The Bronze Age is the age of bronzes, as you may have guessed by now. It succeeded the Copper Age and preceded the Iron Age.

There are several stages of the Bronze Age: early, middle and late.

In the first half of the 6th millennium, the Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province disintegrated and the Circumpontian metallurgical province arose. Within its limits, the copper ore centers of the South Caucasus, Anatolia, the Balkan-Carpathian region, and the Aegean Islands were discovered and began to be used. To the west of it, the mining and metallurgical centers of the Southern Alps, the Iberian Peninsula, and the British Isles worked. In the south and southeast, metal-bearing cultures of Egypt, Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan are known, right up to Pakistan.

It is not known for certain where and when methods of obtaining bronze were discovered. However, there are suggestions that this happened in several places. Where were the earliest bronzes found? Such items with tin impurities were found in Iraq and Iran around the end of the 4th millennium BC. However, some argue that bronze was found much earlier in Thailand in the 5th millennium BC. In the 3rd millennium BC, in Anatolia, on both sides of the Caucasus, bronze items were made with arsenic content.

With the beginning of the Bronze Age in Eurasia, human communities were divided into two blocks. On the territory of Sayano - Altai - Pamir and Tien Shan - Caucasus - Carpathians - Alps lived people who ran an economy based on agriculture and animal husbandry. It was here that cities, writing, states appeared. To the north, in the steppe of Eurasia lived warlike tribes of mobile pastoralists.

Middle Bronze Age

In the Middle Bronze Age, people began to settle in the northern zones. The Circumponian metallurgical province remains the same.

Late Bronze Age

In the Late Bronze Age, the Circumpontian metallurgical province disintegrated and new ones formed. The largest was the Eurasian steppe metallurgical province. It adjoined the Caucasian metallurgical province, whose products were very diverse, and the Iranian-Afghan metallurgical province. There were several more provinces that differed from each other in the methods of processing bronze and in the forms of products.

The Bronze Age in the Middle East began in Anatolia (modern Turkey). In the mountains of the Anatolian highlands there was a lot of copper and tin. Copper was also mined in Cyprus, ancient Egypt, Israel, Iran and around the Persian Gulf. In the Early Bronze Age, city-states and writing appeared. In the Middle Bronze Age, nomadic peoples appeared in the region: Amorites, Hittites, Hurrians, Hyksos. In the Late Bronze Age, the powerful states of the region competed with each other: Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, etc.

The main cultures of the Bronze Age in Europe are Unetitskaya, burial fields, Terramara, Lusatian, Belogrudovskaya.

The Bronze Age in the Indian subcontinent began with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization. According to ancient excavations, we see that the inhabitants of Harappa were familiar with copper, bronze, lead and tin. They developed new methods for processing and obtaining them.

In China, the Bronze Age began under the Xia Dynasty. The Erlitou culture, the Shang dynasty, and the Sanxingdui culture used bronze ritual vessels as well as agricultural tools and weapons.

In America, the Incas knew the secret of making bronze. Bronze objects have been found in western Mexico.

The ziggurat at Ur is a monument of Sumerian Bronze Age architecture.

Such golden hats were worn by the Celtic priests of the Bronze Age.

« Previous questionEneolithic of Central Asia.DownloadWhat is it

Phone cheat sheets are an indispensable thing when passing exams, preparing for tests, etc. Thanks to our service, you get the opportunity to download archeology cheat sheets to your phone. All cheat sheets are presented in popular fb2, txt, ePub, html formats, and there is also a java version of the cheat sheet in the form of a convenient mobile phone application that can be downloaded for a nominal fee. It is enough to download cheat sheets on archeology - and you are not afraid of any exam!

Community

Did not you find what you were looking for?

If you need an individual selection or work to order - use this form.

The next question is “The Bronze Age of the Steppe.

Bronze Age. General characteristics.

The Bronze Age corresponds to a dry and relatively warm subboreal climate, in which the steppes prevailed. There is an improvement in the forms of cattle breeding: stall keeping of cattle, transhumance (yailage) cattle breeding. The Bronze Age corresponds to the fourth stage in the development of metallurgy - the appearance of copper-based alloys (with tin or other comp.). Bronze items were made using casting molds. To do this, an impression was made in clay and dried, and then metal was poured into it. For casting three-dimensional objects, stone molds were made from two halves. Also, things began to be made according to the wax model. Bronze is preferred for casting, as it is more fluid and liquid than copper. Initially, tools were poured according to the type of old (stone), and only later they thought of using the advantages of the new material. The range of products has increased. The intensification of inter-tribal clashes contributed to the development of weapons (bronze swords, spears, axes, daggers). Between the tribes of different territories, inequality began to arise due to the unequal reserves of ore deposits. This was also the reason for the development of the exchange. The easiest means of communication was the waterway.

Bronze Age

The sail was invented. Even in the Eneolithic, carts and the wheel appeared. Communication between countries contributed to the acceleration of progress in the economy and culture.

4. Primitive communal system. The most important historical monuments on the territory of Central Asia.

To study the history of mankind, it is necessary at the very beginning to determine the origins of its occurrence. For this, it is necessary to study the ancient history of mankind. This is done by scientists from various branches of science: archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, linguists and many others.

The primitive system is the very first era in the history of mankind, when all tools of labor were common, everyone worked together and were equal. At the very beginning of the development of mankind, the most ancient people unite into a collective.

Gradually, the team began to break up into groups based on kinship.

The history of mankind includes the following periods:

1. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age). It is considered the longest of all three. In this connection, this period, in turn, is divided into 3 stages:

Early (Acheulean) - 800/500-100 thousand years ago. This period is characterized by the presence of ancient anthropoid sites - the Selengur cave, which was located in the Ferghana Valley. A humerus, teeth, and the back of an anthropoid skull were found here. Traces of the anthropoid habitation were also found in Kulbuk near Angren. This is evidenced by the found tools and bones of animals. It is known that anthropoids lived in herds. Main activity: hunting and gathering.

Middle (Mousterian) - 100-40 thousand years ago. During this period, the external image of the anthropoid changes. A Neanderthal appears. Its difference from the anthropoid was the presence of speech receptors in the brain. The Neanderthal man made various tools, made clothes from skins, and hunted large animals. In the Teshiktash area, the remains of a Neanderthal boy 8-9 years old, about 30 stone tools and the remains of fires were found. During this period, religious ideas are born among ancient people.

Upper (late) - 40-12 thousand years ago. The representative of this period is Cro-Magnon. Traces of its habitation are Samarkand, the Ferghana Valley and the valley of the Angren River. Excavations testify to the presence in this period of more advanced tools, which are evidence that the process of human development (his evolution) was going on. His appearance changed, thinking appeared, tribal communities and tribes were formed. The first art appears - rock paintings in the Zarautsay gorge.

2. The era of the "Mesolithic" (Middle Stone Age) - 12-7 thousand years BC. During this period, there is a sharp change in the way of life of people: they switched from hunting to agriculture and cattle breeding. The emergence of hoe agriculture played a huge role in human development. Warming in the climate has made it possible to expand the territory of their habitat. In the Mesolithic era, there were about 100 sites in the Ferghana Valley and in the south of Uzbekistan.

3. The era of the "Neolithic" (New Stone Age) - 6-4 thousand years BC. the Neolithic Revolution takes place. The transition to a productive economy - agriculture, cattle breeding. Weaving and handicrafts are developing. Micrometers are being made. Settled settlements of tribal communities are being formed. Matriarchy is on the rise. On the territory of Central Asia, depending on the natural and climatic conditions and types of economy, 3 types of cultures are distinguished: the settlements of the first farmers - the "Jeytun culture" - 6-5 thousand years BC; the culture of hunters and fishermen - "Kaltamiran culture" - the end of the 5th - the beginning of the 4th millennium BC); culture of farmers of mountainous, foothill areas - "Hissar culture".

4. In the Eneolithic (Copper Stone Age) - 4-3 thousand years BC. The main material for tools is copper. Irrigated, irrigated agriculture and cattle breeding are developing. Settled agricultural settlements develop in the foothill regions and in the delta basins of large rivers (Zamanbaba in the Zarafshan River basin). The population of the Aral Sea area is engaged in breeding domestic animals (horses, cows, sheep). The shortage of copper led to wars, the dominance of communal property hinders progress.

primitive art .

In world history, primitive fine arts, in particular, rock paintings, are attributed to the late Paleolithic era. They provide the richest material for understanding the thinking of ancient man, his ideas about the world around him. In Central Asia, rock paintings appear in the Mesolithic era.

In the Neolithic era, they are more improved, more complicated.

In the monuments of the Gissar, and especially the Jeytun culture, objects of fine art were found. In the mountainous regions of Central Asia, the following two types of rock paintings are widespread: the first type includes images made with paint (ocher); to the second - embossed drawings (petroglyphs).

The most interesting on the territory of Uzbekistan are the rock images of Zarautsay, Sarmyshsay, Bironsay, Teraklisay and others. Their number reaches more than 100. In these drawings, you can see images of ancient and modern representatives of the animal world. These are lions, tigers, oxen, foxes, wolves, gazelles and other animals. In the drawings one can see long swords, spears, traps, knives and various other hunting tools.

Images in Zarautsay (Surkhandarya region), related to the Mesolithic - Neolithic eras, received worldwide fame. Some of the drawings on these rocks are made in red. Particularly noteworthy is the landscape called "Hunting for Wild Animals", which depicts people hunting with their dogs for large-horned animals. Capes can be seen on some hunters. They are armed with bows and slings. Elsewhere there is an image of a bull surrounded by two groups of hunters.

These rock carvings allow us to judge the degree of outlook, the religious worldview of the people of this era.

Achievements of the Bronze Age.

The era of "bronze"-from the middle of the 3rd millennium to the middle of the 1st millennium BC

These are the sites - Dzhanbas - Kale and in the Khorezm region. They testify to the spread and development of agriculture and animal husbandry, to the technical achievements of people. Weapons in Central Asia were made of bronze (copper), and jewelry was made of gold. Copper mining, foundry, and jewelry were developed. Irrigation technology and artificial canals of the irrigation system were developed. Domestic and foreign trade was widely developed. Writing is born.

But the main change in the “Bronze Age” is the emergence of the state, classes, private property, money circulation (as the equivalent of trade) and the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy (due to wars, the need to protect property, and the increase in the social status of men). A feature of socio-economic relations is the transformation of slaves (prisoners of war) into an object of ownership and the emergence in Central Asia of patriarchal slavery, characteristic of ancient Eastern civilizations.

The era of "bronze" - from the middle of the 3rd millennium to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. There is a separation of cattle breeding from agriculture (the first

social division of labor), social stratification of society (community members, warriors, priests, leaders) with the appropriation of lands and pastures; the appearance of surplus - a surplus product leads to property inequality, the development of exchange between tribes. There comes patriarchy, kinship along the male line (a man is a breadwinner, a protector, a warrior); there is slavery. In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. a proto-urban culture is being formed in the regions of Bactria, Margiana with a center in Dzharkutan (signs of the city - a citadel, a temple, houses). In the 2nd millennium BC. - the culture of agricultural and pastoral tribes - Tazabagyab on the territory of Khorezm; beginning of the 1st millennium BC settlements of farmers - Chust culture on the territory of ancient Khorezm 2.5 thousand years ago, writing appeared.

Achievements of the Iron Age.

The era of "early iron"(from the middle of the 1st millennium BC to the 1st century AD).

These are campsites in Khorezm, on the right bank of the Amu Darya (Airtam sanctuary), in the mountainous part of the Ferghana Valley. In this era, a new layer of historical sources appears - written sources. One of the most ancient written monuments- "Avesta", a collection of sacred hymns of the first monotheistic religion Zoroastrianism. Achaemenid inscriptions, Greco-Roman sources of the 6th-4th centuries appear. BC. (Herodotus, Strabo, Ktessius, Xenophon, etc.), their own inscriptions appear on the territory of Central Asia.

From the Bronze Age in the region in the first millennium BC. the so-called begins urban revolution, crafts and trade are developing in the cities. The presence of cities and urban culture is one of the signs of civilization and a definite step towards the development of statehood.

The era of "early iron" (the end of the VIII century BC - I century BC). metallurgy develops, tools are made of iron. The most ancient urban centers (Uzunkyr, Afrosiab) are developing.

The most important historical monument of this period is the written source "Avesta" - the sacred book of Zoroastrianism. As well as Achaemenid inscriptions (VI - IV centuries BC), Greco-Roman sources (Herodotus, Strabo, Ctisius, Xenophot, etc.).

Thus, the ancient history of Central Asia suggests that Uzbekistan is one of the centers of the most ancient civilization in the East.

Written sources about the early states. (Avesta)

"Avesta" is a historical source for studying the most ancient period in the history of Central Asia.

"Avesta" is a collection of religious texts of the Zoroastrians. Zoroastrianism is the most ancient religion based on the eternal struggle between good and evil. It did not become a global one, but it had a great influence on such world religions as Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The name of the religion comes from the name of the prophet Zarathushtra. "Avesta" is not only the sacred scripture of the Zoroastrian religion, but also one of the main sources on the history of antiquity, culture, social and political structure of the ancient peoples who once lived in our region.

Evidence of a sedentary (agricultural) population and tribes engaged in cattle breeding, the mention of the above structure of society suggests that a more acceptable point of view in determining the chronology of the Avesta is the point of view that relates the Avesta to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. It was at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. on the vast territory from the northern borders of modern Uzbekistan to Afghanistan in the south, from the Ferghana Valley in the east to the western borders of modern Turkestan, a community developed that corresponds to the geographical concepts of Turan and Iran reflected in the Avesta. These are the following centers of cultural community: Ferghana, Sogd, etc. Also Chach - Tashkent (Burlyuk culture). These were early urban organisms with a complex internal organization that arose on the basis of a settled agricultural economy based on artificial irrigation. This stage of the development of society is reflected in the "Avesta".

Zarathushtra is the only founder of the religion, who was first a priest of the old pagan, proto-Zoroastrian cult religion, and then, after receiving a revelation from the Almighty, a prophet of monotheistic teachings.

In the free choice between Good and Evil, an active role is assigned to the person himself. And therefore, in the time of Zarathushtra, the main duty of a person, the ethics of his behavior was reduced not so much to prayers and rituals, but to a just way of life, expressed in the triad: "a good thought - a good word - a good deed." According to Zoroastrianism, fire, earth, water and air are sacred and should not be mixed with objects that presuppose evil.

