enclosures (Karasuk-4, Malye Kopeny 3), several settlements (Kamenny Log 1, Torgozhak) and copper smelters (Temir) have been excavated here. Dwellings - taking into account the cold winters - were small or spacious deep dugouts and semi-dugouts, with several fireplaces for cooking and heating. The walls were built from logs, clay and stone slabs. The roof was insulated with earth taken from the pit.

The fences around the graves are square, less often round; inside there are 1-2 burials in stone boxes (made of thin slabs) or cists, deepened to a meter. Burials predominate in an extended position on the back or left side. 1-2 vessels were placed at the head, and part of the carcass of a ram, cow, or rarely a horse was placed at the feet on a wooden tray. The end of the blade of a bronze knife, or less often a whole knife, was placed on top of the animal bones. No other tools or weapons were placed in the graves, with the exception of awls and needles, but men and, especially, women were buried with a large variety of decorations. Among them are bronze plaques, earrings, rings, pendants, chains, strings, combs, stone and paste beads, and cowrie shells.

Funeral and settlement complexes of the Karasuk culture:
1 - plans of burial structures; 2, 4 - pebbles with images; 3 - ceramics; 5 - stone pestle; 6 - wooden comb; 7, 8 - hoes; 9 - celt; 10, 11 - knives; 12, 19 - linings; 13, 21 - pendants; 14, 15 - bracelets; 16, 20 - rings; 17, 18- plaques (7, 8- horn; 9- bronze
and tree; 10-21 - bronze)

The ceramics from settlements and burial grounds are round-bottomed, with a spherical body, sometimes with a flattened bottom, most often polished to a shine. Some of the vessels are without ornament or only with a belt of pits along the neck, others are richly decorated with rhombuses, triangles, scallops, and impressions drawn by lines; sometimes the patterns are inlaid with white paste.

The main branch of the economy is pastoral cattle breeding. It is assumed that the Karasuk people switched to a mobile grazing system. However, the limited size of the Minusinsk Basin and the composition of the herd - with a noticeable predominance of cattle - indicate possible movements with them only over short distances. Horse breeding, sheep breeding, roe deer and red deer hunting were an important source of meat nutrition, but the basis of the diet was dairy products. For the Karasuk era there is no direct evidence of agriculture, which was so obvious in the subsequent Tagar era (see section III).

LATE BRONZE AGE OF EASTERN SIBERIA
AND THE FAR EAST

Rare settlements with traces of bronze foundry production are known on the vast territory of Eastern Siberia. There are just as few metal tools and decorations in the burial grounds. The appearance of copper and bronze contributed to the improvement of hunting and fishing tools, but did not radically change the Neolithic appearance of the cultures of this region (Glazkovskaya, Shiverskaya, Ymyyakhtakhskaya, Ust-Belskaya, etc.). There are known separate finds of Seima-Turbino and Samus-Kizhirov celts, daggers of the Karasuk type, characteristic of the Eurasian and Central Asian provinces, but the East Siberian cultures were not directly included in the systems of these provinces.

In the Baikal region, in the Angara basin and the upper reaches of the Lena, and in Southern Transbaikalia, monuments of the Glazkovsky culture have been discovered, which are represented mainly by burials, short-term sites and materials in the layers of foreign settlements (Ulan-Khoda on Lake Baikal).

Most of the graves were covered with a stone lining, sometimes in the form of a boat, some are marked on the surface with a stone ring. Burials were made in a crouched, extended or sitting position. Their characteristic feature is their orientation along the river, often with their heads upstream. Male burials are usually accompanied by stone, bone, and less often copper tools for fishing and hunting (harpoons, points, fishhooks, knives, chisels and adzes, spear and arrowheads, etc.) - In female burials there are implements related to the processing of fish or killed hunting animals (scrapers, needles, needle cases, etc.), as well as a large number of decorations. Particularly noteworthy among them are jade, mother-of-pearl and pyrophyllite discs, rings and beads, fangs and incisors of animals, which were sewn onto richly decorated fur bibs and headdresses. Funerary and settlement ceramics, round-bottomed and pointed-bottomed, are usually decorated over the entire surface with imprints of a spatula-stamp, pits-pearls, and carved lines. At the end of the culture, vessels with flattened bottoms appeared. Bone items were also richly decorated.

