What changes occurred in the climate of the Bronze Age. History of the Bronze Age. Late Bronze Age within the eastern zone of the European metallurgical province

At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The collapse of the Circumpontian metallurgical province is completed. The entire previous system of cultural and production relations in Northern Eurasia is being rebuilt. The boundaries of new ethnocultural formations and production systems took on completely different shapes in the Late Bronze Age. Three metallurgical provinces are associated with the spaces of the former northern block of the Circumpontic province (the Balkan-Carpathian region, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus): Eurasian, European and Caucasian. The centers of metallurgy and metalworking in the south of Eastern and partly Western Siberia were included in the system of the Central Asian province, and the southern regions of Central Asia - in the system of the Iranian-Afghan province. These processes were accompanied by the disappearance of old cultures, active migrations of large groups of the population, the formation of new cultures and communities, which radically changed the entire course of ethnocultural history in the northern zone of Eurasia.

The formation and development of Late Bronze Age cultures were largely associated with landscape and climatic changes. The early and final phases of the development of these crops occur against the backdrop of particularly sharp climate aridization.

In the Late Bronze Age, there was a significant expansion of the zone of cultures with productive forms of economy, especially in the northern, northeastern and eastern directions. The world of metalliferous cultures reaches the European North and covers the vast expanses of Northern and Central Asia. Throughout this entire zone, the technology of making tin bronzes as the leading type of copper-based alloys and thin-walled casting of tools and weapons was quickly and widely spreading. Hundreds of new deposits of copper and tin ore were discovered here. In the Donetsk Ridge, in the Caucasus and the Urals, in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, Sayano-Altai, the Baikal region and Transbaikalia, the scale of mining and the production of copper and bronze increased significantly. In the famous Kargaly mines in the Southern Urals and in the copper ore deposits of Dzhezkazgan and Kenkazgan in Kazakhstan, several million tons of ore were mined over the 3-4 centuries, from which a huge amount of copper was smelted. Trade and exchange of metal, as in previous eras, were the most important factor in the development of cultures of the Late Bronze Age.

During this era, in most of the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe - from the Dnieper and Seversky Donets in the west to the Minusinsk Basin in the east - a pastoral economic and cultural type of producing economy was formed. The basis for the livelihood of the cultures of this zone was, first of all, pastoralism, but not agriculture, as was previously believed. The endless and rich grass stands of the steppe and forest-steppe made it possible to graze a huge number of large and small cattle and horses, as well as create a sufficient supply of feed for the winter.

Transhumance and semi-nomadic cattle breeding was practiced mainly in the mountainous and semi-desert regions of the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Middle and Central Asia. Agriculture, and on a limited scale, appeared in this part of Eurasia only at the end of the Bronze Age. The cultures of the Northern Black Sea region, the Caucasus and the south of Central Asia inherited the agricultural and pastoral economic and cultural type that was formed here at the dawn of the Early Metal Age. The northern forest-steppe and southern forest zone are part of a diversified economy with a dynamic combination of producing and appropriating activities. The latter remain the basis for the livelihoods of the population of the deep forest and taiga regions of Eastern Europe and Siberia, differing only in the mobile or sedentary lifestyle of societies of hunters and fishermen.

The Late Bronze Age is a time of active ethno- and cultural-genetic processes in Northern Eurasia. Many archaeologists and linguists believe that it is in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe that the further division of the Indo-European language family takes place - the separation of the Indo-Iranian group, identified in modern science with the population of the Srubnaya and Andronovo communities. In Western and Central Europe, another block of cultures is being formed (the so-called cultures of burial fields or cultures of burial urn fields), with which the origins of the German-Baltic-Slavic proto-linguistic unity are connected. An array of Proto-Finnish-Ugric peoples was concentrated in the forest belt of Eastern Europe and Western Siberia. The border between forest and forest-steppe was a natural boundary that separated and united the cultures of the ancient Finno-Ugrians and Indo-Iranians. The ancestral homeland of the peoples of the Altai language family was in Southern Siberia, in the Sayano-Altai regions. The stages of the history of the North Caucasian language family, the ancestral home of which is localized by linguists in the Western Asian region, remain debatable.

In the ethnic history of the Old World, a colossal role belongs to the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe, which were the ancestral homeland of the peoples of the Indo-Iranian language group. It is with the bearers of the latter that it is rightful to identify the term “Aryans, Aryans,” which served as the self-name of a certain Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European tribes, which later divided into Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian branches. Many scientists associate the death of the ancient Indian civilizations of Mohenjodaro and Harappa with the invasion of the northern steppe peoples. The resettlement and infiltration of speakers of Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian dialects was a long process
a process that was not accompanied by a change in the indigenous population in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Hindustan and Iran. At the same time, the alien tribes adopted the lifestyle and culture of the local peoples. Nevertheless, migration routes are archaeologically recorded in the material culture of the aboriginal population. This is, first of all, the appearance of molded ceramics, metal products, funeral complexes, new subjects and images in rock art, characteristic of the northern steppe peoples, as well as the spread of wheeled transport and the cult of the horse.

Echoes of active migration processes on the territory of Eurasia at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age are recorded in Hittite documents, Vedic texts, and the Iranian Avesta. They brought to us the first written information about the ancient Indo-Aryans and Indo-Iranians, which, along with linguistic data, are used to reconstruct the vocabulary associated with the material and spiritual culture of the tribes of the Late Bronze Age. According to research, these tribes were engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture; special importance was attached to horse breeding; Chariots were used in warfare. They had developed metallurgy and other crafts, a complex social-hierarchical structure of society, and the concept of “king” was used. The title of ruler meant literally "ruler of the claws." The term "chariot-mounted" was used to refer to the privileged military nobility. A class of priests emerged, which regulated the system of legal, moral and ethical norms through complex rites and rituals.

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE EURASIAN METALLURGICAL PROVINCE

The Late Bronze Age within Russia and the former USSR is associated with the formation and development of the Eurasian Metallurgical Province (EAMP). The period of existence of the cultures included in it was the XVIII/XVII - IX/VIII centuries. BC. (within the framework of traditional chronology). In its heyday, the territory of the EAMP extended from Left Bank Ukraine in the west to Sayan-Altai in the east, from the foothills of the Caucasus and the oases of Central Asia in the south to the forest regions of Siberia and Eastern Europe in the north.

The creation of such a colossal system was due to the industrial and ethnocultural consolidation of mobile pastoral tribes of the steppe and forest-steppe and the settled population of the forest zone. The closest and longest interaction between forest (proto-Finno-Ugric) and steppe (Indo-Iranian) peoples occurred precisely in the Late Bronze Age. Most likely, it was at this time that there was a massive introduction of vocabulary related to metallurgy, cattle breeding and agriculture into the languages ​​of the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples, and the proto-Finno-Ugric language into Indo-Iranian speech.

The following categories of metal products are becoming common and most used in the main centers of the Eurasian province: 1) axes; 2) celts with lateral and frontal ears; 3) spear tips with and without slots on the wings of the pen; 4) socketed and stalked arrowheads; 5) double-edged knives and daggers with flat and rod-shaped handles with and without stop; 6) sleeved and flat adzes and chisels; 7) massive cleaver sickles; 8) various jewelry (bracelets, pendants, rings, hryvnias, etc.).

Inventory of the Abashevo cultural and historical community:
1 - plan of the Pepkinsky mound; 2 - reconstruction of the appearance of the Abashevo man; 3 - options for women's hats; 4 - threads and plaques; 5 - spectacle pendant; 6-12 - ceramics; 13 - clay mold for casting an ax; 14 - drilled ax; 15, 16 - wedge-shaped ax and chisel; 17-19- arrowheads; 20- axe; 21, 22 - knives; 23- plow; 24, 25 - flat and sleeved adzes; 26 - spear tip; 27 - clay crucible; 28, 29 - bracelets; 30 - hryvnia; 31 - harpoon (3-5, 20-26, 28-31 - copper and arsenic bronze; 14-18 - stone; 19 - bone)

In the development of cultures and centers of metalworking in the Eurasian province, several chronological periods are outlined - the phase of addition (XVIII/XVTI-XVI centuries BC); the formation in the steppe and forest-steppe of the Timber-Andronovo block of crops and the stabilization of the main production centers (XVI-XV/XIV centuries BC); restructuring of the cultures of the Srubna-Andronovo world and relocation of the main centers of metalworking to the forest and forest-steppe zones (XV/XIV-XII/XI centuries BC); the last phase is associated with the growing processes of destruction and collapse of the Eurasian province (XII/XI-IX/VIII centuries BC).

In the early phase of the EAMP, two large blocks of crops and production centers emerge. The first of them is associated with the Babinskaya, Abashevskaya, Sintashta, Petrovskaya and early Srubnaya cultures. The activity of the metallurgical and metalworking centers of the block covered large areas of the Eastern European steppes and forest-steppes, the Southern Trans-Urals, Northern and Central Kazakhstan.

The second block of cultures of producing centers is localized in the mountains and foothills of the Sayano-Altai, Western Siberian forest-steppe, Trans-Ural taiga, forests of Eastern Europe and is associated primarily with the Seima-Turbino monuments.
The ore base of the first block of deposits included both previously exploited deposits of cuprous sandstones in the Urals, as well as newly developed primary deposits of the Southern Trans-Urals, Mugodzhar, and northern and central regions of Kazakhstan. It is noteworthy that the Caucasus ceased to serve as the most important source of copper and bronze for the steppe and forest-steppe cultures of Eastern Europe, as it was in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Arsenic bronze, still noticeable in the Abashevsky and Sintashta hearths, as well as silver began to be smelted in the Urals (Tash-Kazgan and Nikolskoye mines). The Seima-Turbino centers used tin and tin-arsenic bronzes. The appearance of these easy-flowing alloys became possible with the discovery and beginning of development of the richest copper and tin ore sources in the north of the Altai mountainous country. In subsequent phases of development of the Eurasian province, Rudny Altai will become the most important supplier of tin, a precious alloy of antiquity, to trans-Eurasian trade routes.