The Avesta that has come down to us consists of books: "Yasna" - "sacrifice", "prayer", a set of texts accompanying the main ritual ceremonies;

"Yashty" - "veneration", "praise", hymns to the deities of the Zoroastrian pantheon;

"Videvdat" - "the law against the devas (demons)";

"Visprat" - "all lords", a collection of prayers and liturgical texts. In addition, the Avesta includes a number of other sections of smaller volume and significance.

Of the 72 chapters of the Yasna, 17 are the Gathas of Zoroaster

The Avesta contains a dualistic theory about the universe of human life.

For historians, the information of the Avesta is invaluable, characterizing the structure of the Avestan society and the problem of ancient statehood in the region.

The oldest parts of the Avesta determine the structure of the society of settled agricultural tribes of the early 1st millennium BC. This is a hierarchical society with a clearly defined subordination: family (“Imana”), clan (“Vis”), tribe (“Zantu”), country (“Dahyu”), i.e. society was fourfold.

According to the Avesta, one can characterize the social system in the territory of Wed. Asia as a transition from the primitive communal to the class. Territorial division was already planned. Small "countries" were created, headed by rulers (but tribal relations still existed). Many rulers were actually tribal leaders. There were other organs of power - popular assemblies, and probably - councils of elders. The tribal nobility stood out. The smallest social unit was the patriarchal family. There were elements of patriarchal slavery. The role of military commanders grew.

Characterizing the Avesta as a whole as a single historical source, it can be noted that it contains extensive and diverse material on the history of the most ancient monotheistic religion - Zoroastrianism, which for centuries has nurtured in its adherents courage, hope for the future and willingness to do good. In addition, "Avesta" provides very valuable information about the Avestan society itself, its social structure, and those social processes that took place in the region in the first half of the 1st millennium BC.

Pages: ← previousnext →

1234567891011…33See all

1. Tourism Uzbekistan: industry development problems

   Abstract >> Physical culture and sports

   … industries. "Great monuments stories, culture and architecture Uzbekistan and the wild expanse of the Western ... on the territory of the modern Uzbekistan, determined the course stories throughout the space ... of the past, the memory of many events storiesUzbekistan, - one of the most …

2. Story Kyrgyzstan (2)

   Cheat sheet >> History

   … Institute of Language, Literature and stories, organized archaeological and ethnographic expeditions ... chemical; language, literature and stories), economic-geographical group, botanical ...

   Council of People's Commissars, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Uzbekistan. And then in 1945...

3. Story development of the gas industry

   Abstract >> Geology

   … according to the largest international stories commercial and industrial relations by a deal. Agreement ... - Maykop - Krasnodar - Novorossiysk. From Uzbekistan: Gazli (Uzbekistan) — Tashauz (Turkmenistan) … reached max in 18-year history organizations - about 3.8 million tons ...

4. Story volleyball in Belarus

   Report >> Physical culture and sport

   STORY OF VOLLEYBALL IN BELARUS Uzbekistan, Armenia, but lost to the national team of Ukraine ... Europe in 2002 and 2003, for the first time in stories took part in the final tournament of the youth…

5. Story Kyrgyzstan. Silk Road of Kyrgyzstan

   Abstract >> History

   ... contributing to a closer acquaintance with history and traditions Uzbekistan. In November 1998 ... an additional increase in foreign trade relations Uzbekistan as to the East - ... the implementation of foreign economic relations Uzbekistan and the countries of Central Asia…

I want more like this...

Lecture Search

Bronze Age (general characteristics).

The Bronze Age is an era of human history identified on the basis of archeological data, characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with an improvement in 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, late 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 different cultures are different.

In the Bronze Age, the industrial development of metal, including gold, began. The emergence of new forms of pastoral farming - cattle driving to summer pastures, stall keeping of some animals, fodder procurement and a gradual transition to nomadic cattle breeding. The development of hoe agriculture. Agriculture in the mountainous regions of Kazakhstan was established as early as the 4th millennium BC. e. The first social division of labor is born. Man mastered agriculture and cattle breeding at the same time. The development of cattle breeding and agriculture required more male labor. Because of this, the matriarchal clan collapses and it is replaced by patriarchal family and clan relations.

c) Metallurgy played an important role in the life of the tribes of that time. The main raw material for the manufacture of tools and weapons was bronze - an alloy of copper and tin. The main advantages of bronze over copper are:

BUT) Low temperature alloy;

B) stronger, stronger

C) Beautiful golden color.

The territory of Kazakhstan is rich in minerals. Deposits of copper, tin, lead, gold and silver are found mainly in Central and Eastern Kazakhstan. Here are the main areas of deposits:

1. Zhezkazgan, Zyryanov - copper. In Zhezkazgan, 100 thousand tons of copper were mined;

2. Atasu, in the areas of the Kalbinsky and Narymsky ridges - tin;

3. Stepnyak, Akzhal, Balazhal - gold. The development of these deposits was carried out for IV - III millennium BC. e.

Andronovites used the following methods for determining, extracting and alloying ore:

By laying the workings, the places of ore deposits were determined and mining began;

Loose ores were mined using the “chiseling” method with the help of chippers and stone hammers;

Dense rocks were mined using the “fire sinking” method, in which a fire was lit on the surface of the vein, and when the rock was heated, it was cooled with water. As a result of a sharp change in temperature, the ore body cracked.

With deep rocks, the "digging" method or the mine method was used;

Near the mine, the mined ore was crushed and washed to separate it from the waste rock.

Finely crushed ore was raked with wooden shovels and carried in leather bags to the smelting sites. Metal smelting was carried out at the sites of settlements in special melting furnaces. The remains of such furnaces were found during excavations of settlements on Atasu, Suykbulak, Kanai, where slags, copper ingots, and casting molds were found near the furnaces. From the resulting metal, tools, weapons and jewelry were made. Forging, casting, embossing and chasing were used. For example, by casting - bronze daggers, arrowheads, spears, and by forging - awls, needles, paper clips for repairing dishes. The main tools of the miner are stone hammers and chippers, mortars, pestles, mallets, graters, bronze picks, wooden and bone shovels, wedges, ore crushers.

Andronovo culture.

Andronovo culture (cultural and historical community) is the common name for a group of related archaeological cultures of the Bronze Age, covering in the XVII-IX centuries BC. e. Kazakhstan, Western Siberia, western part of Central Asia, Southern Urals

The name comes from the village of Andronovo near the city of Achinsk, where in August 1914 A. Ya. Tugarinov discovered the first burials.

The Andronovo culture was identified by the Soviet archaeologist S. A. Teploukhov in 1927. Research was also carried out by the archaeologist K. V. Salnikov, who in 1948 proposed the first classification of Andronovo culture monuments. He singled out three chronological stages: Fedorovsky, Alakulsky and Zamaraevsky.

Currently, at least 4 related cultures stand out in the Andronovo culture:

Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim (South Ural, northern Kazakhstan, 2200-1600 BC,

Fortification of Sintasht in Chelyabinsk region dated 1800 BC. e.;

Arkaim settlement, also in the Chelyabinsk region, dating back to 1700 BC. e.;

Alakul (2100-1400 BC), in the area between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, the Kyzylkum desert;

Alekseevka (1300-1100 BC) in eastern Kazakhstan, influence of Namazga-Tepe VI in Turkmenia

Ingalskaya valley in the south of the Tyumen region, in which the monuments of the Alakul, Fedorov and Sargat cultures successively replace each other

Fedorovo (1500-1300 BC) in Southern Siberia (cremation and fire cult are found for the first time);

Beshkent region - Vakhsh (Tajikistan), 1000-800 BC e.

The Andronovo culture develops on the basis of the Yamnaya. The spread of the Andronovo culture was uneven. In the west, it reached the region of the Urals and the Volga, where it came into contact with the Srubna culture. In the east, the Andronovo culture spread to the Minusinsk Basin, partially including the territory of the early Afanasiev culture. In the south, separate material monuments were found in the region of the mountain systems of Kopetdag (Turkmenistan), Pamir (Tajikistan) and Tien Shan (Kyrgyzstan) - in the area of ​​settlement of Dravidian-speaking tribes. The northern border of the distribution of the Andronovo culture coincides with the border of the taiga. In the Volga basin, a noticeable influence of the Srubnaya culture is felt. Ceramics of the Fedorovo type was discovered in the Volgograd region.

Karasuk culture.

The Karasuk culture is an archaeological culture of the Bronze Age (late 2nd - early 1st millennium BC) in Southern Siberia and Kazakhstan. Named after excavations of reference sites on the Karasuk River (a tributary of the Yenisei) near the village of Bateni in the Bogradsky district of the Republic of Khakassia. The influence of culture can be traced from the Sayano-Altai to the Aral Sea. It developed on the basis of the Okunev culture under the influence of the Andronovo culture. There are two traditions - classical and Lugavskaya (Kamennozhskaya). Replaced by the Tagar culture.

The first reports about the Karasuk graves are contained in the diaries of I. G. Gmelin (XVIII century). The first excavations were made by IP Kuznetsov-Krasnoyarsky in 1884 near the village of Askiz. By the similarity of the burial box with the coffin, he called them tombs. In 1894, A. V. Adrianov met similar boxes during excavations on the river. Tuba and near the city of Minusinsk, but did not attach importance to them.

S. A. Teploukhov investigated burial grounds in five different points of the Khakass-Minusinsk basin. It was he who singled out a new archaeological culture and gave a description. After him, excavations were carried out by G. P. Sosnovsky, V. P. Levasheva, but mainly by S. V. Kiselev. In the 1950s, a series of Karasuk graves in the city of Abakan and on the left tributaries of the river. Abakan was excavated by A.N. Lipsky.

Later, as a result of the work of the Krasnoyarsk archaeological expedition led by M. P. Gryaznov, a special late stage of the Karasuk culture was identified - Kamennozhsky.

The main points of view on the origin:

its local origin is proved, that is, its evolutionary continuity from the Andronovo culture is traced (M. P. Gryaznov, G. Maksimenkov, Ziep Dinh Hoa, etc.);

its alien character is substantiated, that the Karasuk people came from the Central Asian steppes and northwestern China (S. V. Kiselev, Novgorodova, G. F. Debets),

Middle East - N. L. Chlenova;

Central Asia, were carriers of the Caucasoid Pamir-Fergana anthropological type (V.P. Alekseev).

A number of researchers discover aboriginal (Andronovo), southern and Central Asian components in the Karasuk culture, considering it mixed and contact.

anthropological appearance.

According to L. Gumilyov, the culture was created by Mongoloid nomads (the presence of Caucasoid-type skulls is explained by mixing with Dinlins). The original distribution area was northern China.

According to other sources, the Karasuk people came from the south from the Central Asian region, since skulls of people of the Caucasoid Pamir-Fergana type are found in the Karasuk graves.

Some researchers (B. O. Dolgikh, A. P. Dulzon, N. L. Chlenova, E. A. Novgorodova, M. D. Khlobystin and others) believe that the Karasuk people are the ancestors of the Kets. AND.

van Dream considers the Pamir Burushas as descendants of the Karasuk culture.

Most researchers consider the Karasuk people to be representatives of a mixed type, which was based on the Caucasoid "Andronovo" anthropological type, supplemented by the Mongoloid type of newcomers from the eastern regions of Central Asia (V. A. Dremov, A. N. Bagashev)

©2015-2018 poisk-ru.ru
All rights belong to their authors. This site does not claim authorship, but provides free use.
Copyright Violation and Personal Data Violation

Characteristics of the Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a special period in ancient human history, which stands out thanks to the archeological data found during the period of ancient human history. The era is characterized by the main, leading role of tools made of bronze, which was caused by the improvement in the processing of copper and tin obtained from ore and the further production of an alloy from them - bronze. The archaeological study of the cultures of the Bronze Age, together with the data of comparative linguistics and toponymy of the masses, is important for solving the problem of the formation and distribution of the main groups of Indo-Europeans (including Slavs, Balts, Thracians, Germans, Iranians, etc.) and the origin of many modern peoples. Conventionally, the Bronze Age is divided into three periods: early (XXV-XVII centuries BC), middle (XVII-XV centuries BC) and late (XV-IX centuries BC).

The Bronze Age is the second, much later phase of the Early Metal Age, which succeeded the Copper Age and preceded the Iron Age. How exactly ancient man came to the idea of ​​smelting copper ores by metallurgical means is still not known. Perhaps, initially, a person was attracted by the unusual red color of nuggets occurring in the upper, oxidizing zone of the ore vein. This vein also concentrates multi-colored oxidized copper minerals, such as azure azurite, green malachite, red cuprite, etc.

The Bronze Age corresponds to a dry and relatively warm subboreal climate, in which the steppes prevailed. There is an improvement in the forms of cattle breeding: stall keeping of cattle, transhumance (yailage) cattle breeding. The Bronze Age corresponds to the fourth stage in the development of metallurgy - the appearance of copper-based alloys (with tin or other comp.). Bronze items were made using casting molds. To do this, an impression was made in clay and dried, and then metal was poured into it. For casting three-dimensional objects, stone molds were made from two halves. Also, things began to be made according to the wax model. Bronze is preferred for casting, as it is more fluid and liquid than copper. Initially, tools were poured according to the type of old (stone), and only later they thought of using the advantages of the new material. The range of products has increased. The intensification of inter-tribal clashes contributed to the development of weapons (bronze swords, spears, axes, daggers). Between the tribes of different territories, inequality began to arise due to the unequal reserves of ore deposits. This was also the reason for the development of the exchange. The easiest means of communication was the waterway. The sail was invented. Even in the Eneolithic, carts and the wheel appeared. Communication between countries contributed to the acceleration of progress in the economy and culture.

As a rule, people of this time lived in small settlements located on sand dunes in floodplains or on high coastal capes. The wide river valleys of the Kursk Territory, with an abundance of fodder for livestock and convenient areas for tillage, contributed to the development of agriculture and livestock breeding among the local tribes. Hunting and fishing played a secondary role. Weaving, processing of bone, leather and wood, the manufacture of clay vessels, stone and metal tools were widespread.