Bronze Age cultures of Eastern Siberia (1-21 - Glazkovskaya;
22-29 - ymyyakhtakhskaya):
1 - reconstruction of the hunter’s appearance (based on materials from burial 1 of the Lenkovka burial ground); 2 - fort; 3 - harpoon; 4 - spear tip (with a blade made of thin flint inserts); 5 - puncture; 6-8 - ceramics; 9- axe; 10, 12, 13, 25-27 - arrowheads; 11, 15, 23, 24 - knives; 14, 16 - fishing hooks; 17, 18, 22 - anthropomorphic figures; 19, 28 - spatulas; 20-spoon; 21 - pickaxe; 29 - needle case (9-13, 23-25 ​​- stone; 14 - bone and stone; 15 - copper and bone; 16 - copper; 21 - wood and horn; 2-5, 17-20, 22, 26-29- bone)

The tribes of the Glazkovskaya, Ymyyakhtakhskaya, Ust-Belskaya and other cultures are mobile and semi-sedentary groups of hunters and fishermen of the mountain forest taiga of Eastern Siberia and the northern regions of the Far East. The economic and cultural type that formed in their environment was preserved here until the historically known Tungus-speaking peoples and Yukaghirs. The Late Bronze Age of the southern regions of the Far East is known from the settlements of the Lidov, Margaritov, Singai, Evoron and other cultures. Metal objects in these cultures are rare (spearheads, single-edged knives, arrowheads, plaques, etc.), but an indisputable sign of familiarity with them are stone tools and weapons imitating bronze samples, as well as foundry molds. In the settlements, in-depth and above-ground dwellings of a frame structure with several hearths inside were built. The walls of some buildings are made of stone. The main archaeological material is represented by ceramics - these are pots, jars, bowls, pots, amphorae, sometimes polished and painted. Tools and weapons are made, as a rule, of slate: axes, adzes, knives, spear and arrow tips. The cultures of Primorye and Amur region are characterized by a diversified economy (hoe farming, cattle breeding, fishing, hunting and gathering). Direct evidence of farming is evidenced by the remains of millet in the layers of settlements. The emergence of metalworking occurred under the influence of the cultures of the southern zone of the Central Asian province (Manchuria, Ordos, Mongolia, Sayano-Altai).

Late Bronze Age cultures of the Amur region and Primorye (1-6, 10 - Singai; 7-9, 11, 12 - Margaritovskaya; 13-22 - Lidovskaya):
1, 2, 18 - stone imitations of bronze spearheads; 3-5, 7, 8, 15, 17 - ceramics; 9, 14 - stone axes; 10- clay disk; 11 - spindle whorl; 12, 13 - arrowheads; 16 - clay figurine; 19-21 - knives; 22 - hoe (12, 13, 19-21, 22 - stone)

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE CAUCASIAN METALLURGICAL PROVINCE

Among the metallurgical provinces of the Late Bronze Age, the Caucasus shows the most noticeable changes, perhaps even a rejection of the production stereotypes of the previous province, the Circumpontic. The former unity of the Caucasus and the steppe was replaced, in fact, by their complete isolation. Rare items of Caucasian types will appear in the steppe only at the very end of the Bronze Age. The set of tools, weapons and decorations has changed dramatically, having little in common with the examples of the Middle Bronze Age. The scale of production and the number of metal products have increased manifold. This stimulated the development of mines located in the highlands (Bashkapsar). Not only oxidized ores, but also sulfide ores are being actively developed. Metalworking was based on the use of multicomponent alloys. At the same time, the production of gold and silver items, so characteristic of the previous era, practically ceased. The first iron products appear.