In the western centers of the EAMP, the production of tools and weapons continues, in which one can easily recognize the traditional set characteristic of the production of the previous Circumpontic province: socketed axes, flat and grooved adzes and chisels, handle double-edged knives and daggers, forged spear tips, etc. The production of sickles begins -cutters and lamellar sickle-shaped tools, the first cast objects with a “blind” (i.e., not through) sleeve (spear tips) appear. In the Seima-Turbino centers, socketed axes-celts, celts-scapulas, adzes, spear and dart tips, as well as curved-backed single-edged and lamellar double-edged knives and daggers are cast.

Among the first block of cultures and production centers of the early Late Bronze Age, the leading role belonged to the Abashevo cultural and historical community. The name comes from the village of Abashevo in Chuvashia, near which mounds of this type were first studied. The area is predominantly forest-steppe spaces of Eastern Europe from the Seversky Donets in the west to the interfluve of the Urals and Tobol in the east, in the south - with access to the steppe to the bend of the Volga and Don; individual burial grounds are known in the forest zone. In general, the Don-Volga, Middle Volga and Ural cultures are distinguished.

Monuments of the Abashevo community date back to the first third of the 2nd millennium BC. There are early and late periods in its development. However, in the center of the Russian Plain, there is also a layer of proto-Abashev antiquities dating back to the Middle Bronze Age. Its formation took place in the interaction of the southern cultures of the pit-catacomb circle and the northern ones - the area of ​​​​battle axes and corded ceramics. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Abashevites settle to the east (Southern Urals) and northeast (Middle Volga region). The late period is characterized by active contacts with the population of the Early Srub (Pokrovskaya) and Sintashta cultures. The monuments are represented by settlements, burial grounds, ore workings (Tash-Kazgan and Nikolskoye), treasures of metal products (Verkhne-Kizilsky, Krasnoyarsky, Dolgaya Griva).

The Abashevites usually settled along the banks of rivers, on elevated capes, on dunes, and rarely on the tops of rocky outcrops (Urals). Settlements with a thick cultural layer and the remains of ground, weakly deepened, less often dugout and semi-dugout buildings, sometimes surrounded by ditches, have been identified in the Don basin and in the Southern Urals. The buildings were constructed using frame (pillar) construction; roof - gable or hipped; inside there is a hearth or several open hearths, utility and sacrificial pits, and sometimes a well.

Burials - from one to several - took place under round or oval mounds. In the Don region and in the Samara Volga region, burials in earlier mounds, as well as ground burial grounds, are known. In the Middle Volga and Oka, mounds were sometimes surrounded by ring ditches and pillar fences; in the Southern Urals, stone fences were built. The burial grounds are mostly small; large - up to 50 (Pelengersky 1) and even 100 (Podkletnensky) mounds - are an exception. Burials took place in rectangular or oval-shaped pits, less often in chambers with wooden or stone lining of the walls and sometimes with a ceiling made of logs, blocks or slabs of stone. The buried - single, less often in pairs, rows and collective - were laid on their backs with their arms bent, sometimes on their left side, in a slightly flexed position. There are known cases of dismembered and partial skeletons, as well as cenotaphs. The buried were accompanied by ceramics, copper and silver jewelry, sometimes knives and awls, stone and bone items.

Among the Abashevo monuments, the single Pepkinsky mound in the Volga region (Mari El) stands out. Three burials were discovered under a low oval mound. One of them amazed researchers with its size and the picture that appeared after clearing. At the bottom of the trench (10.2 x 1.6 x 0.65-0.7 m) with a wooden ceiling and birch bark covering the bottom rested the remains of 27 skeletons and two separately placed skulls. All belonged to men who died violent deaths and were buried in a mass grave. Almost every skeleton showed signs of severe trauma and mortal wounds - chopped and shot damage inflicted by a copper ax and flint arrowheads. Some skulls bear traces of incisions left, as anthropologists assume, during scalping. One of the cores (a blacksmith-foundry) was accompanied by a unique set of tools (a clay mold for casting axes, crucibles, stone anvils, a hammer, hammers and abrasives).

Inventory of “elite” late Abashevo burials:
1-5 - ceramics; 6-8 - bone cheekpieces; 9, 10 - stone arrowheads; 11 - ax; 12, 13 - spear tips; 14 - knife; 15 - adze; 16 - pommel-spatula made of bone; 17 - stone mace; 18 - bone buckle (11-15 - copper and bronze)

Only at the late stage of the Abashevo community in the Middle Don region do burials with characteristic military equipment, sacrifices of horses, dogs, and small cattle appear (Kondrashkinsky, Selezni 2). Apparently, these are the graves of representatives of the elite of society - leaders, priests and their immediate circle. They were accompanied by a specific set of signs of power, namely: stone maces, bone pommels-spatulas, copper battle axes, spearheads, knives-daggers, a chariot set (bone stitched and disc-shaped cheekpieces, belt distributors, belt buckles).

The material culture of the Abashevo population is original. Ceramics are represented by flat-bottomed pots, jars, and bowls with an admixture of shells in the dough. The bell-shaped and sharp-ribed vessels with geometric ornamentation, especially magnificent on funerary vessels, are original. Many metal tools were found - narrow-butted axes, flat adzes, spearheads with an open socket, double-edged knives with crosshairs and interception, weakly curved sickle-shaped tools, fishing hooks and harpoons. Jewelry made of copper, silver and billon gives a bright color to the culture: bracelets, spectacle pendants made of wire, temple pendants with 1.5 turns, hryvnias, plaques, threaded spirals made of a thin plate, but above all - cast sewn-on plaques-rosettes - a characteristic ethnographic a sign of Abashevo women's costume, especially the headdress. Stone (arrowheads, axes, hammers, pestles, anvils, etc.), bone (cheek-pieces with monolithic and inset tenons, buckles, clasps, spade pommels, arrowheads, etc.) and clay (crucibles, wheel models) products are unique. .

The life support system of the Abashev tribes was based on pastoralism, metallurgy and metalworking and was supplemented by other branches of economic activity: hunting, fishing, home crafts and gathering. There is no direct evidence of agricultural occupation (i.e. remains of cultivated cereals).

The activities of the Don metalworking and South Ural metallurgical centers are connected with the Abashevo community. The second of them was the basic one and provided the population of the entire community with metal. Smelting and processing of “pure” and arsenic copper, as well as silver and billons, was carried out in specialized centers (Beregovsky, Tyubyaksky, etc.) in the bend of the river. Belaya and the foothills of the Urals, rich in forests.

In the processes of cultural genesis of the Late Bronze Age, the Abashevo community - along with the Seima-Turbino community - played a pivotal role. In the area of ​​this community, a pastoral economic and cultural type and stereotypes of metallurgy and metalworking technology were formed, which took root in the steppe and forest-steppe of Eastern Europe, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan in the subsequent phases of the development of the Eurasian metallurgical province. The historical destinies of the Don-Volga and Ural Abashevo cultures are directly related to the formation of steppe and
forest-steppe cultures of the Volga-Ural region - Sintashta, early Timber and Petrovskaya.

At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the Babin culture played an important role in cultural and historical processes in large areas of steppe and forest-steppe from the Danube to the Volga. Due to its characteristic ceramics with ridges, it is also called the Multi-Wall Pottery culture. It is represented by hundreds of settlements and burial mounds, as well as treasures. It is assumed that among them is the famous Borodino (Bessarabian) treasure near Odessa. The core of the culture is in the Dnieper-Donets interfluve, and its origins are in the later cultures of the Pit-Catacomb world, as well as the area of ​​battle axes and corded ceramics. The historical fate of the Babinskaya culture is connected with the formation of monuments of the Srubnaya and Sabatinovskaya cultures of this region.

Cultural and historical processes in the center of the Eurasian steppe belt in the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. associated with the transformation of the late Pit-Catacomb and Abashevo antiquities. They led to the formation of the Sintashta, as well as the Petrovka and early Srubnaya cultures.

The Sintashta culture, named after the eponymous complex of monuments in the south of the Chelyabinsk region, stands out among the steppe block of cultures and production centers of the early Late Bronze Age with a number of striking features. Its range is compact - it is a small area (400×200 km) along the eastern slope of the Ural ridge. About 20 fortified centers are known here (sometimes they are wrongfully called proto-cities) with corresponding surroundings (burial grounds, sanctuaries, settlements); the most famous are Sintashta, Arkaim, Ustye in the Chelyabinsk region and Alandskoye in the Orenburg region. The round or rectangular shape of defensive walls and ditches and the radial structure of densely built blocks give these centers the appearance of fortresses, more reminiscent of southern urbanized villages (Altyn-Depe, etc.) than ordinary steppe ones. The dispute about whether the Sintashta settlements were fortresses, shelters, sacred, metallurgical or trade centers is far from resolved. Most likely, they were multifunctional. Dwellings are built of clay and log frames, sometimes mud bricks. In the depths of the dwelling there was a well, a hearth, and utility pits.

The Sintashta burial mounds and ground burial grounds (Sintashta, Crooked Lake, Bolshekaragansky) are located on the edge of the terrace or on the watershed at the confluence of small rivers. Burials in the mounds are located linearly or in a circle. In some cases they overlap each other, forming tiered complexes. Burials - individual or collective - were made in ground pits, pits, catacombs, and sometimes in wooden chambers covered with logs. The predominant position of the buried was weakly crouched on the left side; an extended position on the back with legs bent at the knees was also recorded.

The militarized nature of Sintashta society is noteworthy. Extraordinary burials are known that contain chariot complexes (remains of war chariots, dug-in wheels, bone cheekpieces). Often they were accompanied by the burial of 1-3 pairs of horses in the grave itself or in a special compartment. The male burials contain numerous weapons (copper and bronze battle axes, spearheads, daggers, stone maces, arrowheads, etc.). They contain many tools (flat and grooved adzes and chisels, plate and sickle-shaped tools, knives, awls, fishhooks and harpoons made of copper and bronze, stone hammers, abrasives, etc.), as well as jewelry and ceramics (pots with a wide neck and sharp-edged banks). Ornaments in the form of grooves, triangles, rhombuses, and meanders covered the entire vessel or most of it. There are two groups of vessels in size: small, with a volume of up to 7 liters, and large, with a volume of 8 to 50 liters. The first ones were tableware, while the larger ones were used to store food and water and prepare food.