At the beginning of the Bronze Age, the western regions of the Kursk region were occupied by carriers of the Middle Dnieper culture, while the eastern and southeastern regions were occupied by the tribes of the Catacomb culture, which received their name from the characteristic burial rite. In one of the walls of the grave, a catacomb cave was dug out, in which the crouched body of the deceased, densely sprinkled with red ocher, was placed. Vessels with food were placed next to the deceased, tools and weapons were placed. The entrance to the catacomb was blocked with oak blocks or stone slabs, the pit was covered with earth, and a barrow was erected on top. Several catacomb mounds were explored in 1891 near the village. Vorobyovka (modern Zolotukhinsky district) by professor of St. Petersburg University D.Ya. Samokvasov. In the largest mound (height 8.5 m, diameter 108 m), wooden ashes and a crouched skeleton of a man lying on his left side were found, next to which fragments of two vessels and an animal tooth were placed. Under the skull of the buried was a bronze spearhead. During the excavations of one of the neighboring mounds, two more catacomb burials were discovered.

Another catacomb burial was discovered in 1936 during construction work in the center of Kursk. At a depth of two meters, there was a paired burial of a man and a woman. The crouched skeletons were covered with red ocher; the grave goods included hammer-shaped pins that fastened the clothes of the buried, and a small vessel.

An interesting find related to the Catacomb culture was made by the peasants of the village of Skakun (modern Kastorensky district) in 1891. While mining peat at a depth of about two meters, they stumbled upon a foundry treasure, which consisted of four massive bronze axes of the usual form with a low bushing on end, two bronze chisels and a thin bronze plate with an extended end. The items purchased from the peasants were transferred to the Imperial Russian Historical Museum (Moscow).

In the middle of the II millennium BC. Abashev tribes began to penetrate the east of the country and, a little later, carriers of the Srubnaya archaeological culture. The catacombs were exterminated or expelled, and the Abashevites joined the ranks of the Srubniks and were assimilated by them. Throughout the late Bronze Age, the neighbors of the Srubniks were representatives of the Sosnitskaya (Il, Sosnitskoe dwelling) and the tribes of the Bondarikha archaeological cultures who lived along the banks of the Seim. The building belonging to the Bondarikhins was investigated by M.B. Shchukin near the village Kartamyshevo (Belovsky district). The dwelling was practically above ground, only 10–20 cm deep, so its outlines could be traced only by a dark spot and rows of pillar pits 20 cm deep and 20–30 cm in diameter. Remains of the bases of charred wooden poles were preserved in two pits. Two ash spots within the dwelling may have been traces of open hearths. Judging by the arrangement of the pillars, the building had a gable roof.

Eneolithic and Bronze Age of Central Asia

Eneolithic monuments of Central Asia are concentrated in the foothills of the Kopetdag, on the border of deserts. The ruins of settlements are multi-meter hills called tepe, tepa or depe. They are made up of the remains of adobe houses. The Anau 1A and Namazga 1 complexes (5-4,000 to mid-4000) are classified as early. The development of agriculture. The fields were bunded during the flood of the rivers to retain water and mustache. digging stick. They grew wheat and barley. Cattle breeding replaces hunting. Cows, sheep, pigs. Raw brick appears, one-room houses are built from it. They find smelted copper things (third stage): jewelry, knives, awls. Copper was brought from Iran. Hemispherical and flat-bottomed bowls are painted with a one-color ornament. They find female figurines, a cult of a female deity. The Namazga 2 complex (3500 BC) belongs to the middle period. The settlements had a common granary and a common sanctuary with an altar. Sheep predominated, few pigs and no poultry. Annealing of copper was mastered. The processing of gold and silver was mastered. The number of stone tools has decreased. Liners, grain grinders, etc. remained flint. Ceramics were hemispherical and conical. Multicolor painting. Solitary burials with some differences in the richness of grave goods. The Namazga 3 complex (2750 BC) belongs to the Late Paleolithic. Differences between western and eastern regions (in ceramics). Settlements of this period exist in all sizes: small, medium and large. The first irrigation canals and reservoirs appeared. Sheep breeding predominates. Draft animals and the wheel appeared. collective burials. Ceramics: biconical bowls, pots, goblets.

Bronze Age of European Russia

Srednestog culture (Don and Dnieper), ancient Pit, Catacomb, Srubnaya (Volga and its course), Afanasievskaya (Altai steppes), Karasukskaya. There was cattle breeding in mobile forms. The ancient pit cultural-historical community (ser.3 - early 2 thousand) - from the southern Urals to the Balkan-Danube region. Features of the funeral rite and ceramics. 9 variants of this culture. An ancient pit mound is a characteristic feature, an indicator of new ideological ideas, “steppe psychology”. The dead were buried in pits on their backs with their knees raised, with their heads to the east. Inventory is missing or very poor. Vessels are round-bottomed or sharp-bottomed, the ornament is zonal. Ancient pit tribes are carriers and common. the most important achievements previously possessed by individual agricultural centers. Interactions with Maikop and Trypillia cultures. Accumulation of wealth in clans and tribes, inter-clan clashes. The productive economy contributed to the stratification, carts are found in some burial mounds (a sign of military detachments). Complete establishment of patriarchy. Catacomb (2000-1600 BC). The bearers of this culture drove the Yamniks out of most of their territory. The territory from the Volga to the Dnieper and from the Crimea to Kursk. There are 5 or 6 original cultures. They are united by the burial rite, ceramics, synchrony of development and undoubted connections. Individual cultures have different origins. Burial - a grave pit with a branch to the side (catacomb).

The deceased was laid facing the entrance in a crouched position. Inventory: dishes, jewelry, tools, animal bones. Settlements - on river headlands. The basis of the economy is cattle breeding. Products are made of Caucasian arsenic bronze. Large property stratification in burials, burials of leaders.

The Bronze Age is the second, late 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 different cultures are different.

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 had increased to 40-43 million km². During the Bronze Age, the formation, development and change of a number of metallurgical provinces took place.

The primary center of the origin of metallurgy is now associated with a significant region of the Middle East, stretching from Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean in the west to the Iranian Highlands in the east. There, bronze is found in the monuments of the so-called "pre-ceramic Neolithic" (late VIII - VII millennium BC). The most famous among them are Chayenyu-Tepezi and Chatal Guyuk in Anatolia, Tell Ramad in Syria, Tell Magzalia in the north of Mesopotamia. The inhabitants of these settlements did not know ceramics, but they had already begun to master agriculture, cattle breeding and metallurgy. The oldest copper finds in Europe, dating back to the second quarter of the 5th millennium BC, also do not go beyond the Neolithic. It is noteworthy that the first copper products are concentrated in the Balkan-Carpathian region, from where they subsequently move to the middle and southern parts of Eastern Europe.

The first appearance of copper products was largely associated with the manufacture of jewelry from nuggets and malachite and therefore had little effect on the development of human society.

The entire periodization and relative chronology of the cultures of the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages of Western Asia and Balkan-Danubian Europe is built primarily on a stratigraphic basis. The predominant use of this method is explained by the fact that the main monuments that archaeologists have to deal with here are the so-called "those" - huge residential hills that arose on settlements that existed for a long time in one place. Houses in such settlements were built from short-lived mud bricks or clay.

In Western and Eastern Europe, in Siberia, in Kazakhstan, in most of Central Asia, there are no telli. The periodization of the sites of the Early Metal Age, represented here mainly by one-layer settlements and cemeteries, is built to a greater extent with the help of the typological method.

Chronology of cultures III-II millennium BC, i.e. mainly from the Bronze Age, is still largely based on the historical dates of the oldest written sources. For periods preceding the 3rd millennium BC, the only criterion for a correct chronological assessment can be considered the dates of radiocarbon analyses.

It is very difficult to indicate a clear chronological framework of the Eneolithic and Bronze Age for the territory of Russia and the former USSR. In the vast expanses of Eurasia, noticeable fluctuations are found in the dates of the onset and development of the early metal era.

Unevenness makes itself felt when trying to designate the time boundaries of the Bronze Age. In the Caucasus and in the south of Eastern Europe, it lasts from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, and in the north of Eastern Europe and in the Asian part of Russia it fits into the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC.

The economic specificity of the archaeological cultures of the Early Metal Age also manifests itself differently in different regions. In the southern zone - in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean, in the south of Europe, in Central Asia, in the Caucasus - powerful centers of metallurgy and metalworking, as a rule, are associated with the brightest centers of agriculture and cattle breeding. At the same time, there is a process of formation of their specialized forms, which in a given natural environment and at a given level of development of metal tools provide the greatest productivity. For example, in the arid, arid zone of the Middle East and the south of Central Asia, it was in the era of early metal that irrigation agriculture was born. In the forest-steppe zone of Europe, slash-and-burn and shifting agriculture is spreading, and in the Caucasus - terraced agriculture.

Cattle breeding appears in a significant variety of forms. In South-Eastern Europe, traces of meat and dairy, household farming are clearly traced, with a predominance of cattle and pigs in the herd. In the Caucasus and in the Zagros zone of Mesopotamia, a transhumant form of cattle breeding is being formed based on the breeding of sheep and goats. A specific form of mobile pastoralism has developed in the steppes of Eastern Europe.

A different picture is observed in the northern part of Eurasia: the appearance of metal tools did not cause noticeable economic changes here and was clearly less important than in the south. In the north, in the era of early metal, the process of improving and intensifying the traditional forms of the appropriating economy (hunting and fishing) is underway, and only the first steps are being taken in the development of cattle breeding. The development of agriculture begins here only at the very end of the Bronze Age.

In the socio-historical sphere, the era of early metal is associated with the disintegration of primitive communal relations.

Large settlements of the Eneolithic eventually develop into cities of the Bronze Age, which are distinguished not only by a high concentration of population, but also by the highest level of development of crafts and trade, the emergence of complex monumental architecture. The development of cities is accompanied by the birth of writing, the appearance of the first Bronze Age civilizations in history.

The earliest civilizations of the Bronze Age arise in the valleys of the great rivers of the subtropics of the Old World. The corresponding period is characterized by the archaeological materials of Egypt in the Nile Valley (beginning from the second dynastic period), Suz "C" and "D" in Elam in the Karuna and Kerkhe valleys, late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys in Mesopotamia, Harappa in Indus Valley in Hindustan, later - Shang-Yin in China in the Huang He Valley. Among the extra-river civilizations of the Bronze Age, only the Hittite kingdom in Asia Minor, the civilization of Ebla in Syria, the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization of the Aegean basin of Europe can be named.

the historical period that replaced the Eneolithic (Copper Age). It is characterized by the manufacture and use of bronze tools and weapons, the emergence of nomadic cattle breeding, irrigated agriculture, writing, slave-owning states (late IV - early I millennium BC). It was replaced by the Iron Age in the 1st millennium BC.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

BRONZE AGE

the historical period that replaced the Eneolithic 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 B. century, nomadic pastoralism and irrigated agriculture, writing, and slave-owning civilizations appeared. Replaced by the Iron Age.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

BRONZE AGE

stage in the history of mankind, 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 Eneolithic. It is divided by scientists into 3 periods: early, middle, late. In B. c. cattle breeding, agriculture, crafts developed; writing appeared. Replaced by the Iron Age.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

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, gives 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. in. in V. Europe is still insufficiently studied. Late B.

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

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, III millennium BC, in Europe - II millennium BC. B. c. follows the Eneolithic and precedes the Iron Age.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Bronze Age

Bronze Age (Bronze Age), prehistory, a period for which the production of cutting tools and weapons from bronze is characteristic, i.e. alloy of copper and tin. Recognition of the advantages of this alloy was slow, dec. proportions before finding the optimum (10% tin). Therefore, it is just as difficult to determine the exact time of the transition from the Copper Age to the B.V. as from it to the Iron Age. Now it is generally accepted that the technologist, a breakthrough in the production of bronze, was achieved in different places at different times: between 3500 and 3000 years. BC. on Bl. East, Balkans and South-East. Asia and not earlier than the 15th century. AD the Aztecs of Mexico. The ability to make a new alloy spread slowly and over limited territories, since tin deposits were not found everywhere. So, in Africa south of the Sahara, in Australasia, and almost everywhere in America, there was no B.V. at all. Although in B.V. cultures. Many other metals also came into use, but it was precisely because of 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.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

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 importance of bronze was also in the fact that it required the organization of trade in rare but necessary tin. Such trade soon entailed a rapid spread of ideas and technological innovations, therefore, in the study of B. in. emphasis was placed on typology. A detailed analysis made it possible to quickly change the 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. AT Western Europe metalworking centers were located in the Aegean (Minoans, Mycenaeans - the first European civilizations), Central Europe (Unetitskaya 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 advent of iron. In the Americas, bronze was used in northern Argentina before 1000, shortly thereafter also in Peru. Some Mexican peoples, incl. the Aztecs were familiar with bronze, but it never played such a role in the New World as in the Old, so the term B. in. wrong for America.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