Among the bronze items, attention is drawn to axes of the Koban and Colchian types, daggers, spear and arrowheads, maces, and various decorations. Many of them are cast from a lost (wax) model, have exquisite decoration, engraving, and inlay with a new, then rare material - iron. The vast majority of metal is made only for the “world of the dead.” Tons of copper and bronze are buried in the burial grounds and sanctuaries - the materialized enormous work of miners, metallurgists and blacksmiths of the Koban, Colchis and other cultures.

The area of ​​the Koban culture is on both sides of the Main Caucasus Range, i.e. in the center of this mountainous country. This culture was formed in the Late Bronze Age (XIII/XII-IV centuries BC) and, like the Galyptat and “textile” culture in the west and north of Europe, smoothly passed into the Iron Age and existed throughout the Scythian era.

Bronze tools and weapons of the late Bronze Age cultures of the Caucasus:
1-3, 5-8 - axes and poleaxes; 4 - dagger; 9, 10 - swords; 11 - sickle; 12 - scabbard; 13 - mace

The ethnonym of its creators is unknown (the name of the culture is given by the name of the modern village of Verkhniy Koban in North Ossetia, where the first important discoveries were made), but it is clear that their ancestors inhabited this territory since the Bronze Age, when the Caucasian anthropological type of the Caucasian race was formed. The origins of the Koban culture are among the cultures of the foothills and mountainous regions of the Caucasus of the Middle Bronze Age.

The Koban tribes practiced cattle breeding (transhumance with a predominance of sheep - in the mountains, domestic with a predominance of cattle and pigs - in the foothills) in combination with agriculture (they grew durum and soft wheat, barley, rye, millet). Non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy and metalworking, including art, have reached a high level.

Koban craftsmen not only adopted, first from the Cimmerians and then from the Scythians, many types of weapons and horse equipment, but improved the design of these items and established their mass production for their own needs and for the same nomads.

The Koban people lived mainly in unfortified settlements located in inaccessible places: on foothills, sometimes even on steep cliffs, along river valleys on high plateaus, in gorges on flat spurs (Serzhen-Yurt, Bamut). The dwellings were made of adobe or “turluchny” (a wooden frame covered with clay), sometimes on cobblestone foundations. In the highlands there are also stone houses. They often stood in groups, walls facing each other, sometimes entire blocks separated by streets paved with cobblestones. Pottery and blacksmith workshops are also found in the settlements.

Inventory of Late Bronze Age cultures of the Caucasus:
1 - bracelet; 2, 11 - pendants; 3, 4 - brooches; 5, 6, 9, 10 - zoo- and anthropomorphic figures; 7 - hryvnia; 8 - pin; 12-17 - ceramics (1-11 - bronze)

The basis of the funeral rite was the deposition of corpses, but cases of cremation are also known. The burial grounds, as a rule, are without mounds; the construction of mounds was practiced infrequently and was a consequence of the influence of steppe nomads. Grave structures are very diverse: these are ordinary pits, and pits lined along the edges with torn stones or cobblestones, and stone boxes with walls made of massive sandstone or slate slabs, covered with an even more powerful slab, etc. Tools, weapons (a mandatory attribute of male burials), a bridle, vessels, and parting food were placed in the graves. There are known burials of men with bridled horses.

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE EASTERN ZONE OF THE EUROPEAN METALLURGICAL PROVINCE

The European metallurgical province covered the territory of Central, Western, Northern and partly Eastern Europe. It included centers of metalworking that were distinguished by noticeable originality, but were not differentiated with a sufficient degree of reliability. The eastern zone of the European Province (which will be discussed below) included two blocks of cultures and production centers, which are dated in the traditional chronology system of the 17th/16th-19th/9th centuries. BC.
The southern - core - block is associated with the community of cultures with roller ceramics (KVK) (see Chapter 7.1 - about the cultures of the KVK community, which was part of the Eurasian province). The area of ​​the western cultures of the KVK community is the steppe and southern forest-steppe from the interfluve of the Seversky Donets and Dnieper to the Lower Danube and the Eastern Carpathians. There are two cultural zones here: Thracian and Northern Black Sea. The first of them outlines the cultures of Pshenichevo and Babadag in the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula and in Dobrudja, Koslodzhen - in the lower reaches of the Danube, Noa and the chronologically subsequent so-called early Hallstatt cultures (or cultural monuments of the Thracian Hallstatt) - in the Carpatho-Danube region. The Northern Black Sea region is the contact zone of the European and Eurasian provinces. The Sabatinovskaya and genetically related Belozersk cultures are localized here. In the lower reaches of the Don and Kuban they are adjacent to monuments of the Kobyakovo and Kuban cultures.