Sintashta culture:
1 - women’s headdress (bronze, silver, beads, stone)’, 2 - bead; 3 - mace; 4, 11, 13-16 - ceramics; 5 - pommel-spatula made of bone; 6-9 - arrowheads; 10 - ax; 12 - bone cheekpiece (2, 3, 6-10 stone)

The Sintashta culture is characterized by a high level of development of homestead and transhumance cattle breeding, metallurgy and metalworking. The main categories of products from the Sintashta metallurgical center were manufactured according to Circumpontian stereotypes. For the casting of blanks and subsequent forging of tools and weapons, mainly low-alloy arsenic bronze, as well as “pure” copper, were used. A small part of the objects (knives and jewelry) are made of tin bronze and billon. The same alloy recipes and level of technology are characteristic of the territorially close Ural Abashevo centers.

Reconstruction of the burial chamber (Sintashta burial ground):
in the lower chamber there is a funeral cart with the remains of the deceased, in the middle chamber there is a burial
in the top there are burials of sacrificial animals, on top of the chamber there is a sacrificial fire and a mound mound

The nature of the funeral rite, the presence of fortified centers with complex fortifications, and craft specialization suggest that the Sintashta tribes had a developed social structure. Three social groups are outlined: warriors, priests and ordinary community members.

The transformation of cultural formations in the Asian steppe at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age is certainly associated with the initial Western impulse, as a result of which the post-Neolithic population groups of this vast region adopted new economic and social stereotypes. The result was the formation of the Andronovo cultural and historical community. The name was given after the burial ground near the village of Andronovo in the Minusinsk Basin. This community consists of two independent cultures - Alakul and Fedorovskaya, occupying different territories and at the same time a vast common space, having peculiar features of funeral rituals, ceramics, types of metal tools. Archaeologists sometimes classify monuments of the early stage of the Alakul culture as a special Peter the Great culture.

Metal products of the Sintashta culture:
1 - spear tip; 2 - battle ax; 3, 4 - flat adze and sleeved chisel; 5,6 - sickle-shaped tools; 7, 8 - arrowheads; 9 - fishing hook; 10-12 - knives; 13 - spectacle pendant

Monuments of the Peter the Great type were first studied in the village. Petrovka on the river Ishim in northern Kazakhstan - hence the name of the culture. Its origins are in the Southern Trans-Urals and adjacent areas of Kazakhstan. The resettlement of Peter's tribes to the east was stimulated by the discovery and development of the richest copper ore deposits in the Trans-Urals and Kazakhstan, which from that time on would become the basis for the producing centers of the Eurasian province.

Petrovsky settlements were sometimes fortified with clay ramparts and ditches (Petrovka 2, Novonikolskoye 1, Kulevchi 3). Most of the villages had a pronounced metallurgical specialization. Evidence of this is a significant series of copper and bronze tools and production residues (slags, ingots, splashes, crucibles and flasks, foundry molds, scrap products).

Adults were buried under low earthen mounds (Petrovka, Verkhnyaya Alabuga). Children's burials were carried out outside the mounds. The mound covered one or more graves (up to 30). The buried were accompanied by rich grave goods - weapons, jewelry, parts of war chariots, as well as sacrificial animals (horses). The deceased rested on their left or right side, sometimes in an extended position on their back. In rare cases, women were buried in large central pits with a rich and varied set of jewelry, including luxurious leather-based braids.

Ceramics of the Petrovskaya culture are represented by flat-bottomed pots and jars, sometimes with a rib at the top or profiled. Ornaments in the form of triangles and rhombuses, horizontal zigzags and lines are applied in the upper and bottom parts of the vessels, rarely over the entire surface. The inventory includes stone maces, axes and arrowheads, bone cheekpieces and arrowheads. Metal weapons and tools are represented by battle axes, spearheads, flat and socketed adzes, chisels and hooks, sickle-shaped tools, knives, awls and needles. Various decorations. Among them, the specifically Peter's type are cross-shaped pendants and overlays. The tools are made mainly of pure copper, weapons and decorations are made of tin bronzes.

The eastern impulse for the formation of the Eurasian province is associated with the spread of monuments of the Seima-Turbino type in the forest and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia - from Sayano-Altai to Northern Finland. These monuments include 6 large ground necropolises (Rostovka, Satyga, Turbino, Ust-Vetluga, Seyma and Reshnoye), small and conventional burial grounds, single burials in the area of ​​foreign cultural cemeteries (Sopka 2), burial of a shamanic set (Galich treasure), a sanctuary in Kaninskaya cave on Pechora, isolated finds of bronze weapons and foundry molds. All major necropolises are confined to large waterways, often at the mouths of large rivers. However, settlements that could be associated with these burial grounds are still unknown.

In most graves, human remains are missing or not preserved; perhaps some of these graves are cenotaphs. Ceramics were rarely placed in them. Burials of blacksmiths and foundry workers stand out (Rostovka, Sopka 2, Satyga). The grave goods are of a distinct military nature (bronze celt axes, spearheads, knives, daggers, coins, stone arrowheads, leather and bone armor and shields, etc.), which allows us to consider the Seima-Turbino burial grounds as military necropolises. The very forms of metal weapons and tools, bone plate armor, and jade jewelry were previously completely unknown in most cultures of Northern Eurasia. Casting made it possible to decorate axes with relief belts, triangles and rhombuses, and daggers and spearheads with sculptural figures of animals and people. Daggers belong to weapons of princely rank - each of them is unique. Their handles with figures and heads of animals (horses, argali, bulls, moose, snakes) and humans were cast using lost wax models. The knife from Rostovka has a sculptural top molded onto it - a figure of a horse and a skier holding it by the reins. Unique jade jewelry was found in the necropolises - rings, bracelets, beads, not typical for other cultures of the Eurasian province.

Inventory of the Turbinsky burial ground:
1,2 - jade and bronze bracelets; 3-5 - arrowheads; 6-8, 13 - insert knives; 9- suspension; 10, 11 - Celts; 12, 14 - axes; 15-18- spear tips; 19 - adze; 20 - sickle-shaped weapon; 21-23 - knives and dagger (3 8, 13, 14 - stone; 16, 18 - billon; 9-12, 15, 17,
19 23 - bronze)

In the Turbinsky burial ground (now within the city of Perm), 10 clearly recorded burials and 101 conventional ones were discovered. 80-90 single finds have also been identified, which can be associated with both graves (including cenotaphs) and sacrificial complexes. Groupings of graves are outlined in the necropolis area. More than 3,000 objects were found here, mainly flint (arrowheads, knives, inserts for composite tools, scrapers, staples, plates) and metal (celts, axes, spearheads, knives and daggers, coins, bracelets, temple rings, pendants) items, as well as 36 jade rings.

Inventory of the Rostovkinsky burial ground:
1, 4, 7, 8 - knives; 2, 9 - awls; 3- chisel; 5, 6 - ceramics; 10, 11 - daggers; 12-15 - spear tips; 16, 17 - celts (1-4, 7, 8, 10-17 - bronze, 9 - bone and bronze)

In the Rostovka burial ground, located on the southern outskirts of Omsk, 38 ground graves and a number of accumulations of things outside the graves were discovered. Burials were made in subrectangular pits. The funeral rites are varied - deposition of a corpse, burning of a corpse on the side with the placement of charred bones in a grave pit, burials without skulls, burial of a skull. Even in ancient times, many burials were subjected to destruction and desecration, probably with the aim of causing irreparable damage to the “enemy” - they dug up the grave, smashed the skulls, stirred up the upper part of the body, and threw the remains out of the pit. At the same time, the inventory, including bronze weapons, gold, jade, lapis lazuli and crystal rings and beads, remained untouched. Talc and clay casting molds were found in two graves. All ceramics were found outside the graves.

Galich treasure found near the village. Turovskoye in the Kostroma region, contained mainly things of ritual and cult purpose - a dagger with a snake-headed handle, curved lancet knives, figurines of idols crowned with masks, masks-masks, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures, “noisy” jewelry, etc. It is assumed that this a set of things that accompanied the burial of a shaman, or a cenotaph with cult clothing and the corresponding attributes of shamanic ritual practice.

Kaninskaya cave is located in the upper reaches of the river. Malaya Pechora in the Komi Republic. Sacrifices were performed in the depths of the grotto. These include damaged copper and bronze knives and daggers, but mainly flint and bone arrowheads.

Monuments of the Seima-Turbino type are considered as a kind of transcultural phenomenon: they are distributed over vast areas surrounded by many cultures, contacts with which were obvious, but they do not have their own strictly defined territory. The mobility, dynamism, and aggressiveness of the carriers of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon is obvious - from the stage of formation of this culture at the very beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. and its rapid advance to the west and northwest until its extinction.

Two components formed the basis of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. The first was localized in the steppes, forest-steppes and foothills of Altai and is associated with the tribes of metallurgists and horse breeders (Eluninskaya, Loginovskaya, Krotovo and other cultures). It was in this Altai environment that fundamentally new examples of socketed weapons and images of art (horses, bulls, rams, camels, etc.) arose. The second component - Sayan - goes back to the mobile hunters and fishermen of the southern zone of the East Siberian taiga, known from the monuments of the Glazkov, Shivers and other cultures of the Baikal region and the Angara basin. The bearers of these cultures achieved perfection in the manufacture of flint, jade and bone implements; They also knew bronze casting, making, in particular, the simplest forms of double-edged plate blades, scraper knives, and files. They brought all these achievements, as well as images of the taiga world (snake, elk, bear, etc.) into the culture of the Seima-Turbino tribes. The organic fusion of the Altai and Sayan components into a single culture probably occurred in the forest-steppe foothills between the Ob and Irtysh.

The transitions and migrations of the Seima-Turbino tribes were rapid. The first stage took place in Western Siberia. Most likely, the first clashes with the Peter the Great tribes in the Irtysh forest-steppe forced the Seima-Turbino groups to move towards the Urals along more northern routes. Upon reaching the Urals, the Abashevo component is included in the Seima-Turbino populations. The Eastern European stage was characterized by different directions of movement: along the Kama up and down to the Volga and the lower reaches of the Oka, to the north - to the Pechora and Vychegda basins, to the west along the Volga route - up to White Lake and the northern regions of Finland.