BRONZE AGE

cultural history a period characterized by the spread of the manufacture of tools, weapons, ornaments and utensils made of bronze. Approx. chronological frame B. in .: con. 3rd - early 1st millennium BC e., and in various districts of the globe, due to the peculiarities and unevenness of the source. development, B. in. emerged and developed at different times. Bronze, copper alloy mixed with other metals, ch. arr. tin, differs from copper in fusibility (700-900?), higher casting qualities and much greater strength, which led to its wide distribution. B. c. the Copper Age (otherwise Chalcolithic or Eneolithic) preceded, when, along with stone, copper, forged and cast products were used. Already in the era of the Eneolithic, covering the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. e., in countries such as India, Mesopotamia and Egypt, the first early slave owners arose. state-va. In B. c. they have reached their highest level. Ancient bronzes. tools found in Yuzh. Iran and Mesopotamia and belong to the 24th-23rd centuries. BC e. Bronze in Egypt. the industry has spread to the beginning. 2nd millennium BC e., but penetrated into the more southern regions of Africa later. In India, ancient bronzes. tools belong to the beginning. 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 independence. 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-va. The turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC e. was the time of the widespread use of bronzes. industries in M. Asia, Syria and Palestine, Cyprus and Crete, where at that time slave owners also arose. states. In the 2nd floor. 2nd thousand slave owners. state-wa formed in a number of areas of Greece. At the same time, the slave owner system was strengthened in India and China. In other parts of the Old World in B. c. there were major changes in the structure of primitive communities, to-rye moved from matriarchal to patriarchal relations with the development of domestic slavery. In means. parts of countries with a primitive communal system in Byelorussia. there were alliances of tribes, of which many reached the highest form of political. 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 displaced stone, from which they continued to make chisels, arrows, teeth for sickles, flat and drilled axes, and many others. etc. Therefore, in B. century. in many districts in the north of Europe, in Asia and Africa, remote from the advanced centers, the old Neolithic was preserved. way of life, archaic. matriarchal order. primitive communities of hunters-fishermen (see Neolithic), but metallic ones also penetrated to them. tools and weapons that to a certain extent changed their lives. Changes and differences in societies. system and culture of tribes and states in B. c. were due to the diversified development of production. forces - metallurgy, p. x-va (with the introduction of arable farming and shepherd. Cattle breeding), crafts and trades - in different sources. conditions giving different socio-political. results, but everywhere caused a much faster flow. movement compared to before. time. A big role in accelerating the pace of households. and societies. development department areas played in B. in. the establishment of exchange links, especially between the districts of deposits of metals, salt, the extraction of rare types of stone and wood, mineral and organic. dyes, cosmetics substances, pearls, etc. For Wed. Europe and Scandinavia such an accelerator for the development of culture was the so-called. the "amber road", along which amber was exported from the Baltic to the south, and weapons, jewelry, etc. penetrated to the north from the more developed centers of the Balkans and the Danube; to Brit. islands played a role in the export of tin. Thanks to the development of exchange ties, improvements in the field of technology and military. cases began to move especially quickly. The study of the development of exchange ties in B. century. has for archaeol. research and important applied value: on the distribution of certain things, manufactured in countries with a chronology fixed by writing, with greater accuracy than for previous ones. epochs are dated archeol. monuments of countries, even very remote from the advanced centers of ancient culture. In this regard, for the Anterior and Wed. East acquired great importance chronology cultural-ist. development of Mesopotamia, Iran and India. Mn. archeol. monuments and entire periods in the history of the Caucasus, Cf. Asia, and through them and more sowing. regions of the USSR are determined by the links with these centers, reflected in the archeol. finds. For Vost. and Center. Asia, Siberia and the Far East of the 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 about. Crete, especially in Knossos and Phaistos, well dated by imported things from Egypt, Asia Minor and Syria, as well as research in ancient Troy, excavations in Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos. As a result of all these studies, the Cretan-Mycenaean (see. Aegean culture ) chronological periodization B. century. Southern Europe with the following divisions of the ancient Minoan (Eneolithic) 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. Differing in details, chronological systems, suggestions different authors agree that B. c. Europe in the main falls on the 2nd millennium BC. e. These definitions have been verified by the physical methods for C14 isotopes. Its results confirm the attribution of the earliest monuments in Europe containing bronzes. products, to con. 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC e. Within this period, the countries of Europe experienced different stages of cultural history. development. B. c. on Crete - the time of formation and development of slave owners. state-in, more similar to other Eastern than to ancient ones. They already had writing - hieroglyphic, etc. system A, still undeciphered. In mainland Greece, the same process began in the 18th and 17th centuries. He reached a particularly high development in the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e., when the state-va, possessing the so-called written language, strengthened here. B.'s systems, in which they see the most ancient Greek. Achaean letter. In the countries of the Danube Bass. in B. c. the transition to the patriarchal-tribal system was completed. Archeol. cultures represent here in mean. least continuation of the local Eneolithic. cultures, all of them in DOS. agricultural. In Bulgaria, the most characteristic for B. century. is the Karanovo IV-V culture. In Hungary, several are known. archeol. cultures, monuments to-rykh, apparently, mark the emergence and development of unions of tribes. The union of the tribes of B. v. can be considered the most ancient. Pechel, or Baden culture, whose monuments date back to the 3rd millennium BC. e. and occupy the vast territory. from the South of Germany to Transcarpathia and Transylvania. They are left by farmers. people who already own carts. The Pechel tribes, like the later tribes of the Pushta culture, had connections with the population of the steppes of the East. Europe. In the beginning. 2nd millennium BC e. on the territory South Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, the so-called. Unětice culture, characterized by a high level of bronze casting. In the 2nd floor. 2nd millennium BC e. there is a Lusatian culture, whose monuments in several. local variants occupy an even more extensive territory than the Unetitsky ones, reaching S. Brandenburg, Z. Frankfurt am Main, and extending to V. means. parts of Poland, in Transcarpathia and Transylvania. This culture in most districts is characterized by a special type of cemeteries (see. Fields of burial urns culture) containing the burnt remains of the dead. It belongs to a farmer. population, about ethnicity. structure to-rogo among experts there is no consensus. In Romania, cultures B. in. are the so-called. the Monteoru culture and later the Noa culture. On Wednesday. and Sev. Germany and South. Scandinavia in con. 3rd and 1st half. 2nd thousand distributed in several. local variants of goblets cultures close to each other, decorated, especially at a later stage, with corded ornaments. An interesting phenomenon in the history of Europe early. 2nd millennium BC e. represents the distribution from Spain to Poland, Transcarpathia and Hungary of cultural monuments of bell-shaped goblets (see. Bell-shaped goblets culture). The population that left these monuments moved from west to east among the local tribes. It is believed that these were metallurgists-bronze casters, who carried their products up to Britain, Italy, the Hanging River and the Danube region and smelted high-quality products. metal. In B. c. In Italy, it is necessary to note sites of the Remedello type, close to those of Unětice, but in time preceding them. From Ser. 2nd millennium BC e. all in. Italy spread, possibly under the influence of the Swiss. lake pile settlements, so-called. terramaras - settlements on stilts, built not over a lake, but on damp floodplains of river valleys (especially the Po River). When excavating both piled structures and terramar, a large number of tools, utensils (including those made from unstable materials - bone, wood, fabrics), grains and seeds are found. In con. 3rd millennium BC e. (and according to C14 in its 2nd half) in the Rhine regions of Germany, on the upper reaches of the Danube and in the East. France, the so-called. Michelsberg culture, or Chassey culture. It is distinguished by powerful and extremely extensive fortifications - ditches, ramparts, and in France and kam. walls, testifying to the formation of new social relations, to-rye made it possible to carry out means. labor force cooperation. B. c. on the territory France in most places is characterized by settlements of farmers who left a huge number of mounds with complex burial structures, often megalithic. type (see Megalithic cultures). In the north of France, as well as along the coast of the Northern m., they continued to build megalithic. structures - dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs. Especially famous relating to the 18th century. BC e. The cromlech is a sun temple at Stonehenge in England. In B. c. 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 of which the swarm was still at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. e. a peculiar el-argar culture arose. Later, in the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e., in southern Spain cultural development, Ch. arr. in the metallurgical 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 settlements are close to other Minoan ones in Crete and Greece, but in Spain the development of cities based on them already dates back to the early railway. century, i.e., by the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e. -***-***-***- Synchronistic table of Eneolithic and Bronze Age cultures on the territory of the USSR

Relatively high development produces. forces in B. c. Europe led to the accumulation of intracommunal wealth. In the 1st floor. 2nd millennium BC e., in addition to increasing food. resources and, above all, livestock, this was reflected in the wide appearance of hoards of products of community bronze foundries. 2nd floor. 2nd millennium BC e. treasures of high quality are characterized throughout Europe. gold jewelry that belonged to the tribal nobility. Bronze Age in the USSR. Already in the Eneolithic era population pl. areas of terr. 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, the Balkans, and M. Asia. Eneolithic tribes of Transcaucasia and North. The Caucasus was 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 Afanasiev culture, Glazkov culture and Kitoi culture). All this means. least determined the features of the development of B. cultures in. on the territory USSR. Of particular importance was the Caucasus, which served to connect. a link between the steppe districts of terr. USSR and cultural centers Dr. East. How close these ties were is shown by the monuments of Maikop culture. Widespread throughout the North. Caucasus from the Black Sea to the district of Grozny, 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 silver utensils, with drawings that are completely similar to the ancient Mesopotamian 24-22 centuries. BC e. During excavations of mounds in Trialeti (Georgia), burials of the 20th-19th centuries were discovered. BC e., which also contained the richest jewelry made in the traditions of the art of Dr. Mesopotamia and Anatolia. Just like Maikop, Trialeti treasures testify to the high level of development of societies. relations and culture in the Caucasus in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. Studies of burial mounds and burial grounds in Transcaucasia, related to the middle and 2nd floor. 2nd millennium BC e., showed that this area was at that time the center of a highly developed local bronze metallurgy, very similar in terms of the shape of the products and the quality of the metal to the bronze casting centers of the Hittites, Urartu, Luristan and Assyria. There are also cultural ties between the Caucasus and the Balkans and the Danube, apparently carried out by sea along the coast of the Black Sea. On Sev. Caucasus in the 1st half. 2nd millennium BC e. on the basis of the Maikop culture, several local cultures arise. More app. The area is distinguished by monuments of the so-called. North Caucasian culture; in the more eastern - in Pyatigorye, Kabarda and the Grozny region - peculiar forms arise that are closest to the catacomb culture of the South 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 on Sev. In the Caucasus, the influence of the Srubnaya culture is noticeable. In the mountainous regions, in the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e. Colchian culture, Sevan, Khojaly-Kedabek culture (see also Mingachevir), Koban culture, etc., related to each other, are formed. All these cultures are distinguished by a high level of metallurgy and ceramics. Their similarity, and at the same time their difference, probably reflects both the ancient relationship and the differentiation of the Kavkas. tribes. More sowing. districts of steppes and forest-steppes in B. c. were inhabited by tribes, also in most places reaching the level of patriarch. relations. Having arisen in close dependence on the Caucasus and initially concentrated in the steppes of the East. 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 bend of the Dnieper, the region of Odessa and the Crimea. Monuments of the Catacomb culture are also found in the Trans-Volga region. The previous catacomb in the steppes of Nizh. Volga and Dnieper Eneolithic. the Yamnaya culture is marked by the first acquaintance of its tribes with the use of a wheeled cart and draft cattle. The standard of living of the tribes of the Catacomb culture was even higher - they knew a developed shepherd. cattle breeding, millet crops, bronze foundry and skillfully decorated dishes with imprints of cord and wool braid. It is believed that the penetration of the Catacomb tribes into the Volga and their mixing with the local population caused about the beginning. 18th century BC e. the addition of a log culture. Well armed bronzes. With “hanging” axes, spears, and daggers, already knowing the riding horse, the tribes of the Srubna culture quickly settled the steppes and penetrated far north to Murom, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Buguruslan, and east to the river. Ural. All R. 2nd millennium BC e. these tribes perfectly mastered agriculture and bronze casting. As in Zap. Europe, from this time in the steppes of the South of Europe. parts of the USSR, the richest treasures of foundry masters in the form of bronzes have been preserved. products, semi-finished products and casting molds, as well as a treasure trove of products made of precious metals that belonged to the tribal nobility. The population of the Srubnaya culture to the west of the Volga in the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. was subordinated to the Scythians and merged with them. On Wed. Dnieper in con. 3rd millennium BC e. 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 takes place under the influence of the Late Trypillian and Catacomb cultures, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it traces similarities with the Unetitsky forms of the West. In more app. areas of Right-Bank Ukraine, for example. in the Rivne region, burials with corded ceramics were found, 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 Zap. In Ukraine, in Podolia, as well as in southern Belarus, monuments of the Komarovo culture are spreading. More south. areas, it is distinguished by its proximity to the Lower Danubian cultures of the B. century, left by the other Thracian population, in the north. the same areas includes a number of features of the so-called. Trzyniec culture of Poland. Mixed Komarovo-Tshinetsk monuments are spreading in Ukrainian-Belarusian. borderland over a very large area, reaching also east of the Dnieper. In Belarus at this time, there are monuments of the Dnieper-Desna variant of the Middle Dnieper culture. In the Baltics, burial grounds with vessels decorated with a semblance of cord 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 which the tribes of the Fatyanovo culture settled, engaged in cattle breeding and producing high-quality products. globular earthenware, stone. drilled axes-hammers and bronzes. dangling axes. Relatives groups of Fatyanovo tribes settled on the territory corresponding to the modern. Moscow, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl regions. and the Chuvash ASSR, possibly of different origin. Moscow monuments. groups have similarities with the Dnieper-Desna sites, and the Chuvash - with the sites of the steppe South and even the Caucasus. At a later stage B. century. bronzes are known in the region of the Volga-Oka interfluve and along the Kama. spears, Celts and daggers of the so-called. Seima, or Turbine, type (see Seima culture, Turbinsky burial ground). They have received the widest distribution. Weapons of the Seima types were found in the Borodino (Bessarabian) treasure of the 15th-14th centuries. BC e. in Moldova, in the Urals, on the Issyk-Kul, on the Yenisei, in the Baikal region. The richest workshop of Seima bronzes was found near the village. Samus near Tomsk. Undoubtedly, the influence of the Seima forms of the Celts, spears and knives on the Chinese Yin era (14-11 centuries BC). In Chuvashia, the Trans-Volga region, south of the Kama and in Bashkiria, there are burial mounds and sites of the Abashev culture, extending into the 2nd half. 2nd millennium BC e. and distinguished by a certain resemblance to the Srubna culture of the Volga region. In the steppes of the West. Siberia, Kazakhstan, Altai and cf. Yenisei from the 17th century. BC e. the Andronovo culture, which belonged to the agricultural and livestock breeders, 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 belonging to the north-Iranian. language group. On Wednesday. Asia at the beginning of B. c. local farmers continued their development. cultures that arose as early as the Eneolithic, in the south are cultures of the Anau type, in the north - the Kelteminar culture. Their connections with steppe cultures are revealed. Later, in the era of the Tazabagyab culture of Khorezm, the strong influence of the steppe tribes began to affect, which was reflected in the penetration of the Andronovo culture into the south. limits Wed. 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-Tazababagyab type. The same finds are registered in Means. number of seats in the Southeast. Iran and Pakistan, indicating the advance of the Indo-European. population to the Indus. It is possible that this movement is directly related to the question of the distribution of the tribes of the Aryans. In con. 2nd millennium BC e. in Turkmenistan and Ferghana, painted pottery continues to exist, decorated with dark geometric patterns. patterns on a red background, such as found on a farmer. Chust settlement and Dalverzinsky settlement. Similar ceramics is found at this time in Xinjiang and near the lake. Lobnor. In the last quarter 2nd millennium BC e. in Yuzh. Siberia, Transbaikalia, Altai, and to a certain extent in Kazakhstan, types of bronzes are distributed. tools and weapons, which are especially characteristic of the Karasuk culture of the Altai and Yenisei and the tomb culture of Transbaikalia. They are associated with the cultures of Mongolia, Sev. and Center. China of the Yin and Zhou era (14-8 centuries BC). Their connection is also confirmed by the belonging of the majority of the Karasuk people to the north-whale. anthropological type. In Siberia, Karasuk forms in the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. replaced by new Scythian-Siberian cultures such as Mayemir, Tagar and slab graves (see Tagar culture, Slab graves culture). Since that time, throughout the territory. The USSR is spreading the manufacture of iron, before that from the end. 2nd millennium BC e. used only in the more southern districts of the country. B. c. as a special stage in the history of culture stood out in antiquity. time by Lucretius Carus. In archeol. B.'s science was introduced in the 1st floor. 19th century dates scientists K. Yu. Thomsen and E. Vorso. Means. contribution to B.'s study of c. made by the Swede. archaeologist O. Montelius, who, using the so-called. typological method, classified and dated the archeol. monuments of the Neolithic and B. c. Europe. Franz. scientist J. Deshelet created typological. periodization of stone, bronze monuments. and wished centuries of France and Center. Europe. English the scientist A. Evans proposed the periodization of the Minoan civilization; Until recently, this periodization underlay most of the chronological. definitions of archeology. monuments throughout Europe. The students of Montelius (N. Oberg and others) exacerbated the error contained in the embryo in his concept, and changes in archeol. monuments began to be explained by the laws of development, as if determining not only the evolution of animal organisms, but also the change in the forms of things. At the same time, it was completely ignored that all archeol. 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 arose in a number of countries for a comprehensive study of archaeols. monuments, as more relevant to the tasks of the ist. research. The so-called. archeol. culture. This direction has been widely developed in Russian. archeol. science. V. A. Gorodtsov and A. A. Spitsyn identified the most important cultures of B. v. Vost. Europe. After the victory of the October Revolution, the Soviet archaeologists have identified a large number of cultures of B. v.: in the Caucasus (B. I. Krupnov, B. A. Kuftin, A. A. Iessen, B. B. Piotrovsky, G. K. Nioradze, etc.), on the Volga ( P. S. Rykov, I. V. Sinitsyn, O. A. Grakova and others), in the Urals (O. N. Bader, A. V. Zbrueva, A. P. Smirnov, K. V. Salnikov and others .), on Wednesday. Asia (S. P. Tolstov, A. N. Bernshtam, M. E. Masson and others), in Siberia (M. P. Gryaznov, V. N. Chernetsov, S. V. Kiselev, G. P. Sosnovsky , A. P. Okladnikov). Archaeological cultures B. c. on the territory The USSR are studied from the standpoint of ist. materialism. It turns out economic. and the social development of those societies, the remnants of which they are, are then investigated on the basis of the study of socio-economic. development features of society., political. and cultural life ancient tribes and peoples, their relationships, movements and further destinies (A. Ya. Bryusov, X. A. Moora, M. E. Foss, T. S. Passek, S. V. Kiselev, M. I. Artamonov and others .). A number of scientists in other countries, defining archeol. culture, also strove for their ist. study. In present the time of B.'s culture. successfully studied in all socialist. countries (in Czechoslovakia - Jan Filip, Poland - J. Kostshevsky, Hungary - J. Banner). Among the bourgeois scientists, along with purely idealistic. directions, there are also such currents, representatives of which, remaining on the idealistic. positions, with attention to the work of Marxist archaeologists, especially in the 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 the scientists of the capitalist. countries and closest to materialism was the English. archaeologist G. Child, to-ry in a number of books gave a wide ist. a review of the relationship between the cultures of the Eneolithic and the B. century, the Near East and Europe. In the field of B.'s studying of century. the latest achievements are expressed primarily in the establishment of accurate chronological. ratios of archaeol. facts (studies on comparative chronology by K. Schaeffer (France), V. Miloichich (Germany), etc.). Of course, all this does not remove the ideological. differences that separate 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, Ancient East in the light of new excavations, trans. from English, M., 1956; Masson, W. M. and Merpert, N. Ya., Issues in 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 oldest culture of the Indus Valley, trans. from English, M., 1951; Dixit S.K., Introduction to archeology, trans. from English, M., 1960; Guo Mo-jo, Bronze. century, (Sat.), trans. from Chinese, M., 1959; Kiselev S.V., Neolithic and bronze. century of China, "CA", 1960, No 4; Gorodtsov V.A., Culture of bronzes. era of Central Russia. (Report of the History Museum for 1914), M., 1916; Essays on the history of the USSR. Primitive communal system and 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 Sat: CA, v. 26, M., 1956; Passek T. S., Periodization of Trypillia settlements, M. -L., 1949; her, Early agricultural (Trypillia) tribes of the Dniester region, M., 1961; Popova T. B., Tribes of the Catacomb culture. M., 1955; Krivtsova-Grakova O. A., Volga and Black Sea Steppe in the Late Bronze Age, M., 1955 (MIA, No 46); her, Chronology of the monuments of the Fatyanovo culture, in collection: KSIIMK, v. 14, M.-L., 1947; Jessen A.A., From the history of ancient metallurgy of the Caucasus, in collection: IGAIMK, v. 120, M.-L., 1935: Kuftin B.A., Archeol. excavations in Trialeti, v. 1, Tb., 1941; Krupnov E.I., Ancient history of the North. Caucasus, M., 1960; Piotrovsky B. B., Archeology of Transcaucasia, L., 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 Yuzh. Siberia, (2nd ed.), M., 1951; Dikov N. N., Bronze. Age of Transbaikalia, Ulan-Ude, 1959; Okladnikov A.P., Neolithic and bronze. age of the Baikal region, part 3, M., 1955 (MIA, No 43); his, Distant Past of Primorye, Vladivostok, 1959; Kiselev S.V., Research of bronzes. centuries on the territory USSR for 40 years, "CA", 1957, No 4; Draw old times? history? Ukrainian PCP, K., 1957; Philip J. Pravek? Ceskoslovensko, Praha, 1948; Kostrzewski J., Wielkopolska w pradziejach, Warsz. - Wr., 1955; Mildenberger G., Mittel-Deutschland. Ur-und Frühgeschichte, 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., Archéologie de l'Iran ancien, Leiden, 1959; Schaeffer C., Stratigraphie compar?e et chronologie de l'Asie occidentale, Oxf., 1948; Milojcic V., Chronologie der jöngeren 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

