Mining, Metallurgy and the Metal Industry

CHAPTER SIX

MINING, METALLURGY AND THE METAL INDUSTRY

Mining comprises the extraction and refining of ore; metallurgy involves the smelting of metal from ores; the processing of metal includes the casting and forging of metal objects. Numerous deposits of ores of copper, gold, and cassiterite, from which tin is acquired, are known across the territory of the Andronovo culture. At some mines there is evidence for ancient workings but only a few of them can be confidently assigned to the Andronovo culture. Deposits suitable for exploitation in the Bronze Age must display two features: they must involve mineral sources that outcrop onto the surface to allow easy prospection and discovery; they must also consist of oxidized ores that were not too difficult to smelt. The mining of sulphurous ores was originally impossible as it presupposes a smelting temperature of 1300 degrees which was above the thermal potential achieved by Andronovans and became possible only in the Final Bronze Age. We attribute a mine to the Andronovo culture on the basis of Andronovo ceramics or tools in an ancient quarry or dump. There are also indirect but reasonable arguments for establishing the Andronovo age of a mine on the basis of its ore composition and the presence of ore and smelted metal on an Andronovo settlement. Descriptions of ancient mines have been made by travellers and geologists from the 18th century. Reports of ancient mines were compiled by M. P. Gryaznov (1935) for the Altai, M. E. Masson (1930; 1930b; 1934; 1936; 1953), B. A. Litvinsky (1950) and O. I. Islamov (1955) for Central Asia, V. T. Surgay (1951) for Kirgizia. A new stage in the study of ancient mining was the work of the geologists V. A. Pazukhin (1926), B. M. Chudinov (1936), K. I. Satpaev (1941), L. P. Levitsky (1941), F. V. Chukhrov (1950), D. Khayrutdinov (1955) and especially N. V. Valukinsky (1948; 1950) in Kazakhstan. They not only described mines and collected chance finds but they also examined the settlements of neighboring miners. Their data are summarized by A. Kh. Margulan (1970: 3-30; 1973: 3-24). S. S. Chernikov conducted important research into Andronovo mining in 1935 and 1937 in eastern Kazakhstan, and then again in 1938 in northern Kaz- akhstan (Chernikov 1948: 13-33; 1949; 1960: 118-136). He studied prehistoric workings and discovered the settlements of neighboring metallurgists. The large material recovered from the sites permitted him to date some of the deposits and reconstruct the process of ore extraction and processing; for the first time there were comparisons between the chemical analysis of the ores and metal artifacts. N. P. Kiparisova (Sal’nikov 1967: 275-277, fig. 41) examined several ancient mines in the Urals in 1950-1954. In 1949 A. A. Formozov (1951a: 118-119) examined the mines at Elenovka and Ushkatta which had been discovered by geologists and the nearby miners’ settlements of the Elenovka microdistrict.

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From 1959 to 1967 this metallurgical center was under systematic study (Kuz’mina 1962a; 1962b; 1963a; 1963b; 1964a; 1964b; 1965a; AO 1966: 113- 114) and settlements and related burials were excavated; numerous traces of metallurgical and metal processing were revealed. The work of E. N. Chernykh (1970) marks a new stage in the study of Andronovo metallurgy. In 1967-1968 he examined the ancient ore sources of the Urals and studied the composition of ancient metal artifacts in comparison with ores from known deposits, defining metal groups according to their chemistry, and connecting some of them with ancient mines. I. V. Bogdanova-Berezovskaya began the study of the chemical composition of metals from Central Asia. Metallurgical and metal processing centers in Central Asia were established on the basis of typological classification of the metal objects and the composition of their metal (Kuz’mina 1966; 1967; Kuz’mina 1991). The discovery of the Sintashta settlements of metallurgists in the Urals was a major event in Andronovo research. Two ancient mines have been found so far: Vorovskaya Yama, which provided the ore for the settlement at Kuysak (Zaykov 1993: 151; Zaykov et al. 1995) and Kisenet which is connected with the settlement at Ust’e (Vinogradov 1995: 18). It is likely that ore from sandstones of Tash-Kazgan was used; this contained an arsenic admixture characteristic of some of the metal objects from Sintashta. It is not clear how the Sintashta population exploited the rich deposit at Kargaly (Chernykh 1996; 1997). The unprecedented number of copper objects in burials and evidence of metal processing in every house in the settlement reveals the development of metallurgy and metal processing. Several types of hearths were used for smelting ore: a grooved hearth, paved with stone; a two-chambered hearth and domed oven with flue connected with a pit for the disposal of ash. These constructions reveal an important advance in metallurgical development in comparison with the earlier Pit-grave period, because they raised the thermal potential of society. L. White regarded the development of thermal potential as a decisive factor in cultural history. The miners exploited the rich oxidized ore from the upper parts of serpentine deposits (Grigor’ev S. A. 1988, 1994; Zaykov et al. 1999). Slag containing increased amounts of arsenic suggests not only the exploitation of the Tash- Kazgan ore deposit but also artificial copper alloying, i.e., the creation of arsenical bronze, an important innovation in comparison with the Pit-grave period. Metal-working at Sintashta preserved its community character; there was no evidence for specialized skilled craft production. A larger portion of the metal objects from Arkaim were made of pure copper, some were made of copper with arsenic. In Sintashta 48% of the artifacts were made from copper with an artificial arsenic admixture, 34% was of copper with a natural arsenic admixture. In Kuysak two objects were made of pure copper, and one knife of tin bronze (Zaykov et al. 1999: 194-195). East European Abashevo metallurgy stimulated the formation of Sintashta metallurgy. Sintashta metallurgy is of a domestic nature, which is indicated by its traces in every settlement and house and the lack of any features of craft specialization. However, the volume of production was such that the Sintashta community as a whole (and not through specialized craft production), exported metal to the regions of the Volga and Don, areas poor in natural resources. Petrovka and