The Northern Black Sea cultures of the KVK community are formed on the basis of the local Babinskaya culture (or the multi-roller ceramics culture; see 7.1) and with a clear impulse from the east (Abashevo and early Srubnaya cultures).

Cultures of the European Metallurgical Province:
1-5 - knives and daggers; 6-8 - spear tips; 9-11 - pins; 12 - fibula; 13-18 - Celts; 19 - suspension; 20, 21 - bracelets; 22, 23 - molds for casting a cleaver sickle and a spear tip; 24-27 - cheekpieces; 28 - stamp for leather embossing; 29-33 - arrowheads; 34-41 - ceramics (1-2, 4-10, 12-21 - bronze; 3 - bronze and iron; 11, 24-33 - bone; 22, 23 - stone)

The northern block is associated with European cultures of the so-called “post-cord horizon”. Their habitat is the forest-steppe and zone of broad-leaved forests of the Right Bank and part of the Left Bank Ukraine, Southern Belarus, and the Baltic States. In the west, in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, they are localized mainly north of the Carpathians. The earliest cultures of this block are the Lusatian, Trshinetsky, Maryanovskaya, Komarovskaya, etc. The cultures of the final Bronze Age are genetically related to them - the Belogrudovskaya Vysotskaya, Lebedovskaya, Bondarikha, early Chernoleskaya, etc.

The formation of the cultures of the northern block took place on the basis of the cultures of corded ceramics and battle axes of the early and middle Bronze Ages - the Middle Dnieper, Unetitsa, etc. In the formation of the monuments of the early (Malobudkovsky) stage of the Bondarikha culture, an important role was played by the migration of population groups genetically related to the post-Neolithic pit-comb cultures ceramics, late Dnyakovsky and early “textile” of the Volga-Oka interfluve.

Tshinets and Belogrudiv (14, 15) cultures of Northern Ukraine:
1 - fibula; 2 - spiral; 3-6 - flint arrowheads; 7-9 - thread; 10, 11 - pins; 12 - temporal ring; 13 - ax; 14, 15 - sickles; 16, 17, 20-24 - ceramics; 18 - spindle whorl; 19 - adze (1, 2, 7-12 - bronze; 13, 19 - stone; 14, 15 - flint and horn)

The formation of the eastern zone of the European province was largely determined by the economic boom, which at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. covered the Carpathian-Danube region. The growth of metalworking is especially noticeable in the Thracian and North Black Sea zones of the KVK community. Copper production was carried out primarily on the basis of the rich copper and polymetallic deposits of Transylvania and other regions of the Balkan-Carpathian region. A significantly smaller role was played by the Donetsk mining and metallurgical center and the import of raw materials from the producing centers of the Eurasian province. In the Carpathians, gold mining has noticeably increased compared to the previous era. It was used to make not only jewelry, but also precious dishes and ceremonial weapons.

The explosive growth of metal production was accompanied by qualitative changes. As in the Eurasian province, in the west tin bronzes came into use, stone casting molds were used, and the casting of tools and weapons with a blind (non-through) socket began. Among them are celts (earless, single- or double-eared), spearheads (without slots and with slots on the tip), chisels and adzes. Sickles of various modifications, short swords, single- and double-edged knives, flat adzes, etc. were also made. At the end of the Bronze Age, finds of iron and bimetallic products, especially knives, became more and more frequent. The products of the metalworking centers of the European province (Ingulo-Krasnomayatsky, Kardashinsky, Zavadovo-Loboykovsky, etc.) were distinguished by the expressive standardization of the forms of tools and weapons, as well as huge series of the latter. They are concentrated mainly in treasures - small and large, sometimes gigantic. The treasures also contain collections of foundry molds. Perhaps they belonged to individual families or even clans of blacksmiths.