With the onset of the early Bronze Age at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. e. there are significant cultural changes. They can be traced over the vast expanses of Eurasia, but they are especially evident in South-Eastern Europe. Here bright Eneolithic cultures with painted ceramics disappear without a trace, and with them the metallurgical achievements of the Balkan-Carpathian metallurgical province go into the past. It is believed that the destruction of the province was associated with the first powerful migration of the most ancient Indo-European tribes, whose resettlement covered a vast area around the Black Sea [Todorova X., 1979; Chernykh E. N., 1988].

The localization of the Indo-European ancestral home is still the subject of heated discussions. Some researchers place it in the Carpatho-Danube region, others - in the western part of the steppe region of Eurasia (Caspian region, Northern Black Sea region), others - in the Near East and Asia Minor [Dyakonov I. M., 1982; Gamkrelidze T.V., Ivanov V.V., 1984]. However, many prefer to see in the role of the most ancient Indo-Europeans the bearers of the northern Black Sea kurgan cultures of the Bronze Age. In their row turn Special attention on the Yamnaya culture, or rather, a historical community that carries many features that are identified on the basis of the analysis of the Indo-European "proto-language" [Petrukhin V. Ya., Raevsky D. S., 1998]. This analysis shows that it originated and developed among mobile pastoralists and horse breeders who knew the wheel and wheeled transport, used wagons on wheels, mastered the rudiments of agriculture, and developed the skills of processing copper and bronze. The way of life of the Yamnaya tribes most closely matches the proposed picture, so their connection with the most ancient Indo-Europeans looks quite probable.

According to archeological data, it is known that the Yamnaya tribes made long-range migration throws from the Northern Black Sea region to the west and southwest. Perhaps it was they who destroyed the Balkan-Carpathian population of the Eneolithic. Be that as it may, the first pit burials with crouched and painted bones appear in the southeast of Europe (in Romania, Bulgaria, the lower and middle Danube) precisely at the turn of the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age.

Apparently, during their long-distance campaigns, the Yamnaya tribes not only spread Indo-European speech, but also spread new metal processing technologies and new types of tools and weapons, different from the Eneolithic, in the northwestern part of the Circumpontian region. The previously unknown stereotype of metallurgical production is associated with the formation of the Circumpontian Metallurgical Province (hereinafter CMP), which existed during the Early and Middle Bronze Age on a vast territory located mainly around the Black Sea. It covered the Balkan-Carpathian region, the south of Eastern Europe up to the Urals, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, southwestern Iran, Anatolia, Aegea, and the Levant (Fig. 11). Thus, the former regions of the Balkan-Carpathian province completely entered the CMP, forming its northwestern periphery.

The Circumpontian province united cultures that differed greatly both in geographical location, and in the nature of the producing economy, and in the specifics of the habitats of the population. In the northern zone of the province, the preconditions for the establishment of pastoralism as the dominant form of the economy have developed. Cultures (Fig. 33) that practiced mobile forms of cattle breeding prevailed here (the Novotitar culture of the Kuban region, the Yanaya cultural and historical community of the south of Eastern Europe, the Usatov culture of the northwestern Black Sea region). The pastoral population of this zone has left us many cemeteries, mostly mounds, and very few settlements, as a rule, with very thin cultural strata.

In the southern zone of the province, on the contrary, cultures prevailed, the tribes of which were mainly engaged in agriculture, only supplemented by cattle breeding. The habitats of their carriers are represented by long-term, thick in terms of cultural deposits, residential hills - tell. They are represented in the area of ​​the Ezero culture in the Balkans, the culture of Troy I in Anatolia, the Kuro-Arak culture of Transcaucasia, etc. (Fig. 33). The degree of social development of the population of the southern, sedentary agricultural cultures was generally higher. This makes itself felt in the appearance on their territory already in the early Bronze Age of associations of the state type with a developed urban structure and writing (Mesopotamia, southwestern Iran).

With differences in the way of economy and the level of social development, both zones show many similarities. This similarity, in addition to metal products and partly ceramics, which will be discussed later, is manifested in the proximity of funeral rites: burials are made, as a rule, in rectangular pits, in which the buried lie crouched on their backs or on their sides. The similarity can also be seen in the fact that fortified settlements with ramparts and ditches and even stone fortresses appeared along the entire Black Sea ring in the early Bronze Age. They were known here both earlier and later. But they have never been such a massive and regular phenomenon. Apparently, the military clashes of the tribal groups that were part of the province were of a regular nature and played a significant role in shaping the stereotype of its material culture and production [Chernykh E.N., 1989]. But the model of its formation, apparently, should be associated with the peaceful interaction of its constituent population. Its coordinated development, multiple mixing, close interaction developed not only through military skirmishes, but also through close exchange and cultural contacts.

Rice. 33. The northern part of the Circumpontian metallurgical province in the early Bronze Age (according to E. N. Chernykh with additions by N. V. Ryndina). Scheme of the location of archaeological sites and centers of metal production: 1 - culture of Troy I (center of metallurgy); 2 - culture Ezero (center of metalworking); 3 - Transylvanian focus; 4 - Brno-Lishni-Evizovice culture; 5 - pit community (hearth of metallurgy and hearth of metalworking); 6 - Usatovskaya culture (center of metalworking); 7 - Sofievsky culture (center of metalworking); 8 - Novotitarovskaya culture; 9 - Maikop culture (center of metallurgy); 10, Kuro-Arak culture (center of metallurgy); 11, CMP boundaries; 12 - estimated boundaries.

There are two main phases in the history of the CMP. The first dates mainly from the 3rd millennium BC. e., without going within its last third; the second - the last third III - the first half of the II millennium BC. e. The early Bronze Age can be associated with the first phase, while the Middle Bronze Age is associated with the second, late phase.

Five main types of tools and weapons are typical for most production centers of the CMP: 1) socketed axes; 2) double-edged knives and daggers, mostly cuttings; 3) tetrahedral awls with an emphasis-thickness on the back of the tool; 4) bits - tetrahedral or rounded in section, also with an emphasis-thickness; 5) adzes - flat, relatively wide and thin (Fig. 34). Such a set of diagnostic products could vary in different foci, both in terms of their quantitative relationship with each other, and in some details of the form. This set, in addition, could appear in various foci not only in the standard form, but also in enriched or depleted. For example, socketed axes, almost ubiquitous in the hearths of the northern zone, are much less common in the south. For the centers of the southern zone, on the contrary, tetrahedral "bayonets" with an emphasis and leaf-shaped spears with an emphasis are typical, which are practically absent in the northern part of the province [Chernykh EN, 1978b].

Rice. 34. A set of artifacts typical of the Early Bronze Age within the Circumpontian metallurgical province. 1-5 - socketed axes and a mold for casting them, open from the "belly" side of the ax; 6-7 - flat adzes; 8-10, 15, 16 - double-edged knives-daggers; 11, 12, 17-19 - chisels with an emphasis-thickness; 13, 14 - awls with thickened emphasis.

As already noted, the technology of metal production in the centers of the CMP has not yet been studied enough. In these conditions special meaning they acquire finds of foundry molds made of clay and stone, the analysis of which makes it possible to establish the features of foundry technologies. The specificity of the foundry business of the early Bronze Age clearly emerges when studying the forms in which the socketed axes, the largest and functionally most important tools of the CMP, were obtained. It turned out that throughout the vast territory of the province in the early Bronze Age, a similar tradition of obtaining them with the help of two main types dominated: 1) double-leaf, completely open from the “belly” of the ax; 2) double-leaf, fully open from the side of the "back" of the ax. The “belly” of the ax is considered to be that side of it that faces down when it is mounted on the handle; "back" refers to the face facing up.