In the steppe and forest-steppe regions of Western Siberia, a whole group of cultures is identified - Eluninskaya, Loginovoskaya and Krotovoskaya, to one degree or another involved in the formation of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. In the funerary and settlement monuments of these cultures (Elunino, Tsygankova Sopka 2, Chernoozerye 6, etc.) there are single examples of weapons of the Seima-Turbino type (knives, celts, spearheads) and three foundry molds for casting forked spearheads. Ceramics from the funeral feasts of the Rostovka burial ground are from Krotov and, in small quantities, from Peter. Vessels from the Satyga burial ground in the taiga Konda are close to the Krotov vessels. Settlement sites of other cultures of the West Siberian forest-steppe and southern taiga zone (Odinovskaya, Vishnevskaya, Tashkovskaya, etc.) are not associated with the formation of the Seima-Turbino antiquities. Metalworking of these cultures is based on the use of “pure” copper, but the first products made of tin bronze also appear.

Srubno-Andronovo world and its periphery

In the XVII-XVI centuries. BC. The process of forming the Eurasian metallurgical province is being completed, production centers are being stabilized and products are being significantly unified in the main regions of the EAMP. At this phase, the entire space of the Eurasian steppes and forest-steppes is occupied by monuments of the Srubnaya, Alakul and Fedorovsk cultures. The name of the log-frame culture goes back to the form of the funeral structure (log-house); others are associated with Lake Alakul and the village. Fedorovka in the Trans-Urals, where the first mounds of these cultures were excavated. The phase of active and dynamic existence of the Srubnaya and Alakul communities probably took place within the second quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. The conventional border between them is considered to be the Ural Mountains and the Ural River.

The Srubno-Alakul world is primarily a world of cattle breeders and metallurgists. Archaeological sources do not record any serious deviations from the economic-cultural model that developed in the previous time (pastoral cattle breeding). The number of rich and socially prestigious burials and the number of things in them are significantly reduced. The number of burials without grave goods is increasing. The dead were buried in a crouched position, usually on the left side, and were accompanied by one or more vessels, sometimes a copper or bronze knife and an awl. In general, the culture of the Srubna-Alakul world is surprisingly monotonous and standardized. This is manifested in house-building, burial mound rituals, ceramics and its laconic decoration, products made of metal, bone and stone, etc. In the shortest possible time, Srubny and Alakul cattle breeders mastered not only the space along large waterways, but also low-water deep forest-steppe and steppe landscapes. Judging by the number of known settlements (which number in the thousands), a real population explosion occurred during this era. Never later, until the colonization of the 18th-19th centuries, was there such a population density in the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe.

The formation of the Srubnaya-Alakul block of crops became a key moment in the stabilization of the producing centers of the Eurasian province. At this phase, in the main regions of the EAMP, a significant unification of metal products occurs, and tin and tin-arsenic bronzes are widespread. The vast majority of metal is concentrated primarily in steppe and forest-steppe centers. The centers of metalworking of the cultures of the northern forest-steppe and taiga zone are still relatively weak at this time. In the forms of products and metalworking technology of forest-steppe and southern taiga cultures (Pozdnyakovskaya, Prikazanskaya, Cherkaskulskaya, etc.), the influence of the log-frame and Alakul centers is especially noticeable. The production of cultures of the taiga zone and the eastern regions of Western Siberia (Samus and comb-pit ceramics) develops under the influence of the Seima-Turbino impulse.

The area of ​​the Alakul culture was significantly expanded in comparison with the Peter's culture to the Irtysh in the east, in the south - to the north of Central Asia. Defensive structures around villages are disappearing, and the size of dwellings is increasing. In many settlements, furnaces for smelting copper from ore were discovered, including those of complex design - with air-blowing channels for supplying oxygen to the smelting chamber.

Funerary goods of the Alakul culture:
1-5 - ceramics; 6-8, 13- pads; 9- bracelet; 10-temporal ring; 11- ring; 12 - suspension; 14, 15 - axes; 16-18 - knives; 19 - bone cheekpiece; 20, 21 - plaques (6-10 - bronze and gold foil, 11-18, 20, 21 - bronze)

Funerary goods of the Fedorovskaya culture:
1 - plan of a stone fence with a grave in the center; 2-4 - ceramics; 5 - clay brazier;
6 - bracelet; 7 - beads; 8 - stone pendant; 9-11 - pads; 12, 13 - temporal rings; 14 - wooden bucket; 15, 16 - knives; 17 - sickle (6, 7, 9-13, 15-17 - bronze)

Funeral structures in burial grounds are becoming more diverse - there are earthen and stone embankments, fences made of stone slabs (Alakul, Kulevchi 6). Inside the pit there is a frame or facing the walls with blocks with a wooden overlapping, stone boxes covered with slabs. The buried were accompanied by dishes with meat or dairy food. Most often these are profiled pots, decorated along the neck and body with meanders, triangles, and zigzag ribbons. In male burials, copper and bronze knives and awls are common; sometimes stone axes, maces, hammers, flint, bone and bronze arrowheads are found. Horse harness items are becoming rare. At the same time, shield cheekpieces, buckles and other bridle details are found mainly in settlements, but not in burial grounds. The burials of women were accompanied by a traditional set of bronze costume decorations (plaques, onlays, bracelets, rings, temple rings, beads, etc.), headdress (braids) and even shoes.

In the Alakul centers of metalworking in Central, Northern, Western Kazakhstan and Trans-Urals, tin bronze was used almost exclusively. Socketed axes, spear and arrowheads, stalked and socketed adzes, chisels, punches and mints, cleavers, double-edged and, less frequently, single-edged knives, various decorations (plaques, plates, bracelets, rings, pendants, etc.) were cast from this alloy. ). Most bracelets and rings are covered with thin gold foil, and many plaques, overlays and piercings are stamped with relief lines and patterns.

The leading form of economic activity was pastoral husbandry, primarily cattle breeding. It is possible that semi-nomadic cattle breeding was practiced in areas of dry steppes and semi-deserts. The horse played an important role - along with bulls, it began to be used in this era as a draft animal. Loads were probably transported by Bactrian camels, the bone remains of which were found in the layers of Alakul settlements. Previously, the presence of hoe-based floodplain agriculture was assumed, but there is no direct evidence of it - the remains of cereal grains - in archaeological sites. The metallurgical production of Alakul centers was the most powerful in the Eurasian province in terms of raw material resources. Alakul miners developed copper ore and polymetallic deposits of Mugodzhar, Northern and Central Kazakhstan, and Rudny Altai. Tin mining in the Kalba and Narym ranges, which at that time became the main source of bronze alloy for the entire Eurasian province, became of particular importance. Gold deposits were also developed in Northern Kazakhstan and Altai.

The finale of the Alakul culture (XV/XIV centuries BC) is associated with the formation of monuments of the Alekseevsky-Sargarin type, studied in the Trans-Urals, Kazakhstan, Semirechye and Altai.

The monuments of the Fedorov culture do not form a continuous massif: they have been studied by several local groups in the Trans-Urals, Kazakhstan, the south of Western Siberia, the Minusinsk Basin, and the mountains of Central Asia. The origin and chronology of these monuments are a matter of debate. The most substantiated hypothesis is about the Central and Eastern Kazakhstan origins of the Fedorov culture. The antiquities of its early stage existed synchronously with the Alakul ones, and the late Fedorovsky monuments probably coexisted for some time with the Alekseevsky-Sargarin ones.

The basic principle of village planning is linear. The houses are located in 1-2 rows along the river bank. These are light frame dwellings or large multi-chamber semi-dugouts with thick walls. Industrial metallurgical structures on the territory of settlements are separated from residential ones (Atasu). The burial grounds are low mounds surrounded by round or rectangular stone fences (Fedorovsky, Putilovskaya Zaimka); Ground necropolises are also known. There are long-term monuments (30-120 or more structures) and small burial grounds (6-25 mounds). The number of graves in the mound is small - one or several. The pits are located in the center of the mound, in a circle or in a row. Burial chambers were built from stone, wood or clay, which gave the burial pits the appearance of a crypt dwelling. Stone boxes and cysts are especially characteristic of this culture. Fedorovites have a stable ritual of burning and placing ashes in the grave, but the ritual of corpse deposition is also widespread. There are known graves with burial goods, but without the remains of the deceased, as well as symbolic burials without grave goods and remains.

Ceramics are represented by two groups of vessels: ceremonial-ritual and household-household. The first - profiled pots with ornaments in the form of oblique triangles, rhombuses, meanders, forming complex carpet patterns - is concentrated mainly in burials, the second, pots and jars with simpler patterns - in the layers of settlements. Tin bronze was used to make socketed axes, hooks and arrowheads, double-edged and, less commonly, single-edged knives and daggers, cleaver sickles, and various decorations, often covered with gold foil. Particularly characteristic of Fedorov metalworking are bracelets with spiral-shaped “horned” ends, rings with a bell, overlays with a stamped pattern, and knife-shaped pendants.

The area of ​​the timber-framed cultural and historical community is the steppe, forest-steppe and semi-desert of Eastern Europe, the Southern Trans-Urals and Western Kazakhstan. The origin of timber-framed antiquities remains one of the most difficult problems in Bronze Age archeology. Previously, it was assumed that the original core of the Srubnaya culture developed on the basis of the Late Yamnaya culture in the Trans-Volga region. From here it supposedly began to spread west to the Dnieper and east to the Urals. It is currently assumed that the timber-frame culture of the Dnieper-Donets interfluve was formed on the basis of the local Babin culture with the participation of the population of the Don Abashevo culture. In the Don-Volga-Ural interfluve, the origins of early Timberian antiquities are associated with previous cultures - late Catacomb, late Yamnaya, Abashevo and Sintashta.

Within the timber-frame community, several local variants and even cultures are distinguished. Three stages of its development are outlined. Early Srubny corresponds to the beginning of the formation of these antiquities (XVII/XVI centuries BC). At this stage, the features of the Middle Bronze Age are clearly visible. The second and third stages (XVI/XV-XV/XIV centuries BC) are a period of formation, stable development, and then transformation of the timbered community. A characteristic feature of these stages is active interaction with the eastern Andronovo - Alakul and Fedorov - world, and then with the “Andronoid” cultures - Cherkaskul, Suskan, etc.

