MINERALOGICAL AND GEOCHEMICAL RESEARCH ON EVIDENCE OF ALAKUL METAL PRODUCTION AT THE VOROVSKAYA YAMA MINE (SOUTHERN TRANS-URALS)

Polina S. Ankusheva; Анкушева П. С.; Maksim N. Ankushev; Анкушев М. Н.; Ivan A. Blinov; Блинов И. А.; Dmitry A. Artemyev; Артемьев Д. А.; Irina P. Alaeva; Алаева И. П.

doi:10.31857/S0869606323030042

MINERALOGICAL AND GEOCHEMICAL RESEARCH ON EVIDENCE OF ALAKUL METAL PRODUCTION AT THE VOROVSKAYA YAMA MINE (SOUTHERN TRANS-URALS)

Authors: Ankusheva P.S.¹^,2, Ankushev M.N.², Blinov I.A.², Artemyev D.A.², Alaeva I.P.¹^,3
Affiliations:
1. South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University
2. South Ural Federal Research Centre for Mineralogy and Geoecology, Ural Branch RAS
3. The Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural branch RAS
Issue: No 3 (2023)
Pages: 23-37
Section: ARTICLES
URL: https://journals.rcsi.science/0869-6063/article/view/138909
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S0869606323030042
EDN: https://elibrary.ru/PUBMKG
ID: 138909

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Abstract

The article discusses the processes of Alakul metal production at the Vorovskaya Yama copper mine (Southern Trans-Urals, middle of the 2nd millennium BC). The study sources are the materials of the 2021 excavation site including ruined remains of heating facilities, metallurgical slag and slagged ceramics. The research employed optical and electron microscopy, XRF and LA-ICP-MS methods. It was established that technological operations at the deposit were not limited to the extraction of copper ore and its primary enrichment. In addition, metal was smelted from sulfide or oxidized-sulfide ores in the immediate vicinity of the mine entry; however, it was done outside the studied areas of the structures. Secondary remelting of copper and tin bronze products was performed in ceramic crucibles using heating facilities inside structures.

Keywords

the Late Bronze Age, metal production, the Southern Trans-Urals, the Alakul culture, mine, slagged ceramics, metallurgical slag, crucible.

References

Agapov D.S., Agapov S.A., 2021. Models of smelting non-ferrous metals in antiquity (based on experimental results of the Samara archeometallurgical team). Analiticheskie issledovaniya laboratorii estestvennonauchnykh metodov [Analytical studies of the Laboratory of Natural Science Methods], 5. E.N. Chernykh, V.I. Zav’yalov, eds. Moscow: IA RAN, pp. 70–78. doi: 10.25681/IARAS.2021.978-5-906045-24-9.70-77. (In Russ.)