Metallurgical Production In Northern Eurasia In The Bronze Age

Copper is the first metal to play a large part in human history. This work is devoted to the history of metallurgical production in Northern Eurasia during the Bronze Age, based on experiments carried out by the author and analyses of ancient slag, ore and metal.

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.

Focusing on Bronze Age societies in Central Eurasia and North China, this book presents a new scenario of early social evolution. Essentially it integrates the Marxist production-relation concept and the community concept into the Band-Tribe-Chiefdom-State scheme, and formulates the following three hypotheses: 1) The community is an autonomous agent in political, economic, and cultural spheres; 2) The nature of the early social evolution is that the inter-community differentiation at the tribal stage transforms into the inter-community stratification at the chiefdom and state stages; 3) Metal production as a form of economy is a major force that instigates the inter-community differentiation. In testing the three hypotheses, Bronze Age archaeological data from Central Eurasia and North China are subjected to detailed examination. The Central Eurasian societies and the Late Shang kingdom are all engaged in metal production yet they represent two disparate stages of social development, the tribal and state stages respectively. This contrast gives us an excellent opportunity to reflect upon the trajectory of early social evolution and the role of metal production in this process. Virtually the two bodies of materials supply a desirable testing ground for the three hypotheses raised above.

Focusing on some of the earliest metal-working cultures in the eastern region of Eurasia (now northern and western China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia east of the Urals), archaeologists and metallurgical scientists present syntheses of data gathered by Russian and Chinese researchers in order to

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.

This book is the first synthesis of the archaeology of the Urals and Western Siberia. It presents a comprehensive overview of the late prehistoric cultures of these regions, which are of key importance for the understanding of long-term changes in Eurasia. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the Urals and Western Siberia are characterized by great environmental and cultural diversity which is reflected in the variety and richness of their archaeological sites. Based on the latest achievements of Russian archaeologists, this study demonstrates the temporal and geographical range of its subjects starting with a survey of the chronological sequence from the late fourth millennium BC to the early first millennium AD. Recent discoveries contribute to an understanding of issues such as the development of Eurasian metallurgy, technological and ritual innovations, pastoral nomadism and its role in Eurasian interactions, and major sociocultural fluctuations of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

This book presents general problems in geoarchaeology, and discusses geophysical solutions, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry applications, X-ray and isotope analyses and GIS technologies. It also examines practical reconstructions of technological processes used in ancient time, and investigates the use of minerals and rocks by ancient societies in the territories of modern Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, as well as the characteristics of ores, metallurgical slags and data on the composition and impurities of archaeological metals. Intended for archaeologists, historians, museum workers and geologists studying noble metals and copper, the book is also a useful resource for students, graduate students, experts and anyone interested in the use of various minerals at different stages of humanity’s development.

These conference proceedings cover topics including early metallurgy across Eurasia, bronze casting technologies in ancient China, ancient iron and steel technologies in Asia, and ancient metallurgical and manufacturing processes.