Monuments of the timber-frame community are represented by settlements, burial mounds and ground burial grounds, ore workings, treasures of copper ingots and tools, as well as random finds. Settlements are usually located on low river terraces. Dwellings - above ground, semi-dugouts and dugouts, with a gable or hipped roof - were built using a frame-and-post structure. The walls are made of turf, logs, and rarely flagstone. In large buildings, the residential part is most often separated from the utility part. Inside the dwellings there were one or more fireplaces, underground pits, and sometimes a well.

Srubnaya cultural and historical community:
1 - reconstruction of the home; 2-5, 14 - ceramics; 6, 9, 11, 13 - pendants; 7 - mace model; 8, 12 - pads; 10- clip; 15- bracelet; 16- ring; 17, 19 - spear tips; 18 - awl; 20-24 - knives and daggers; 25 - mace made of marble; 26 - bit; 27 - cleaver sickle; 28 - ax; 29, 30 - clay molds for casting an ax and cleaver sickles (6, 7 - bone; 8-13, 15-24,
26-28 - copper and bronze)

Kurgan burial grounds (Berezhnovka, Yagodnoye, Khryashchevka) are located on terraces or hills along river banks, less often on watersheds. They include a small number of mounds - from 2 to 10-15; single mounds and huge necropolises are rare. Grave structures - rectangular in shape - are represented by pits, wooden frames and stone boxes. They were often covered with logs or blocks. The buried lay crouched, usually on their left side in a pose of adoration. In the ground burial grounds (Smelovsky, Alekseevsky, Syezzhinsky) burials were located in rads. Parts of the carcasses of domestic animals were placed in the grave as funeral food, one or more vessels, sometimes along with a copper or bronze knife, an awl, and jewelry. In the eastern regions of the community, female burials with rich braids made by Alakul craftsmen from sheet bronze, gold and silver foil are known (Puzanovsky, Novo-Yabalaklinsky 1).

Ceramics from settlements and burial grounds are represented by jars, pot-shaped and sharp-edged vessels. It is decorated with horizontal and inclined lines, flutes, zigzag, herringbone, and geometric shapes. The burials contain wooden utensils, sometimes with bronze frames. A variety of tools and weapons made of stone are represented by drilled axes and maces, arrowheads, scrapers, hammers and mallets, anvils, ore grinders, abrasives, etc.; decorations are also known - beads, pendants. No less varied are products made of bone: handles of metal knives and awls, polishes and spatulas, piercings, needles and knitting needles, scoops and shovels, arrowheads, cheekpieces, rings, buttons, piercings, fortune telling dice, etc.

The mining and metallurgical production of the timber community was based on the cuprous sandstones of the Urals and Donetsk Ridge in eastern Ukraine. The main producing centers - Kargaly (dominant) and Donetsk - are located on the periphery of the community. Thin ore occurrences in the Middle Volga region were also exploited (Mikhailo-Ovsyanka and others). The distribution of copper from these centers was mainly latitudinal, within the Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe. A significant part of the metal, especially jewelry, came from the workshops of the Alakul community of Kazakhstan. Copper from the Kargalinsky mining and metallurgical center was used only in the Volga-Ural region, without crossing the eastern border of the timbering area. Despite the large import of raw materials and decorations from the east (tin and antimony-arsenic bronzes), the strategically important sphere of manufacturing tools and weapons remained in the hands of timber smiths and foundries, who used mainly “pure” Kargalin and Donetsk copper.

The scale of production activity of the Kargaly center - the largest mining, metallurgical and metalworking complex in Northern Eurasia - is striking. More than 70 villages of miners and metallurgists of the timber-frame community, many thousands of traces of surface and underground workings, have been discovered here. For the extraction and primary processing of ore, a huge number of copper, bone and stone tools were required.

Kargaly Mining and Metallurgical Center:
1 - site of the Gorny settlement (in the center) and traces of ancient and ancient mining operations, aerial photograph (black square - the location of the concentration of archaeological excavations); 2 - a labyrinth of recorded underground workings (at a depth of 10-15 m) at the Myasnikovsky site

Basic production of metal products was carried out in several specialized centers - Gorny 1 (Ural region), Lipovy Ov¬rag (Middle Volga region), Mosolovka (Don region), Usovo Lake (Eastern Ukraine), etc. But if the metalworking of Gorny was aimed at the production of mining tools tools (picks, picks, picks, wedges) used here, on Kargaly, then the products of Mosolovka and other centers (sickles, axes, spearheads, adzes and chisels) were intended primarily for external commodity exchange.

The main forms of tools and weapons in the centers of metalworking of the timber-frame community go back to the stereotypes of the previous Circumpontic Oovindia - these are axes, flat and grooved adzes and chisels, handle knives and daggers, etc. Axes and sickle-cleavers become more massive. New types of tools appear - celt adzes with an open sleeve. The technology of thin-walled casting of socketed spear tips, adzes and chisels is being introduced, but casting blanks and subsequent forging still remain the most important methods of shaping tools. Timber blacksmiths master the secrets of producing high-grade iron, from which a few more knives and awls are forged. Despite the abundance and variety of jewelry (bracelets, rings, pendants, overlays, beads, etc.) and the use of precious metals - gold and silver in their manufacture, the jewelry making of the timber-frame community is noticeably inferior in scale and quality to the eastern ones - Alakul and Fedorov.

Gorny is a settlement of miners and metallurgists of the timber community:
1 - anvil; 2, 3 - hammers; 4 - sledgehammer; 5, 9 - arrowheads; 6 - overlay; 7 - copper smelting and smelting waste; 8, 12 - molds for casting pickaxes and pruning sickles; 10 - bone playing (fortune-telling) dice; 11 - pickaxe (1-4, 8, 12 - stone; 5, 6, 9, 11 - copper and bronze)

Previously, it was traditionally believed that the log-frame community was characterized by a sedentary pastoral-agricultural type of economy. However, single grains of cultivated cereals (mainly millet) were found only in the Donetsk-Dnieper interfluve, in the border zone of the Srubnaya and Sabatinovskaya cultures. Perhaps this indicates the presence of floodplain agriculture here. For the main area of ​​the Srubna community, the leading form of economic activity was domestic and transhumance cattle breeding, and in the areas of the Cis-Caucasian and Caspian steppes and semi-deserts, its semi-nomadic form may have been practiced. Cattle breeding was the mainstay of subsistence; sheep, goats and horses played a lesser role.

The similarity between the features of funeral rites, ceramics, bronze, iron and bone tools and weapons of the timber-frame community and the cultures of the pre-Scythian and Scythian times in the south of Eastern Europe has long been noticed. Many researchers believe that archaeological cultures associated with historically known peoples - the Cimmerians and Scythians - are a continuation of the Srubnaya.

The population of the Srubnaya and Alakul communities had a noticeable impact on the culture and economy of the peoples of the forest belt of Eastern Europe and the northern forest-steppe of Western Siberia. However, the impact of the Srubna-Alakul world does not extend to the deep regions of the Eurasian taiga. The population of northern Eastern Europe is characterized by a rather primitive level of metalworking. An example of this is the culture of asbestos ceramics in Karelia. The population of this region does not accept new technologies and uses the same methods of forging and casting native copper, which took root here in the Eneolithic era. In the north of Eastern Europe, isolated examples of celtic axes are known (Vis 2), which can be associated with the reproduction of Seima-Turbino weapons. They have a characteristic detail - “false” ears.

Only in the borderlands of forest-steppe and forest, along the Oka, the middle reaches of the Volga and the lower reaches of the Kama, does a transformation of indigenous cultures take place. These cultures, primarily the Pozdnyakovskaya and early Prikazanskaya (Pozdnyakovo, Podbornoe, Zaymishche 3), adopted the new socio-economic structure and EAMP stereotypes associated with Abashevo and log metalworking. This was especially clearly manifested in the forms of socketed spear tips, double-edged handle knives, flat adzes, forged chisels with an open sleeve, pruning sickles, and various types of jewelry. The influence of southern forest-steppe cultures was also reflected in the selection of ceramics and the funeral rites of the Oka and Volga-Kama population.

Cultures of the northern periphery of the Srubna-Andronovo world (1-16 - Pozdnyakovsky; 17-19 - Cherkaskul; 20-29 - Chernoozersk-Tomsk variant):
1-3, 17, 18, 20-22 - ceramics; 4 - scraper; 5-7 - arrow and dart tips; 8 - spear tip; 9-11, 28, 29 - knives and daggers; 12, 23 - temporal rings; 13- overlay; 14, 15, 27 - bracelets; 16 - threads; 19 - mold for casting chisels and knives; 24, 25 - plaques; 26 - ring (4-7 - flint; 12 - bronze and gold foil; 19 - talc; 8-11, 13-16, 23-29 - bronze)

Similar processes took place in the northern forest-steppe and in the southern taiga zone of Western Siberia. Here, especially in the Tobol-Irtysh interfluve, the penetration of Alakul and Fedorov groups to the north is observed. Their interaction with the aboriginal population led to the formation of unique antiquities of the Koptyakov and Cherkaskul cultures (Koptyaki 5, Berezki 5g, Lipovaya Kurya, Palatki 1), called “andronoid” in the literature. They came here to replace the monuments of Tashkovo culture.

In the taiga zone of Western Siberia, cultures of comb-pit ceramics are localized (Saigatino-6, Volvoncha 1, Pashkin Bor 1), which differ only in the details of the decoration of the ceramics. Metalworking in this zone is represented mainly by casting molds of celtic axes. The reconstructed tools in shape and ornament (a belt of horizontal relief lines) resemble, on the one hand, the celts of the Turbino burial ground, and on the other, later examples of the Ananino and Kulai communities of the Early Iron Age.