Within the framework of the CMP, already at an early stage of its development, the mass distribution of the first artificial bronzes begins. They are represented mainly by copper-arsenic alloys. Arsenic bronzes dominate in the early Bronze Age in the Caucasus, in Anatolia, in the Aegean basin. In the northeast of the Balkans and in the steppe zone of southern Eastern Europe, along with alloys of copper with arsenic, pure copper continued to be used. In the northern, peripheral regions of the CMP (north-west of the Balkans, the Volga region, the Southern Urals), tools were cast from pure copper for a long time; artificial alloys were not mastered here in the early Bronze Age. The ore sources with which the Early Bronze Age metals are associated are not always clear. However, it is believed that the Caucasus, Anatolia, the Balkan-Carpathian and the Urals were the main mining areas, the raw materials of which fed the centers of the CMP.

What is the advantage of copper-arsenic alloys in comparison with copper? The addition of even a small amount of As to copper (0.5-1%) significantly increases its fluidity, that is, the ability to fill all, even the smallest, cavities of the mold without premature solidification. The presence of arsenic in the alloy prevents the formation of a number of brittle components in it, which are highly undesirable during forging. The main difficulty in working with arsenic bronze was that even when it was slightly heated (for example, during forging), arsenic volatilized, which was noticeable to anyone, not even experienced in metallurgy, to a person. Arsenic was removed from the alloy in the form of white vapors formed by the oxides of this metal. The poisonous vapors of arsenic, which made metallurgists suicidal, were distinguished by a characteristic garlic smell, which made it possible to unmistakably distinguish this harmful alloy from pure copper. According to most researchers, it was the volatility and toxicity of arsenic vapors that caused arsenic to gradually give way to tin as an additive to copper. And yet, despite the shortcomings and complexity of working with arsenic bronzes, their discovery was a giant step forward in the technical progress of primitive societies [Ravich I. G., Ryndina N. V., 1984].

Apparently, the earliest artificial alloys based on copper and arsenic were discovered in Anatolia and the Caucasus. In both regions, evidence of their use dates back as far as the Neo-Eneolithic period. Undoubtedly, these regions play a priority role in the origin and development of metallurgy of the CMP.

Starting to characterize specific CMP foci, one should immediately note the unevenness of their study in comparison with BCM foci. It manifests itself both in the analytical coverage of the material, and in the territorial one. The Caucasus, the Northern Black Sea region, the Balkans, and partly Asia Minor have been studied best of all. More southern regions are still waiting for their detailed analysis. Taking into account the real state of knowledge of the materials, we will focus on the consideration of cultures and related foci, geographically gravitating towards the Black Sea basin.
Let us turn first to Anatolia. Within its boundaries in the early Bronze Age, apparently, a special role belonged to the western or Trojan center of metal production (see Fig. 33). Its products are represented by the metal collections of Troy I and a number of island settlements of the Aegean Sea (Poliochni, Thermi, Emporio, etc.). It consists of socketed axes, concave-blade daggers, knives, and flat adze-chisels. All these products are cast from arsenic bronzes. The source of their receipt is not entirely clear; most likely, they are connected with deposits of Central Anatolia.

Before moving on to a more detailed description of the culture of Troy I, a few words about the history of research and stratigraphy of the Trojan tell, called the Hissarlik Hill. Initially, in 1870-1890, the excavations of the monument were carried out by G. Schliemann. Then they were continued, making a great contribution to the systematization of the finds, V. Derpfeld. From 1932 to 1938 an American archaeological expedition led by C. Blegen worked in Troy. Currently, excavations have resumed under the leadership of the German archaeologist M. Korfman. In the Troy sung by Homer, 9 layers (“cities”) were revealed dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. e. before the Roman era. The 6 lower settlements of Troy are associated with the Bronze Age. The materials of the first settlement were used in the selection of the culture of Troy I.

The inhabitants of Troy I erected rectangular houses from large blocks of stone, the so-called "megarons". They consisted of a long hall with a portico adjoining it, open to the courtyard. In the main room there was a round hearth, and stone seats were arranged along the walls, covered with clay or plaster. The settlement was surrounded by a stone wall with towers and narrow gate entrances, often referred to as "entrance corridors".

In the residential houses of the Troy I culture, grain and other food supplies were stored in large vessels. The determination of grains showed that the local population grew wheat, barley, and millet. In addition, it was engaged in gardening: burnt fruits of figs and grape seeds were found in Poliochni. An important role in the economy was played by cattle breeding, based on the breeding of cows, goats, sheep and pigs. Tools and weapons made of flint, obsidian and various types of stone were still used. These are knives, sickle inserts, wedge-shaped axes, adzes, drilled battle axes, hammers, and mace heads. Numerous whorls and sinkers for the loom testify to the development of weaving.

Handmade pottery is dark grey, brown or red. Its surface is carefully polished, sometimes decorated with carved geometric ornaments filled with white paste (Fig. 35).
Vessels on an annular pallet, jugs with an obliquely cut throat, jugs with a beak-shaped plum, three-legged jugs and pots, as well as cylindrical lids for them with horn-shaped handles are typical.

The economic and trade relations of the Trojan center of metallurgy lead mainly towards the Balkan Peninsula within the limits of the center of the Ezero type [Chernykh E.N., 1978a]. This center of metalworking, associated with the territory of the culture of the same name, covered in the III millennium BC. e. areas of the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula and the valley of the Lower Danube within Northern Bulgaria and Southern Romania. The western, or Trojan, hearth of Anatolia and the hearth of the Ezero type of Southeastern Europe are related by arsenic bronzes similar in composition, as well as similar types of tools, and primarily adzes of various types, large and small chisels, and daggers. However, local metalworking has its own distinctive features. They appear in sporadic use along with the arsenic metal of "pure" copper for casting tools. In addition, in the area of ​​the hearth of the Ezero type, socketed axes with a long blade are presented in significant series, in Anatolia they are very rare (Fig. 36). It is noteworthy that the collection of finds from the Ezero culture also contains casting molds for making such axes. Unfortunately, at present we cannot say anything definite about the ore sources of copper and arsenic used by local craftsmen. Most likely, the craftsmen worked on imported raw materials, from which they forged and cast finished products. They were not involved in metal smelting [Chernykh E.N., 1978a].

The typological parallels between Anatolia and the northeastern Balkans in the Early Bronze Age are not limited to metalwork. In tell Ezero near the Bulgarian city of Nova Zagora, especially in its upper strata, ceramics were found similar to the dishes of Troy I (the same shapes of bowls, jugs, lids). Significant proximity with the Trojan collections is found by tools and weapons of the Ezero culture, made of stone, flint, bone and horn; decorations from these monuments are completely identical to the Trojan ones [Merpert N. Ya., 1983]. All these materials suggest that a close culture developed on the territory of the Balkan-Danubian region, northwestern Anatolia and some Aegean islands, the bearers of which can probably be considered ethnically related tribes.

Rice. 36. Metal finds of the Ezero culture, marking the specifics of the metalworking center of the same name. 1, 2 - tesla; 3-8, 11, 12 - daggers; 9, 10 - bits; 13-16 - socketed axes.

Only the topography of the settlements and the nature of the construction of dwellings differ in a specific character (Ezero..., 1979). The telly cultures of Ezero are found predominantly near rivers, lakes, or other water sources. It has been established that most of the settlements were built on the remains of the tell of the Eneolithic period. But no connection with the previous era new culture does not detect. Some telli were surrounded by stone walls. Ezero, for example, in the late period of its existence had a double line of defense: one wall protected the upper area of ​​the hill, the other was taken out of its base (V horizon). Dwelling houses are built of wooden posts intertwined with vines, plastered with clay. All of them are rectangular with an entrance from the front side. The wall opposite the entrance often ends with an apse-shaped curve. In most houses, massive horseshoe-shaped stoves, open hearths, areas for drying grain, grain graters were found.

The inhabitants of the settlements were engaged in agriculture based on the cultivation of barley, wheat, vetch, peas, grapes, and also bred small cattle and pigs. Cattle typical of the Eneolithic are losing their numerical superiority.

Thus, the formation of the Ezero culture and other cultures of the Balkan-Carpathian region in the early Bronze Age indicates a sharp break with the traditions of the local Eneolithic and BKMP. Apparently, the local population was driven out by the tribes that advanced here from the steppe zone of Eastern Europe.

In the history of the southern zone of the CMP in the phase of the Early Bronze Age, the Kuro-Araks metallurgical center of Transcaucasia stands out noticeably. Tribes of the Kuro-Arak culture occupied the territory of southern and central Transcaucasia, eastern Anatolia, northwestern Iran, Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and partly northern Ossetia (Fig. 33). It is difficult to precisely localize production centers for smelting and processing metal within this vast zone. But, apparently, they gravitated towards the rich copper deposits of the Lesser Caucasus. The reality of such an assumption is indicated by data on some copper ore outcrops with ancient workings such as adits and drifts. An example of this is the deposits of the Kafan ore field of Armenia [Gevorgyan A.T., 1980]. According to the chemical composition of the Kafan ores, they could serve as a source of copper for the metallurgists of the Kuro-Arak culture.

At two settlements of the Kuro-Arak culture (Amiranis-Gora in Georgia and Baba-Dervish in Azerbaijan), furnaces associated with the process of metal production were found [Makhmudov et al., 1968; Kushnareva K. Kh., Chubinishvili T. N., 1970]. However, the question of whether they are metallurgical, that is, intended for smelting metal from ores, or foundry, that is, associated with the melting of finished copper, has not yet been resolved. There is no doubt about the presence of their own metalworking, although the mastery of metallurgical processes based on a number of indirect observations is also very likely. In a number of settlements, not only finished bronze items were found, but also tools for their production: nozzles, crucibles, lyachki, casting molds (Fig. 37). Many slags have been discovered, which, unfortunately, have not yet been studied by special, natural-science methods [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a; Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994b].

Rice. 37. Remains of foundry production from the settlements of the Kuro-Arak culture [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1993]. 1, 2, 11, 12 - clay nozzles; 3 - a mold for casting a flat ax; 4, 5, 9 - molds for casting socketed axes; 6-8, 16 - molds for casting blanks; 10 - melting furnace; 13 - a mold for casting a spear; 14, 15 - copper billets and an ax-shaped ingot; 17 - lyachki.

The metal collections of the Kura-Araks culture include items generally characteristic of the early phase of the CMP. Among them are numerous awls with a thickened stop, knives and daggers, flat adzes, and socketed axes (Fig. 38). Among the rare finds are bronze chisel-shaped tools [Glonti M. G., 1982]. The group of ornaments is significant and diverse. It includes beads, spiral temple rings, spiral bracelets, pins with semicircular, double-spiral, T-shaped heads. The bronze diadem is unique. On the plate forming it, the figures of a deer and a bird are engraved with a punched ornament (Fig. 38-25). The morphological originality of the Kura-Araks metal products is quite clearly expressed. Among the specific forms of products are peck axes, bayonets, shank spearheads, sickles (Fig. 38 - 3, 4, 9, 23, 24). Most of the metal implements of the Kuro-Araks culture are made of copper-arsenic alloys.

Among the Kuro-Arak sites, settlements predominate, although quite a few cemeteries are also known. Settlements are located not only in the plains, but also in the foothills and even mountainous areas. The population density was very high [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1993].

Houses in the settlements of the Kuro-Araks culture, as a rule, are round, sometimes furnished with additional rectangular rooms made of mud bricks. The round central rooms, covered with conical roofs, were paved with pebbles in concentric circles. On the pavement was placed a round clay hearth with complex petal cutouts hanging over its central part. Thick walls-petals were decorated with molded embossed spirals. Sometimes, next to the round hearths, hearth stands (barbecues) were placed, resembling a horseshoe in shape [Munchaev R. M., 1975]. Bright examples of such buildings were discovered at the settlement of Shengavit, excavated on the territory of Yerevan. The round buildings of Shengavit are surrounded by a stone wall with towers and moats.

At the settlements of the Kura-Arak culture, a lot of dark gray or black dishes were found, often polished to a mirror finish [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a; Munchaev R. M., 1975]. Along with undecorated vessels, ceramics with relief, and later with incised ornamentation, are found. Most often these are twisted spirals, concentric circles, rhombuses, triangles; images of people and animals are known (Fig. 39). The shapes of the dishes are varied: egg-shaped jugs, large wide-mouthed vessels with a rounded body, and biconical pots.

The materials obtained from the settlements indicate that the people of the Kuro-Arak culture were skilled farmers and cattle breeders. They sowed various types of wheat, barley, and millet. Flax was also cultivated, which was used to make fabrics. Even in high-mountain settlements they find stocks of grain amounting to tens of kilograms (Galgalatli in Dagestan). Obviously, wheat and barley crops reach up to 2500 m above sea level. In the mountainous zone, complex irrigation systems are being mastered, and terraced farming is beginning to develop [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1993]. The discovery of a horn plow in the Georgian settlement of Kvatskhelebi testifies to the use of animal draft power in arable farming [Kushnareva K. Kh., Lisitsyna G. N., 1997].

Cattle breeding probably played a secondary role. Small cattle predominated in the herd, large cattle are represented by an insignificant number of individuals. In a number of monuments, the remains of horse bones are recorded. Most likely, she came to the Caucasus from the Eastern European steppe peoples.

People of the Kuro-Arak culture buried their fellow tribesmen, as a rule, in ground burials, sometimes under mounds. Burial grounds were often located near settlements. The posture of the buried was most often crouched, the orientation of the deceased was arbitrary. The absence of strict canons in the burial rite also illustrates the diversity of burial pits. There are, sometimes even in one burial ground, horseshoe-shaped, rectangular pits, pits with walls lined with mud bricks or stone slabs (stone box).

Rice. 40. The main types of bronze tools and weapons that make up the products of the Maikop metallurgical hearth. 1, 2 - socketed axes; 3, 7, 9 - tesla; 4-6, 10 - daggers; 8, 11 - awls; 12, 13, 16 - bits; 14 - socket fork; 15 - psalium.

The origin of the Kuro-Arak culture is still controversial, but most researchers recognize its local, Transcaucasian roots [Munchaev R. M., 1975; Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a].