The production of bronze items in the northern cultures of this province (they are also called “post-cord”) is characterized by a significantly smaller scale. A noticeable role in it belongs to various decorations, in which the forms of the previous - Middle Bronze Age - are easily discernible. The types of tools and weapons repeat the Northern Black Sea and Balkan-Carpathian models.

The processes of cultural genesis in the eastern zone of the European province were characterized by active contacts and interaction between the cultures of the southern and northern blocks. This was reflected in the appearance of ceramics with ridges in the post-Shnurov cultures (especially in the Belogrudovskaya), which is considered characteristic of the Sabatinovskaya, Noa, Belozerskaya and other cultures of the KVK community. At the end of the Bronze Age, under the influence of the Thracian Galyitate cultures in the northern forest-steppe, in the Vysotsk and Belogrudov cultures, black polished cups, bowls, pots, sometimes inlaid with white paste, appeared. At the same time, in the steppe Sabatinovskaya and Belozersk cultures, tulip-shaped vessels are known, characteristic of post-cord cultures. In the early Bondarikha monuments of the Dnieper Left Bank there are expressive vessels with vertical combs and “textile” imprints on the outer surface, the origins of which are in the Volga-Oka interfluve.

The southern and northern blocks of cultures of the European province are characterized by common and special features in house-building. Common ones include a combination of deep dugouts and half-dugouts with above-ground dwellings and outbuildings located on the banks of rivers, estuaries, lakes, and ravines. In the south, in the Sabatinovskaya and Belozersk cultures, dwellings with stone wall foundations are also common. The roofs were flat, single- and double-sloped, hipped. Dwellings were built using a frame-post construction, when a matrix was laid on the central pillars, which served as the basis for the rafters; heated by 1-3 fireplaces.

The cultures of the eastern zone of the European province are characterized by large and small ground burial grounds. At the same time, in both the south and north of Ukraine, at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the burial ritual under the burial mound was preserved, but in the forest-steppe the ancient traditions of local cultures - with their characteristic pound burial grounds - prevailed more quickly. They are without external signs, from several dozen burials, grouped 3-4 together. There are known small ground burial grounds located on the territory of settlements. Stone structures, widespread in previous Corded Ware cultures (especially in Volhynia and Podolia), are preserved, but they become simpler (stone boxes; ground pits lined with stones; stone fences around burials on the horizon). The most common burials are in simple ground pits, sometimes lined and covered with wood.

At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the dominant rite of corpse laying was crouched on the side, with different orientations according to the cardinal points. On the Dnieper Left Bank it will remain until the end of the Bronze Age. On the Right Bank, it was gradually replaced by the rite of cremation of the buried. By the end of the era he was already dominant. In the Dniester region, corpse burnings were detected not only in ground burial grounds, but also in mounds (at the level of the ancient horizon) and in urns. In most cases, cremation was carried out externally, and the remains were poured into urn vessels or pits.

Late Bronze Age dwelling (Pustynka):
1 - reconstruction of the process of constructing a dwelling with a frame-and-pillar structure; 2 - reconstruction of the appearance of the home

Thus, at the end of the Bronze Age, the vast European area of ​​urn-field cultures, extending far to the west, included cultures related in origin to the equally vast area of ​​the Corded Ware and Battle Ax cultures of the Middle Bronze Age. The population of these cultures is identified with the northern branch of the ancient Indo-Europeans. The eastward migration of the early Hallstatt cultures led to a change in the ethnocultural map in the Northern Black Sea region. In the west of the region, the dominant role passed to the Thracian ethnocultural groups.

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.