In the Ob-Irtysh interfluve, the penetration of Alakul and Fedorov groups into the northern regions of the forest-steppe was not so noticeable. In these areas, the sustainable development of the Krotovo culture continued. The monuments of its second stage are represented mainly by settlements (Inberen 10, Preobrazhenka 3, Kargat 6). Jar forms still dominate in ceramics, but the ornamental tradition (puncture-receding) inherent in the early stage of culture is being eliminated. The number of vessels with comb decoration and ridges under the neck has increased. Stone and bone processing remains at a high level. Bronze tools and weapons of the Seima-Turbino type disappeared, but products and foundry molds of the Andronovo type appeared (double-edged handle knives, spear tips with a “cuff” at the mouth of the socket, jewelry). The diversified economy of the Krotov tribes combined producing (cattle breeding, metalworking) and appropriating industries (hunting, fishing, gathering).

The traditions of Seima-Turbino metalworking took root in this era only in the taiga zone of Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Kuznetsk-Salair mountain system and in a narrow strip of belt forests of the Upper Ob region. The shapes of celt axes and spearheads, called the “Samus-Kizhirovsky” ones, differ from the Seima-Turbino ones in significant details (“false” ears, lush “carpet” ornament, “pseudo-fork”). They are characteristic of the Samus culture of the Upper and Middle Ob region, Kuznetsk Basin (Samus-4, Krokhalevka 1, Tanai-4). To the east, in the regions of Sayano-Altai, the Okunev and Karakol cultures of Sayano-Altai are developing (Okunev ulus, Chernovaya 8, Ozernoye, Karakol). These Siberian cultures are characterized by unique and similar anthropo- and zoomorphic subjects on ceramics, steles and slabs of burial chambers.

Inventory of Krotovo (1-8), Samus (9-11) and Okunev (12-22) cultures: 1-4, 15-18 - ceramics; 5-8, 13, 14 - knives and daggers; 9 — casting mold for casting a celt; 10.11 —
Celts; 12-ring 19-necklaces; 20, 21 — plates with images of female faces;
22 buckle (5-8, 10-14 - bronze; 19, 22 - stone; 20, 21 - bone)

Commonality of KVK and “andronoid” cultures

At the third stage of development of the Eurasian province, the main cultural and historical processes are characterized by two fundamental phenomena. The steppe spaces became an arena for the consolidation of the population of the Timber-Andronovo world, which ultimately led to the formation of a community of cultures with roller ceramics (KVK). This restructuring of steppe belt cultures was probably caused by the beginning of climate aridization, soil drying and deterioration of pastures. On the contrary, in the forest-steppe and southern taiga latitudes there is a mosaic of cultures, which smoothly turns into a monotonous picture of the world of forest hunters and fishermen with comb-pit ceramics inherent to these societies in the east and textiles in the west. During this period, the main centers of EAMP metalworking are relocating to the forest and forest-steppe zones. The mining and metallurgical centers of Sayan-Altai, Kazakhstan and the Urals send the bulk of the metal produced to these areas. Significant changes are occurring in production technology and in the morphology of metal products. Artificial alloys are used everywhere. Along with the production of double-edged knives and daggers, socketed axes, flat and grooved adzes and chisels, dating back to early Circumpontian stereotypes, mass production of socketed celt axes, spear and arrowheads, adzes, and single-edged knives began in the steppe and forest-steppe. Thin-wall casting technology is becoming leading in metalworking. New types of tools and weapons appear, such as massive cleaver sickles and slotted spear tips.

The community of KVK in the Asian and European steppes is characterized at an early stage by a noticeable unity of material culture. It got its name from a characteristic detail of the decoration of the vessels - molded ridges under the rim, along the neck or shoulders, sometimes with hanging ends in the form of a “whisker”. Roller pottery cultures covered the territory from Altai in the east to the Lower Danube and Eastern Carpathians in the west. It identifies two main zones - western (Thracian) and eastern. The border between them is between the Seversky Donets and Dnieper rivers.

The eastern zone of community extended from the Don-Donets interfluve in the west to the Upper Ob in the east and the northern semi-deserts of Central Asia in the south. It includes monuments of the Ivanovo type of the Eastern European steppe (they are sometimes also called Khvalynsky or late Srub) and Alekseevsky, Sargarinsky and Dandybay-Begazinsky - Asian. However, behind the different names of the monuments of the Asian steppes, in fact, lie antiquities that are uniform in their material culture. Common features in the cultures of the KVK community are manifested, in addition to ceramic traditions, in the rejection of burial rites under burial mounds, in house-building techniques, the spread of agriculture, and the structure of cattle breeding, in which the role of sheep and horses increases. The morphological composition of the metal implements also turned out to be very similar.

Fine monuments of Okunev culture:
1 - signs-symbols on stone steles; 2 - anthropomorphic figures with bird heads next to the mask (on a slab from the Tas-Khaza burial ground); 3.5 - masks on the vessel and stone slab; 4, 6-10 -
steles with multi-figure images

Treasures of copper and bronze objects are becoming widespread, especially in the western zone. In the eastern zone there are significantly fewer of them (Sosnovo-Mazinsky, Derbedenevsky, Karmanovsky, Tereshkovsky, Shamshinsky, etc.). The treasures included mainly sickles and celt axes, which were not found in burials. In the treasure from Sosnovaya Maza near the city of Khvalynsk on the Volga, the massive mowing sickles and daggers did not have casting seams and burrs removed after casting. Two copper ingots weighing 7-8 kg each were used to make the tools of this treasure.

During this period, in the forest-steppe and southern taiga regions of the Volga-Ural region, the process of “Andronization” of local cultures, associated with the spread of Fedorov and Cherkaskul antiquities, intensified. An example of this is the monuments of the Suskan and Prikazan types (Suskan 1, Lugovsoe 1, Kartashikha). Certain areas of the forest-steppe, in particular the upper reaches of the Don, remain within the sphere of the emerging KVK community (Melgunovo 3). In the Volga-Oka interfluve, monuments of the Late Dnyakovsky culture are replaced by antiquities of the culture of early “textile” ceramics (Tyukov Gorodok, Fefelov Bor 1, Dikarikha). It is assumed that a significant part of the population of the Pozdnyakovsky culture exodus to the southwestern regions and its contribution to the formation of monuments of the Bondarikha culture in Eastern Ukraine.

Inventory of a community of cultures with “roller” ceramics (eastern zone):
1, 2, 6, 7 - ceramics; 3,4 - bone cheekpieces; 5 - bracelet; 8, 10, 11 - linings; 9 - temporal ring; 12, 20 - mirrors; 13- axe; 14, 15 - pruning sickles; 16- spear tip; 17-19 - arrowheads; 21-23 - chisels and adzes; 24-26 - knives and daggers (5, 9, 10, 12-26 - copper
and bronze; 8, 11- bone)

In the Western Siberian forest-steppe, for some time, communities of the late Krotovo and Fedorov cultures coexisted. The most striking monuments of that era are the Chernoozersk settlement, the burial mounds and ground burial grounds Chernoozerye 1, Sopka 2, Elovka 1-2. There is a noticeable variety of options for the funeral rite: the position of the dead stretched out on the back and flexed on the side, sometimes with knees bent and raised up or in a sitting position; tiered burials are also noted. Among the inventory are stone and bone arrowheads, piercings and needles, bronze double-edged and single-edged knives and daggers, awls and needles, various jewelry (bracelets, pendants, rings, plaques, overlays, etc.). Ceramics from settlements and burial grounds are represented mainly in jar and pot-shaped forms. In the decoration, there is a combination of two ornamental traditions - comb-pit (Krotovo) and geometric (Andronovo) on funeral dishes, the rollers are preserved as a relic (Sopka 2).

During this period, part of the aboriginal population was pushed to the north. “Andronoid” cultures of the pre-taiga and taiga zones (Cherkaskul, Elovskaya, Suzgunskaya, etc.) differ from forest-steppe antiquities by the more noticeable inclusion of elements of forest cultures in the ornamental decor. Some features of the Andronovo (Fedorovka) ornamentation are also perceived by the cultures of the area of ​​comb-pit ceramics; but this world - from the Pechora basin in northeastern Europe to the Tomsk-Chulym Ob region in Siberia - with its complex appropriating economy retains the stability of internal development, which is also manifested in the nature of taiga metalworking (Samu-Kizhirovsky celt axes with an ornament of horizontal relief lines ).

At the end of the Bronze Age (XII/XI-X/IX centuries BC), the processes of destruction and disintegration of the Eurasian province intensified, accompanied by the redesign of the ethnocultural map of most regions of Northern Eurasia.

The community of KVK of the Asian and European steppes at a late stage of its development loses its former unity of material culture. Monuments of the Trushnikov, Dongal and Begazin types in Kazakhstan and in the south of Western Siberia, and of the Nur type in the Volga-Urals and Central Asian interfluves actually demonstrate the collapse of this community. The steppes east of the Seversky Donets are becoming empty. In the Asian steppes, population density also noticeably decreases, but it was at this time that settlements aspiring to the status of cities appeared in Central Kazakhstan. For example, the area of ​​the Kent settlement reaches 30 hectares, Buguly and Myrzhik - 14 and 3 hectares, respectively. There is an outflow of steppe communities to the northern forest-steppe, the foothills of Altai and Tien Shan and to the early agricultural oases of Central Asia.

The ethnocultural map of the forest-steppe and southern taiga spaces changes radically at the end of the Bronze Age. Integration processes are gaining momentum. The mosaic of cultures characteristic of the previous phase of the development of the EAMP is becoming a thing of the past: huge cultural and historical communities are being formed here. Monuments of common cultures with “textile” ceramics are spreading in the Volga-Oka basin and the forest Volga region. In the Volga-Kama region a Pre-Anya (Maklasheyev) community is taking shape. In the Urals and Trans-Urals, monuments of the Mezhovskaya and Barkhatovskaya cultures are replacing the “andronoid” ones.

The West Siberian forest-steppe and southern taiga regions of the Ob region become the zone of distribution of the Kornazhkin and Irmen cultures.

In these vast spaces, a kind of “renaissance” of aboriginal cultures is taking place, expressed in a noticeable increase in population, radical transformation and even the rejection of some stereotypes of the cultures of the Srubnaya-Andronovo world introduced in previous eras. This is especially clearly manifested in the widespread distribution of round-bottomed ceramics, its ornamental decoration, the gradual abandonment of the burial mound ritual, and the ethnographic originality of women's jewelry. The settlement sites of these cultures are represented mainly by settlements on the high and low banks of rivers and lakes. Some of them are fortified with ramparts and ditches. Burial grounds are ground or mounds with low embankments. Burials - elongated or crouched - were made in shallow pits or at the level of the buried soil. The graves are most often arranged in rows or groups.