The radiocarbon dates obtained for the Kura-Araks culture fit within the limits of the 29th-23rd centuries. BC e. However, the lower chronological boundary, apparently, will be omitted in the 4th millennium BC in the future. e. [Kushnareva K. Kh., 1994a].

In the North Caucasus, simultaneously with the Kuro-Arak hearth, the activity of the Maikop metallurgical hearth unfolded. Its history covered the time from the end of the 4th to the third quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. e. [Munchaev R. M., 1994]. Most of the Maikop metal was obtained by excavation of funerary monuments, the distribution of which outlines the area of ​​this most interesting culture. It occupies the foothill and steppe zone of the North Caucasus from the Kuban region to Chechnya and Ingushetia (Fig. 33). And everywhere on this territory there are items made of arsenic bronzes, typical of the beginning of the Bronze Age (Fig. 40). Among the mass categories of tools are socketed axes cast in open double-leaf molds; flat adzes; chisels with a grooved blade and a thickening on the back of the tool; tetrahedral pins. Shank knives-daggers are represented by very characteristic forms. Most often, their blade has several protruding parallel stiffeners. There can be from two to five such ribs (Fig. 40 - 4, 5, 10). The standard set of "circumpontian" products is also supplemented by very specific socketed two-pronged "forks" (Fig. 40-14), metal cheek-pieces (Fig. 40-15), cauldrons and scoops. Thus, the typological isolation of some types of Maikop metal inventory allows us to speak of its local production.

For a long time it was believed that the Maikop tribes only processed metal, using imported Kuro-Arak copper. Now it became clear that they both mined and smelted it on their own. This is evidenced by the enrichment of a significant part of the Maikop metal with nickel (from 0.1 to 3% Ni). Nickel got into copper-arsenic bronze in a natural way not together with copper, but together with arsenic [Galibin V.A., 1991]. Now it has been found out that many of the arsenic mineral deposits known in the North Caucasus contain nickeline (NiAs). This means that not only the morphological originality of the local metal, but also its composition confidently speaks of the existence of the Maikop metallurgical hearth. His products included not only tools and weapons made of bronze, but also items made of precious metals - gold and silver. Their set is diverse and consists of various kinds of decorations and magnificent vessels obtained by punching from a thin blank sheet.

Rice. 41. Finds in the burial of the large Maykop mound (compiled by S. N. Korenevsky). 1, 2 - silver vessels; 3-6 - ceramics; 7 - chisel; 8 - ax; 9 - hoe; 10 - razor knife; 11 - adze; 12 - bladeless knife; 13 - ax-hoe.

There are two stages in the history of Maikop culture - early and late. The main part of metal finds is collected in late monuments.

The Maikop culture is represented by rare settlements and numerous burials under mounds with large grave pits. At a later stage, barrow dolmens appear. This is the name of structures made of heavy stone blocks, four of which are placed vertically, and the fifth, which overlaps them, lies horizontally.

The mound excavated in Maykop, on the Belaya River, a tributary of the Kuban, belongs to the early stage of the Maikop culture [Veselovsky N.I., 1897]. Under the embankment 11 m high there was a deep pit, divided in half by a wooden partition into two chambers - northern and southern. The northern chamber was once again divided into two compartments: northwestern and northeastern. Each cell contained a burial. All the dead lay on their sides with bent legs and were painted red. There was a man in the large, southern chamber; it was literally strewn with gold ornaments. Among them, plaques with images of lions and bulls, multi-petal rosettes stood out. Plaques and rosettes had holes for sewing onto fabric. Next to the skeleton lay 6 silver rods, the length of which reached more than 1 m. On four of them were sculpted figurines of bulls, two gold and two silver. Apparently, the rods supported the canopy, on which the gold plaques were sewn. Gold and silver vessels stood at the eastern wall of the pit. There were chased images on two silver vessels (Fig. 41 - 1, 2). One vessel depicts a whole landscape with mountains, trees, rivers and animals; on the other vessel only strings of animals are shown. The broken, irregular line of mountain peaks, depicted on the first vessel, apparently corresponds to the outlines of the Caucasus Range, as seen from Maykop, and this allows us to speak of its local production (Fig. 41 - 2). An analysis of the images on the second vessel (Fig. 41-1) made it possible to establish their significant proximity to the Mesopotamian toreutics of the Dzhemdet-Nasr era [Andreeva M.V., 1979], which may indicate its Near Eastern origin. In addition to silver and gold vessels, the deceased was accompanied by vessels made of bronze and clay, as well as a magnificent set of bronze weapons and tools: socketed axes, an ax-adze, a hoe, a razor knife, etc. (Fig. 41 - 7-13). Some of these finds (a hoe, a socketed ax-adze) again testify to the southern connections of the Maikop tribes.

The dead in the two northern sections of the grave were almost devoid of things; it is obvious that they had a subordinate position in relation to the main buried.

There is no doubt that the mound in Maykop was built over the ashes of the leader. It testifies to the significant accumulation of wealth among the tribal elite of the Maikop society. The colossal property and, apparently, social differentiation indicate the beginning of the process of class formation among the Maikop tribes. Burials very close to the Maikop kurgan in rite, but poor in inventory, are known everywhere in the North Caucasus [Munchaev R. M., 1975].

Extremely rich burial mounds of the late stage of the Maikop culture are concentrated in the Trans-Kuban region near the village of Novosvobodnaya. Here, burials were made in dolmens hidden by a mound [Popova T. B., 1963; Rezepkin A. D., 1991]. Inventory becomes more diverse. It includes drilled stone axes, sickle inserts, asymmetric arrowheads, black-polished pottery with ornaments in the form of molded knobs, and various kinds of sacral objects. The number of metal products becomes more impressive, although the set of their categories is generally close to the early time.
In the late period of cultural development, as well as in the early one, ordinary, modest burials, with a small amount of inventory, prevailed. Rich burials, similar to those opened near the village of Novosvobodnaya, are rare.

The settlements of the Maikop culture are known much worse than the funerary monuments. The Galyugaev settlement on the middle Terek is the most studied [Korenevsky S. N., 1993]. Its cultural layer lies in the thickness of a low hill, stretched along the ancient floodplain of the Terek. During the excavations of this settlement, three ground dwellings of an oval-rounded shape were unearthed. The walls of dwellings are made of vertical posts, boards, twigs coated with clay. The remains of several open hearths were found on the earthen floor. A lot of dishes were found in the dwellings: pithoi, jugs, pots, bowls, vats (Fig. 42). Some of these dishes were made using a potter's wheel, the oldest device of its kind throughout Eastern Europe. In addition to dishes, weights for looms, grain graters, graters, sickle inserts were found. Metal items are represented by a bronze hoe and fragments of a dagger.

The economy of the Maykop tribes was based on a combination of hoe farming (hoes, grain graters) and house cattle breeding. No real cereals were found, but numerous bone remains expressively record the composition of the herd. It consisted of small and large cattle, pigs, horses.

The Maikop culture has a two-natural, North Caucasian-Anterior Asian character. Carriers took part in its genesis southern cultures, who advanced to the North Caucasus and mixed with the previous Maikop local population of the Eneolithic era. The local roots of culture are illustrated to the greatest extent by settlement materials. The richest burials with precious things that have Middle Eastern parallels indicate an alien component of its formation [Munchaev R. M., 1975; Munchaev R. M., 1994].

The neighbors of the Late Maikop population in the steppe part of the right bank of the Kuban were the tribes of the recently identified Novotitarovskaya culture [Gey A.N., 1991; Gay A. N., 2000]. It is known from burial mounds gravitating towards the floodplain of the Kuban and steppe rivers flowing into the eastern part of the Sea of ​​Azov. The number of burials in the mound varies from 1 to 10-15. A characteristic feature is the presence of two or three main graves under the embankment, located in a row along the north-south line. Inlet burials, i.e., dug in a finished mound, are arranged either in a row or in a ring around its center. The graves are represented by simple rectangular pits and pits with ledges and steps, approaching the shape of the catacombs. Thus, we are confronted here with extremely early cases of the construction of catacombs, the transition to which is observed everywhere in the steppe zone later, in the era of the Middle Bronze Age. In this kind of catacombs, the skeleton was placed, as a rule, in a crouched position on its side. It was covered with ocher and accompanied by grave goods bearing the features of late Maikop influences. So, certain varieties of pottery are close in shape to the Novosvobodnensky samples. Metal items and some elements of the posture of the buried also have features characteristic of the Novosvobodnaya complexes.

The most striking feature of the Novotitarovskaya culture is the widespread use of wheeled transport in the funeral practice in the form of massive wooden four-wheeled carts with disk-shaped, usually three-part wheels. These wagons were installed on the edge of the grave in a whole or disassembled form and apparently served to deliver the body of the deceased to the burial place. Such wagons drawn by oxen or oxen, apparently, were also widely used in the life of the New Titar tribes. During mobile forms of pastoralism, when part of the population moved behind the herds, they served as dwellings on wheels. Cattle breeding was based on the breeding of large and small cattle, horses. In coastal areas, it was supplemented by agriculture. Its existence is evidenced by the finds in the burials of large grain graters, pitho-shaped vessels for storing grain. There is even an image of a ral painted with red paint on a mat found in one of the graves [Gey A.N., 1991].

The presence of own metalworking is illustrated by the burial of a blacksmith-caster in the Lebedi I barrow group [Gey A.N., 1986]. The burial inventory includes a stone anvil, stone blacksmith hammers, a clay crucible for melting and two cradles for pouring metal, simple and compound molds for casting socketed axes and flat adzes (Fig. 43). Apparently, local metal production arose due to the connections of the Novotitarovka population with the Caucasus.

It should be borne in mind that the metallurgical influences of the Caucasus in the early Bronze Age extended far beyond the Kuban region. They had a decisive influence on the formation of metalworking in the northern zone of the CMP. Under the influence of Caucasian craftsmen, independent production centers and centers emerged in the south of Eastern Europe, which adopted all the main characteristics of the metallurgical achievements of the Maikop and Kuro-Arak tribes [Chernykh E.N., 1978b].

At the beginning of the III millennium BC. e. Caucasian copper-arsenic metal in the form of ingots and finished products appears in the steppe and forest-steppe of the Northern Black Sea region, where the Pit and Usatov, and later Catacomb and Poltavkin populations lived. E. N. Chernykh established that the Caucasian metal, the bearer of the processing traditions of which, apparently, were wandering masters, quickly conquers vast areas from the Right Bank of the Dnieper in the west to the Volga region in the east. As the results of spectral analyzes show, it was especially popular among the Yamnaya cultural and historical community, the history of which covers the time from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. until his last quarter. It should be remembered, however, that in some places the Yamnaya tribes survive until the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. and exist next to the population of the catacomb cultures of the Middle Bronze Age.

The Yamnaya tribes mastered the gigantic expanses of the Caspian-Black Sea steppes. Their monuments are known from the Southern Urals and the Volga region in the east to Moldavia, the Northern Balkans and even the Middle Danube region in the west (Fig. 33). On this vast territory, uniform in terms of types of pottery and burial rite, more than ten local variants of the pit community are distinguished.

The culture of the pit tribes is known to us mainly from the excavations of burial mounds. About 10,000 of them have been explored so far. The first burial mounds in the form of earthen hills over the burial places of ancient people appear in the steppe zone as early as the Eneolithic. But only the Yamnaya tribes gave their distribution a general character. Apparently, this is due to a change in the population's ideas about the other world, which assumed the exaltation of ancestors with the help of a particularly complex funeral ritual. This ritual is quite uniform throughout the territory developed by the Yamnaya tribes. Earth mounds cover grave pits, mostly rectangular in shape (Fig. 44). Most often, one deceased lies crouched in the pit - on his back or on his side, but sometimes an elongated position of the buried is also found. The pit is sometimes covered with wood or stone slabs. The bottoms of the graves and the bodies themselves, as a rule, are densely sprinkled with ocher (Merpert N. Ya., 1974).

The vast majority of pit burials are without inventory, and the finds known in rare cases are limited to vessels, flint arrows, scrapers, knives, bone awls and fishhooks, and bone pins with hammer-shaped heads (see Fig. 44). Sometimes in the graves there are items made of copper and copper-arsenic alloys. As a rule, they are confined to rich burials. Such burials are known in the Dnieper region. Recently, they have been discovered in the southern Urals. Of particular interest are the finds recently discovered in the Boldyrevka I burial ground excavated in the Orenburg region [Morgunova N. L., 2000]. Here, under one of the largest burial mounds, the body of a man lay on his right side. It was covered with a mat of organic fibers adorned with white bark appliqués in the form of unfolded bird wings. The head of the deceased was crowned with a "crown" of white bark. The inventory placed in the grave was laid around a disk of meteoric iron, sprinkled with ocher and, most likely, had a sacred character. It consisted of numerous metal objects: a copper adze plane with a welded meteoric iron blade, a chisel, an awl, a knife, a socketed spearhead and a dagger. The magnificent funeral ritual, the richness of the accompanying inventory indicate the high social status of the buried man. Perhaps he was the leader of a tribe or an alliance of tribes.

Pit ceramics are most often round-bottomed, the vessels are distinguished by ovoid outlines. Their ornamentation is simple and consists of notches located in horizontal zones, imprints of a comb stamp, imprints of an intertwined cord. At the final stages of the development of the community, flat-bottomed dishes appear (Fig. 45).

Rice. 44. Inventory of monuments of the Yamnaya cultural and historical community. 1 - scheme of the burial structure; 2 - bone pin with hammer-shaped head; 3, 4 - flint daggers; 5 - spear tip; 6 - flint knife; 7 - horn amulet; 8, 10 - stone axes-hammers; 9 - a necklace made of bone threads and pendants made of animal fangs.

The mobility of the Pit-pit population is evidenced by burials with wooden carts. Especially a lot of them are discovered in the steppes of Ukraine (Akkermen, Watchtower), although they are also known in Kalmykia. Carts come in two types: 1) a wagon with a body in the form of a box on two or four wheels; 2) a wagon with a van floor. The wagon of the second type, like that of the Novotitarovka population, could serve as a mobile dwelling. Bulls were usually harnessed to the wagons. In the last decade, bone objects were discovered in the burial mounds of Ukraine, which are considered by some researchers to be cheek-pieces [Kovaleva I.F., 1993]. This acknowledges the existence of harnessed horses among the Yamnaya population, which could be used for riding.

