Ancient Metallurgy In The Ussr

One of the leading Soviet archaeologists describes the development of ancient mining and metallurgy in the northern half of Eurasia. While the first traces of metallurgical activity date from between the seventh and the sixth millennium BC, significant mining developed only in the fifth millennium BC, in the northern Balkans and Carpathians. Metal producing centres were in these northern 'barbarian peripheral' regions rather than in the Near East and Asia Minor, areas traditionally associated with early classical civilization. Professor Chernykh describes successive periods of metallurgical activity in different regions: the Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province of the Copper Age: the Circumpontic of the Early and Middle Bronze Age: and the Eurasian, European Caucasian, Central Asian and Irano-Afghan of the Late Bronze Age. He provides detailed information about the different groups of copper and bronze artefacts, their chemical composition, and their dispersion in time and space. He analyses the international metallurgical trade and division of labour and, finally, the collapse of the sociocultural systems in these metallurgical centres in the first millennium BC.

The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the evolution of early metallurgy in the Balkans. It demonstrates that far from being a rare and elite practice, the earliest metallurgy in the world was a common and communal craft activity.

The study of ancient metals in their social and cultural contexts has been a topic of considerable interest in archaeology and ancient history for decades, partly due to the modern dependence on technology and man-made materials. The formal study of Archaeometallurgy began in the 1970s-1980s, and has seen a recent growth in techniques, data, and theoretical movements. This comprehensive sourcebook on Archaeometallurgy provides an overview of earlier research as well as a review of modern techniques, written in an approachable way. Covering an extensive range of archaeological time-periods and regions, this volume will be a valuable resource for those studying archaeology worldwide. It provides a clear, straightforward look at the available methodologies, including: • Smelting processes • Slag analysis • Technical Ceramics • Archaeology of Mining and Field Survey • Ethnoarchaeology • Chemical Analysis and Provenance Studies • Conservation Studies With chapters focused on most geographic regions of Archaeometallurgical inquiry, researchers will find practical applications for metallurgical techniques in any area of their study. Ben Roberts is a specialist in the early metallurgy and later prehistoric archaeology of Europe. He was the Curator of the European Copper and Bronze Age collections at the British Museum between 2007 and 2012 and is now a Lecturer in Prehistoric Europe in the Departm ent of Archaeology at the Durham University, UK. Chris Thornton is a specialist in the ancient metallurgy of the Middle East, combining anthropological theory with archaeometrical analysis to understand the development and diffusion of metallurgical technologies throughout Eurasia. He is currently a Consulting Scholar of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, where he received his PhD in 2009, and the Lead Program Officer of research grants at the National Geographic Society.

This book is one of the first to systematically explore cultural interactions between the Northern Zone of China and the Eurasian Steppe, with a focus on the formation process of the Xiongnu Confederation and the Silk Road. Combining partition and staging analyses, the authors adopt a broad perspective, viewing the Northern Zone as part of the Eurasian Steppe and combining history with culture by investigating the spread of bronze artifacts. In addition, with more than three hundred figures and color photographs, it offers readers a uniquely grand panorama of two thousand years of cultural interactions between the Northern Zone of China and the Eurasian Steppe.

Challenges current interpretations of social and cultural change in prehistoric Eurasia, through a thematic investigation of archaeological patterns.

The book deals with the ancient exploitation and production of copper, exemplified by the mining district of Faynan, Jordan. It is an interdisciplinary study that comprises (mining-) archaeological and scientific aspects. The development of organizational patterns and technological improvements of mining and smelting through the ages (5th millennium BC to Roman Byzantine period), in a specific mining region, is discussed.

The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the institutional and cultural history of pre-imperial China.