The world of taiga Eurasian cultures continues to develop in line with established traditions, although it is experiencing certain outside influences. During this period, the local specificity of the regions becomes more expressive.

The Lebyazhskaya culture of the Northern Urals, the Atlymskaya, late Sugunskaya, Lozvinskaya, Barsovskaya, Elovskaya cultures of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia demonstrate the transformation of a once indivisible cultural space, the indicator of the unity of which was comb-pit ceramics. At the end of the Bronze Age, this ornamental tradition in various regions acquired a specific color due to the introduction of figured-stamped and serpentine (finely flowing) ornaments into canonical decorative schemes. The decorative features are actually the only criterion for identifying archaeological cultures in the taiga zone. No ordinary ground burials have been identified here and sanctuaries are widespread.

The system of producing centers of the EAMP at the end of the Late Bronze Age inherits the structure of the previous period. The mining and metallurgical centers of Rudny Altai and Kazakhstan continue to send the bulk of copper and bronze to the metalworking centers of forest-steppe and forest crops. Copper production in the Ural mining and metallurgical region is dying out and at the same time the import of Sayan arsenic copper and finished products is increasing, especially to the Irmen centers of the Ob-Yenisei interfluve. In the west, in the Dnieper-Donets borderland of the Eurasian and European (Carpathian) metallurgical provinces, the influx of Carpathian tin bronzes is increasing, but in the more eastern centers - Bondarikha and Maklasheyevsky - the influx of these bronzes is no longer noticeable.

More important changes are associated with the localization of metalworking centers in Eastern Europe. Steppe and forest-steppe centers almost completely cease their activities. In fact, the Volga-Ural region becomes a “wild field”. Only in the western regions of the forest-steppe is production of insignificant volume carried out by foundry workers of the Bondarikha culture. At the end of the Late Bronze Age, the main centers of metalworking - the Pre-Ananyinsky and textile ceramics cultures - were relocated
to the southern regions of the forest belt. In the Asian zone of the Eurasian province, the southern taiga centers, on the contrary, give way to the forest-steppe and Irmen centers.

At the end of the Bronze Age, the production of the same categories of tools, weapons and decorations as in the previous period continued. The set of metal implements itself does not change radically (socketed celts, spear and arrowheads, adzes, knives with one and two blades, various decorations). Only their forms are modified, determining the specifics of certain centers. The evolution of these forms will continue at the beginning of the Early Iron Age, but only in the taiga producing centers of the Ananino, Itkul, Proto-Kulai and other cultures.

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE CENTRAL ASIAN PROVINCE

The Central Asian metallurgical province covered the territory of Sayan-Altai, Transbaikalia, Mongolia, Northwestern and Northeastern China. Here, in the post-Andronovo era, a community of cultures of the Karasuk circle was formed (Karasuk, Lugavsk and slab graves, early stage), the monuments of which date back to the XV/XIV-IX/VTII centuries. BC. In the northern zone of the province, the most powerful was the Karasuk metallurgical center. Its activities were carried out on the basis of ore sources in the Sayan-Altai mining and metallurgical region. Foundry workers of the Karasuk and Lugavsk cultures used mainly copper-arsenic alloys, although earlier, in the Okunevskaya and Andronovo (Fedorovskaya) cultures, tin and tin-arsenic bronzes were common in the Minusinsk and Kuznetsk basins. The Andronovo heritage in metalworking cultures of the Karasuk circle is hardly noticeable, in contrast to the Seima-Turbino one, which was especially clearly manifested in the forms and decoration of surprisingly diverse single-edged curved knives and daggers.

Among the cultures of the Central Asian province, Karasuk is the most well studied. The main array of monuments is concentrated in the Minusinsk Basin. More than 1,600 stone burial enclosures (Karasuk-4, Malye Kopeny 3), several settlements (Kamenny Log 1, Torgozhak) and copper smelters (Temir) have been excavated here. Dwellings - taking into account the cold winters - were small or spacious deep dugouts and half-dugouts, with several fireplaces for cooking and heating. The walls were built from logs, clay and stone slabs. The roof was insulated with earth taken from the pit.

The fences around the graves are square, less often round; inside there are 1-2 burials in stone boxes (made of thin slabs) or cists, deepened to a meter. Burials predominate in an extended position on the back or left side. 1-2 vessels were placed at the head, and part of the carcass of a ram, cow, or rarely a horse was placed at the feet on a wooden tray. The end of the blade of a bronze knife, or less often a whole knife, was placed on top of the animal bones. No other tools or weapons were placed in the graves, with the exception of awls and needles, but men and, especially, women were buried with a large variety of decorations. Among them are bronze plaques, earrings, rings, pendants, chains, strings, combs, stone and paste beads, and cowrie shells.

Funeral and settlement complexes of the Karasuk culture:
1 - plans of burial structures; 2, 4 - pebbles with images; 3 - ceramics; 5 - stone pestle; 6 - wooden comb; 7, 8 - hoes; 9 - celt; 10, 11 - knives; 12, 19 - linings; 13, 21 - pendants; 14, 15 - bracelets; 16, 20 - rings; 17, 18- plaques (7, 8- horn; 9- bronze
and tree; 10-21 - bronze)

The ceramics from settlements and burial grounds are round-bottomed, with a spherical body, sometimes with a flattened bottom, most often polished to a shine. Some of the vessels are without ornament or only with a belt of pits along the neck, others are richly decorated with rhombuses, triangles, scallops, and impressions drawn by lines; sometimes the patterns are inlaid with white paste.

The main branch of the economy is pastoral cattle breeding. It is assumed that the Karasuk people switched to a mobile grazing system. However, the limited size of the Minusinsk Basin and the composition of the herd - with a noticeable predominance of cattle - indicate possible movements with them only over short distances. Horse breeding, sheep breeding, roe deer and red deer hunting were an important source of meat nutrition, but the basis of the diet was dairy products. For the Karasuk era there is no direct evidence of agriculture, which was so obvious in the subsequent Tagar era (see section III).

LATE BRONZE AGE OF EASTERN SIBERIA
AND THE FAR EAST

Rare settlements with traces of bronze foundry production are known on the vast territory of Eastern Siberia. There are just as few metal tools and decorations in the burial grounds. The appearance of copper and bronze contributed to the improvement of hunting and fishing tools, but did not radically change the Neolithic appearance of the cultures of this region (Glazkovskaya, Shiverskaya, Ymyyakhtakhskaya, Ust-Belskaya, etc.). There are known separate finds of Seima-Turbino and Samus-Kizhirov celts, daggers of the Karasuk type, characteristic of the Eurasian and Central Asian provinces, but the East Siberian cultures were not directly included in the systems of these provinces.

In the Baikal region, in the Angara basin and the upper reaches of the Lena, and in Southern Transbaikalia, monuments of the Glazkovsky culture have been discovered, which are represented mainly by burials, short-term sites and materials in the layers of foreign settlements (Ulan-Khoda on Lake Baikal).

Most of the graves were covered with a stone lining, sometimes in the form of a boat, some are marked on the surface with a stone ring. Burials were made in a crouched, extended or sitting position. Their characteristic feature is their orientation along the river, often with their heads upstream. Male burials are usually accompanied by stone, bone, and less often copper tools for fishing and hunting (harpoons, points, fishhooks, knives, chisels and adzes, spear and arrowheads, etc.) - In female burials there are implements related to the processing of fish or killed hunting animals (scrapers, needles, needle cases, etc.), as well as a large number of decorations. Particularly noteworthy among them are jade, mother-of-pearl and pyrophyllite discs, rings and beads, fangs and incisors of animals, which were sewn onto richly decorated fur bibs and headdresses. Funerary and settlement ceramics, round-bottomed and pointed-bottomed, are usually decorated over the entire surface with imprints of a spatula-stamp, pits-pearls, and carved lines. At the end of the culture, vessels with flattened bottoms appeared. Bone items were also richly decorated.

Bronze Age cultures of Eastern Siberia (1-21 - Glazkovskaya;
22-29 - ymyyakhtakhskaya):
1 - reconstruction of the hunter’s appearance (based on materials from burial 1 of the Lenkovka burial ground); 2 - fort; 3 - harpoon; 4 - spear tip (with a blade made of thin flint inserts); 5 - puncture; 6-8 - ceramics; 9- axe; 10, 12, 13, 25-27 - arrowheads; 11, 15, 23, 24 - knives; 14, 16 - fishing hooks; 17, 18, 22 - anthropomorphic figures; 19, 28 - spatulas; 20-spoon; 21 - pickaxe; 29 - needle case (9-13, 23-25 ​​- stone; 14 - bone and stone; 15 - copper and bone; 16 - copper; 21 - wood and horn; 2-5, 17-20, 22, 26-29- bone)

The tribes of the Glazkovskaya, Ymyyakhtakhskaya, Ust-Belskaya and other cultures are mobile and semi-sedentary groups of hunters and fishermen of the mountain forest taiga of Eastern Siberia and the northern regions of the Far East. The economic and cultural type that formed in their environment was preserved here until the historically known Tungus-speaking peoples and Yukaghirs. The Late Bronze Age of the southern regions of the Far East is known from the settlements of the Lidov, Margaritov, Singai, Evoron and other cultures. Metal objects in these cultures are rare (spearheads, single-edged knives, arrowheads, plaques, etc.), but an indisputable sign of familiarity with them are stone tools and weapons imitating bronze samples, as well as foundry molds. In the settlements, in-depth and above-ground dwellings of a frame structure with several hearths inside were built. The walls of some buildings are made of stone. The main archaeological material is represented by ceramics - these are pots, jars, bowls, pots, amphorae, sometimes polished and painted. Tools and weapons are made, as a rule, of slate: axes, adzes, knives, spear and arrow tips. The cultures of Primorye and the Amur region are characterized by a diversified economy (hoe farming, cattle breeding, fishing, hunting and gathering). Direct evidence of farming is evidenced by the remains of millet in the layers of settlements. The emergence of metalworking occurred under the influence of the cultures of the southern zone of the Central Asian province (Manchuria, Ordos, Mongolia, Sayano-Altai).