The spread of carts and horseback riding marked the beginning of a wider spread of mobile, nomadic forms of cattle breeding than in the Eneolithic. There is some debate about its specific forms. It seems most likely that the Pit nomadism was based on seasonal movements of the population along with the herds within the territories gravitating towards the river valleys. The herd was dominated by sheep, goats and cattle; a humble place belonged to a horse.

Settlements on the territory of the Yamnaya cultural-historical community are rare. In the east, in the ancient area of ​​the pit tribes, only temporary, seasonal sites are known. Their cultural layer is poor and in most cases mixed (Merpert N. Ya., 1974). Isolated stationary settlements with traces of long-term habitation are known mainly in the Dnieper region. Here, in the zone of contact between the Yamnaya tribes and the early agricultural population, they settled on the ground and switched to mixed agricultural and pastoral forms of economy. The most famous was the Mikhailovsky settlement on the Lower Dnieper (Lagodovska et al., 1962). Three layers have been discovered in the settlement: the first layer is associated with the pre-pit time, the second with the early pit, and the third with the late pit. The most interesting finds architectural structures late layer. The settlement in this period had complex fortifications. They consisted of stone walls up to three meters high and ditches. Inside the fence there were dwellings of two types: semi-dugouts of an oval shape and ground-based adobe rectangular buildings on a stone plinth. Flint items (scrapers, knives, arrowheads) and many copper items (awls, knives, chisels, adzes) were found in the cultural layer. Along with the bone remains of livestock, hoes and sickle inserts were found in the Mikhailovsky settlement. Agriculture certainly existed here, although it played a secondary role. Many researchers believe that the genetic roots of the Pit-pit population should be associated with the Khvalyn-Middle Stog tribes of the Eneolithic [Vasiliev IB, 1979; Turkish M.A., 1992]. In their view, the main impulse that led to the wide spread of the Yamnaya tribes in the south of Eastern Europe went from east to west. However, the process of formation of the Yamnaya community, ethnically heterogeneous in composition, included the complex interaction of other population groups of the Caspian-Black Sea steppes (Merpert N. Ya., 1974).

To identify the centers of metal production in the territory occupied by the Yamnaya tribes, mapping of metal products is of great importance, taking into account the chemical composition of the raw materials from which they are made. Now it is obvious that at least two hearths functioned in the pit area: the Dnieper - metalworking and the Volga-Ural - metallurgical. The first was located in the Dnieper region and, possibly, covered a significant part of the Right-Bank Ukraine and Moldova; the second operated in the Southern Urals, in the middle and lower Volga regions.

Rice. 46. ​​Products of the Dnieper metal-working hearth, which operated in the area of ​​the pit tribes. 1-4 - awls; 5-9, 13, 14 - daggers; 10-12 - razor knives; 15, 16 - jewelry; 17, 18 - tesla; 19-22 - socketed axes; 23 - casting mold for casting axes.

The Dnieper focus arose under the influence of cross impulses coming from the Balkans and the North Caucasus, although the role of the latter was decisive. Here, arsenic bronzes dominated in the production, their composition revealing a great similarity with the metal of the late stage of the Maikop culture [Chernykh E.N., 1966]. However, along with this, there is a metal close to the culture of Ezero. The metal products of this hearth are represented by double-edged daggers, razor knives, adzes, socketed axes, and awls (Fig. 46). Only chisels are missing from this traditional set of items for the CMP. Most of the pit artifacts from the Dnieper region have something in common in form with the finds of later monuments of the Maikop culture. However, their local production is not in doubt for three reasons. Firstly, the metallographic study revealed very specific ways of processing their metal, noticeably different from the Maikop ones. The most popular among pit craftsmen of the Dnieper region, the technological scheme of cold forming forging of cast tool blanks in the Maikop environment is completely unknown [Ryndina N.V., 1998a; Ryndina N.V., 1998b]. Secondly, in the late cultural strata of the Mikhailovsky settlement, in addition to finished metal products, tools and devices associated with the process of their processing were found. Thus, a large number of stone hammers and anvils for forging metal were found here. The nozzle can be considered a particularly significant find; his clay pipe was inserted into leather furs to force air into the copper-smelting furnace (Lagodovska et al., 1962). Thirdly, the presence of local metal production is confirmed by the discovery of foundry burials under barrows on Samarsky Island near Dnepropetrovsk and near the village. Upper Mayevka in the interfluve of the Orel and Samara, the left tributaries of the Dnieper [Kovaleva et al., 1977; Kovaleva I. F., 1979]. In both burials, in addition to blacksmith tools, clay double-leaf casting molds for casting socketed ax blanks were found.

The territory of another, Volga-Ural focus, practically coincided with the local variant of the pit community of the same name. The collection of his metal products is associated with the sites of the steppe and forest-steppe Trans-Volga and southern Cis-Urals (Fig. 47). Awls and chisels of this collection are marked by morphological originality. Unlike the Dnieper tools, the thickening-emphasis on their cuttings is not always present. Socket axes are also marked with a seal of originality: they have the shortest blade of all tools of this category known in the CMP.

The highly developed local metallurgical production is also evidenced by unique items from the burial grounds of the southern Urals, which have no analogues in other areas of the pit community (Fig. 47). These are a socketed chisel, a pickaxe, a two-edged hammer, a massive spear with an open bushing, an adze plane made of a copper rod with an iron blade at one end [Morgunova N. L., Kravtsov A. Yu., 1994].

Masters of the Volga-Ural metallurgical hearth very rarely use arsenic bronzes imported from the Caucasus in their production practice. Its products are unique. Most of the local products are forged and cast from pure copper. Its chemical composition corresponds to the oxidized copper ores of the Kargaly deposit, located 50 km from Orenburg. Studies carried out on the huge Kargaly ore field, 50 X 10 km in size, recorded here many thousands of ancient mines, adits, dumps of "waste rock" [Chernykh E.N., 1997c]. This oldest mining and metallurgical complex for the entire northern Eurasia began to function already in the pit time [Chernykh E.N., 2001]. The proof of this is not only geochemical data, but also archaeological ones. So, in the burial inventory of a number of pit mounds of the Volga-Urals, pieces of Kargaly ore were found. An argument, albeit an indirect one, in favor of its active use in local metal production is the burial of a young foundry worker in the Pershinsky kurgan on Kargaly (Chernykh et al., 2000). Apparently, the initial impetus for the development of local metallurgical activity was also received from the Caucasus. The fact is that some knives and axes produced in the Volga-Ural workshops have a completely Caucasian appearance.

Rice. 47. Production of the Volga-Ural metallurgical hearth, which operated in the area of ​​the Pit Tribes. 1-6 - awls; 7, 16 - bits; 8-15, 20, 32 - knives and daggers; 17-19 - tesla; 21 - hammer; 22-28 - socketed axes; 29 - hatchet-caller; 30 - adze plane with a wooden handle; 31 - spearhead; 33 - bracelet.

In the steppe zone of the North-Western Black Sea region in the early Bronze Age, there was another - Usatov - center of metalworking (Fig. 33). It is compared with the Usatov culture of the same name, although, apparently, it is more justified to speak not of a special culture, but of the Usatov local variant of the late Tripoli, which was strongly influenced by tribes of Caucasian origin and bearers of the Yamnaya culture [Zbenovich V. G., 1974].

Settlements and burial grounds of the Usatov type are scattered between the lower reaches of the Prut and Danube in the west and the lower reaches of the Southern Bug in the east (southern zone of Ukraine, south of Moldova, southeast of Romania). Settlements (Usatovo, Mayaki near Odessa, etc.) are located on the edges of high plateaus, along the banks of rivers and estuaries. Sometimes they are fortified with moats. Excavations revealed semi-dugouts and light ground dwellings. Pise houses, so characteristic of the early and middle Tripoli, were not found in the Usatov settlements [Dergachev V.A., 1980].

Much more often than settlements there are cemeteries of the Usatov type - burial mounds and soil [Patokova E.F., 1979; Dergachev V. A., Manzura I. V., 1991]. Often several burial grounds are concentrated in one place. In Usatovo there are two burial mounds and two earth burials, in Mayaki - one burial mound and one earth burial. Mounds up to 2.0-2.5 m high are surrounded by cromlechs at the base, which are rings made of stone slabs. Cromlechs often contain vertical stone slabs decorated with relief or incised images of people and animals. It is believed that these structures are associated with the cult of the sun. Inside the cromlech were rectangular grave pits (from one to five), which were often covered with stone blocks. They usually contain crouched corpses on the left side. Sometimes traces of red ocher are visible on the skull or leg bones of the buried. Quite a rich inventory is present in burial mounds: tableware with paintings made in black, brown, and red paints; kitchen utensils with cord ornaments; metal implements, weapons and ornaments; flint and bone tools (Fig. 48). Particularly interesting are clay anthropomorphic images in the form of figurines with cubic bodies topped with a long, forward-stretched neck with a flattened head.

Soil burial grounds were built simultaneously with barrows. The funeral ritual here is the same as in the burial mounds, however, the inventory is extremely poor. The absence of complex stone and earthen structures, a modest set of funeral gifts make us think that ordinary members of the community were buried in earthen graves, while the mounds were intended for the burial of the elite of tribal groups - leaders, military leaders, tribal elders.

Rice. 48. Finds from Usatovo settlements and cemeteries [Zbenovich V. G., 1971]. 1-7 - vessels; 8-10 - flint tools; 11-13 - tools and ornaments made of metal; 15-17 - clay sculpture; 18, 19 - bone tools.

The economy of the Usatov tribes was dominated by cattle breeding. It, apparently, had a semi-nomadic character and was based on the breeding of sheep and horses. Agriculture was known, but did not play a significant role in the economy [Zbenovich VG, 1974]. The production of products not related to agriculture and animal husbandry was carried out on the basis of domestic crafts. The trend towards the emergence of a specialized craft was manifested only in the development of metalworking. Direct evidence of its existence is the discovery at the Usatovsky settlement of a crucible with traces of copper smelting, as well as stone tools for forging and crushing ore.

The study of the typological originality of local metal products plays an important role in the reconstruction within the framework of the Usatov culture of the center of metalworking. Among the set of tools traditional for the CMP (tetrahedral awls, flat adzes, chisels with an extension-stop), there are no socketed axes and knives with a handle. Knives and daggers in the heel part have a trapezoidal protrusion with small holes for attaching a false handle made of bone or wood (Fig. 48).

The arsenic bronzes from which the Usat items were made are no longer associated with Caucasian, but most likely with Balkan and Aegean sources. There are separate examples of the use of "pure" copper, which, apparently, also goes back to the ore regions of the Balkan-Carpathian region. In addition to tools and weapons, the Usatov collections include a significant series of jewelry - rings, spiral pendants, tubular threads. Many of them are made of silver wire.

A metallographic study of the Usatov bronze objects showed that they were made using the casting technique in double-sided molds, and then finalized by forging. Forging not only gave the tools a final look, but also, as a rule, strengthened their working edges [Ryndina N.V., 1971; Konkova L.V., 1979]. A technology different from the bulk of the finds was discovered by large Usatov daggers. For a long time it was believed that after casting, they were covered with silver foil, since their surface was distinguished by a silvery color. A metallographic study established that the illusion of "silvering" was created by arsenic, the concentration of which in the near-surface layer of thin castings increased due to delamination (segregation) of the copper-arsenic alloy cast into a cold mold. A similar technology for obtaining silver coatings was mastered by the Anatolian craftsmen of the early Bronze Age. It is likely that large Usatov daggers came to the North-Western Black Sea region from Asia Minor [Ryndina N.V., Konkova L.V., 1982].

The integration of the late Tripoli population with alien tribes of the early Bronze Age led to the formation of another cultural group, which was named Sofievsky after a burial ground excavated near Kyiv. Sofiyivsky monuments attract our attention with a set of metal things, which are also usually considered within the framework of the CMP. Settlements are known on the right and left banks of the Middle Dnieper and four burial grounds (Sofiyivka, Chernin, Krasny Khutor, Zavalovka). The settlements are small, located mainly on the capes of the Dnieper loess terraces. They are characterized by recessed oval dwellings (Kruts V.A., 1977). Ground burial grounds differ sharply in rite from the southern, Usatov necropolises. They contain cremations: burnt bone remains are placed in earthenware urns or poured into the bottom of small pits. Next to them is the grave goods: pots and amphorae covered with brown or red engobe; flint sickles on large curved plates; stone battle axes-hammers; copper tools and decorations (Fig. 49). The peculiarity of copper finds makes us think that in the Middle Dnieper region there was a special center of metalworking of the CMP. The set of tools includes flat adzes, chisels, awls, both round and square. Knives-daggers are presented both with cuttings and without cuttings. Among the decorations are tubular threads, beads, lamellar bracelets. In the Sofievsky hearth, products made of metallurgical "pure" copper dominate, the source of which is not entirely clear. EN Chernykh considers it likely to be related to the ore deposits of the Carpathian region.

Rice. 49. Finds from Sofiyevo sites [Zakharuk Yu. M., 1971]. 1, 6, 9, 10 - vessels; 2-4 - metal tools; 5, 7, 8, 11 - flint and stone tools.

Concluding the characterization of the Early Bronze Age within the CMP, it should be emphasized once again that in the system of its centers in Eastern Europe, there was a different impact of three mining and metallurgical regions: the Caucasus, the Balkan-Carpathian and the Urals. The spread of Caucasian influences is clearly traced along the paths of movement of metal and partly finished products: one path went along the coasts of the Azov and Black Seas to the Northern Black Sea region, the other, less intense, along the Volga to the Southern Urals. The influence of the Balkan-Carpathian region is less pronounced, although its metal raw materials reached the North-Western Black Sea region and the Middle Dnieper. The role of the Southern Urals in the development of metallurgy in the early Bronze Age looks even more modest. Ural copper, associated with the Kargaly ore complex, diverged only within the Volga and Ural regions. Thus, the direction and extent of trade and exchange contacts in the III millennium BC. e. in the south of Eastern Europe were largely determined by the movement of metal from various ore sources.

On this day:

• Days of death
• 1898 Died Gabriel de Mortillet- French anthropologist and archaeologist, one of the founders of modern scientific archeology, creator of the Stone Age classification; also considered one of the founders french school anthropology.