Late Bronze Age cultures of the Amur region and Primorye (1-6, 10 - Singai; 7-9, 11, 12 - Margaritovskaya; 13-22 - Lidovskaya):
1, 2, 18 - stone imitations of bronze spearheads; 3-5, 7, 8, 15, 17 - ceramics; 9, 14 - stone axes; 10- clay disk; 11 - spindle whorl; 12, 13 - arrowheads; 16 - clay figurine; 19-21 - knives; 22 - hoe (12, 13, 19-21, 22 - stone)

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE CAUCASIAN METALLURGICAL PROVINCE

Among the metallurgical provinces of the Late Bronze Age, the Caucasus shows the most noticeable changes, perhaps even a rejection of the production stereotypes of the previous province, the Circumpontic. The former unity of the Caucasus and the steppe was replaced, in fact, by their complete isolation. Rare items of Caucasian types will appear in the steppe only at the very end of the Bronze Age. The set of tools, weapons and decorations has changed dramatically, having little in common with the examples of the Middle Bronze Age. The scale of production and the number of metal products have increased manifold. This stimulated the development of mines located in the highlands (Bashkapsar). Not only oxidized ores, but also sulfide ores are being actively developed. Metalworking was based on the use of multicomponent alloys. At the same time, the production of gold and silver items, so characteristic of the previous era, practically ceased. The first iron products appear.

Among the bronze items, attention is drawn to axes of the Koban and Colchian types, daggers, spear and arrowheads, maces, and various decorations. Many of them are cast from a lost (wax) model, have exquisite decoration, engraving, and inlay with a new, then rare material - iron. The vast majority of metal is made only for the “world of the dead.” Tons of copper and bronze are buried in the burial grounds and sanctuaries - the materialized enormous work of miners, metallurgists and blacksmiths of the Koban, Colchis and other cultures.

The area of ​​the Koban culture is on both sides of the Main Caucasus Range, i.e. in the center of this mountainous country. This culture was formed in the Late Bronze Age (XIII/XII-IV centuries BC) and, like the Galyptat and “textile” culture in the west and north of Europe, smoothly passed into the Iron Age and existed throughout the Scythian era.

Bronze tools and weapons of the late Bronze Age cultures of the Caucasus:
1-3, 5-8 - axes and poleaxes; 4 - dagger; 9, 10 - swords; 11 - sickle; 12 - scabbard; 13 - mace

The ethnonym of its creators is unknown (the name of the culture is given by the name of the modern village of Verkhniy Koban in North Ossetia, where the first important discoveries were made), but it is clear that their ancestors inhabited this territory since the Bronze Age, when the Caucasian anthropological type of the Caucasian race was formed. The origins of the Koban culture are among the cultures of the foothills and mountainous regions of the Caucasus of the Middle Bronze Age.

The Koban tribes practiced cattle breeding (transhumance with a predominance of sheep - in the mountains, domestic with a predominance of cattle and pigs - in the foothills) in combination with agriculture (they grew durum and soft wheat, barley, rye, millet). Non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy and metalworking, including art, have reached a high level.

Koban craftsmen not only adopted, first from the Cimmerians and then from the Scythians, many types of weapons and horse equipment, but improved the design of these items and established their mass production for their own needs and for the same nomads.

The Koban people lived mainly in unfortified settlements located in inaccessible places: on foothills, sometimes even on steep cliffs, along river valleys on high plateaus, in gorges on flat spurs (Serzhen-Yurt, Bamut). The dwellings were made of adobe or “turluchny” (a wooden frame covered with clay), sometimes on cobblestone foundations. In the highlands there are also stone houses. They often stood in groups, walls facing each other, sometimes entire blocks separated by streets paved with cobblestones. Pottery and blacksmith workshops are also found in the settlements.

Inventory of Late Bronze Age cultures of the Caucasus:
1 - bracelet; 2, 11 - pendants; 3, 4 - brooches; 5, 6, 9, 10 - zoo- and anthropomorphic figures; 7 - hryvnia; 8 - pin; 12-17 - ceramics (1-11 - bronze)

The basis of the funeral rite was the deposition of corpses, but cases of cremation are also known. The burial grounds, as a rule, are without mounds; the construction of mounds was practiced infrequently and was a consequence of the influence of steppe nomads. Grave structures are very diverse: these are ordinary pits, and pits lined along the edges with torn stones or cobblestones, and stone boxes with walls made of massive sandstone or slate slabs, covered with an even more powerful slab, etc. Tools, weapons (a mandatory attribute of male burials), a bridle, vessels, and parting food were placed in the graves. There are known burials of men with bridled horses.

LATE BRONZE AGE WITHIN THE EASTERN ZONE OF THE EUROPEAN METALLURGICAL PROVINCE

The European metallurgical province covered the territory of Central, Western, Northern and partly Eastern Europe. It included centers of metalworking that were distinguished by noticeable originality, but were not differentiated with a sufficient degree of reliability. The eastern zone of the European province (which will be discussed below) included two blocks of cultures and production centers, which are dated in the traditional chronology system of the 17th/16th-19th/9th centuries. BC.
The southern - core - block is associated with the community of cultures with roller ceramics (KVK) (see Chapter 7.1 - about the cultures of the KVK community, which was part of the Eurasian province). The area of ​​the western cultures of the KVK community is the steppe and southern forest-steppe from the interfluve of the Seversky Donets and Dnieper to the Lower Danube and the Eastern Carpathians. There are two cultural zones here: Thracian and Northern Black Sea. The first of them outlines the cultures of Pshenichevo and Babadag in the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula and in Dobrudja, Koslodzhen - in the lower reaches of the Danube, Noa and the chronologically subsequent so-called early Hallstatt cultures (or cultural monuments of the Thracian Hallstatt) - in the Carpatho-Danube region. The Northern Black Sea region is the contact zone of the European and Eurasian provinces. The Sabatinovskaya and genetically related Belozersk cultures are localized here. In the lower reaches of the Don and Kuban they are adjacent to monuments of the Kobyakovo and Kuban cultures.

The Northern Black Sea cultures of the KVK community are formed on the basis of the local Babinskaya culture (or the multi-roller ceramics culture; see 7.1) and with a clear impulse from the east (Abashevo and early Srubnaya cultures).

Cultures of the European Metallurgical Province:
1-5 - knives and daggers; 6-8 - spear tips; 9-11 - pins; 12 - fibula; 13-18 - Celts; 19 - suspension; 20, 21 - bracelets; 22, 23 - molds for casting a cleaver sickle and a spear tip; 24-27 - cheekpieces; 28 - stamp for leather embossing; 29-33 - arrowheads; 34-41 - ceramics (1-2, 4-10, 12-21 - bronze; 3 - bronze and iron; 11, 24-33 - bone; 22, 23 - stone)

The northern block is associated with European cultures of the so-called “post-cord horizon”. Their habitat is the forest-steppe and zone of broad-leaved forests of the Right Bank and part of the Left Bank Ukraine, Southern Belarus, and the Baltic States. In the west, in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, they are localized mainly north of the Carpathians. The earliest cultures of this block are the Lusatian, Trshinetsky, Maryanovskaya, Komarovskaya, etc. The cultures of the final Bronze Age are genetically related to them - the Belogrudovskaya Vysotskaya, Lebedovskaya, Bondarikha, early Chernoleskaya, etc.

The formation of the cultures of the northern block took place on the basis of the cultures of corded ceramics and battle axes of the early and middle Bronze Ages - the Middle Dnieper, Unetitsa, etc. In the formation of the monuments of the early (Malobudkovsky) stage of the Bondarikha culture, an important role was played by the migration of population groups genetically related to the post-Neolithic pit-comb cultures ceramics, late Dnyakovsky and early “textile” of the Volga-Oka interfluve.

Tshinets and Belogrudiv (14, 15) cultures of Northern Ukraine:
1 - fibula; 2 - spiral; 3-6 - flint arrowheads; 7-9 - thread; 10, 11 - pins; 12 - temporal ring; 13 - ax; 14, 15 - sickles; 16, 17, 20-24 - ceramics; 18 - spindle whorl; 19 - adze (1, 2, 7-12 - bronze; 13, 19 - stone; 14, 15 - flint and horn)

The formation of the eastern zone of the European province was largely determined by the economic boom, which at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. covered the Carpathian-Danube region. The growth of metalworking is especially noticeable in the Thracian and North Black Sea zones of the KVK community. Copper production was carried out primarily on the basis of the rich copper and polymetallic deposits of Transylvania and other regions of the Balkan-Carpathian region. A significantly smaller role was played by the Donetsk mining and metallurgical center and the import of raw materials from the producing centers of the Eurasian province. In the Carpathians, gold mining has noticeably increased compared to the previous era. It was used to make not only jewelry, but also precious dishes and ceremonial weapons.

The explosive growth of metal production was accompanied by qualitative changes. As in the Eurasian province, in the west tin bronzes came into use, stone casting molds were used, and the casting of tools and weapons with a blind (non-through) socket began. Among them are celts (earless, single- or double-eared), spearheads (without slots and with slots on the tip), chisels and adzes. Sickles of various modifications, short swords, single- and double-edged knives, flat adzes, etc. were also made. At the end of the Bronze Age, finds of iron and bimetallic products, especially knives, became more and more frequent. The products of the metalworking centers of the European province (Ingulo-Krasnomayatsky, Kardashinsky, Zavadovo-Loboykovsky, etc.) were distinguished by the expressive standardization of the forms of tools and weapons, as well as huge series of the latter. They are concentrated mainly in treasures - small and large, sometimes gigantic. The treasures also contain collections of foundry molds. Perhaps they belonged to individual families or even clans of blacksmiths.

The production of bronze items in the northern cultures of this province (they are also called “post-cord”) is characterized by a significantly smaller scale. A noticeable role in it belongs to various decorations, in which the forms of the previous - Middle Bronze Age - are easily discernible. The types of tools and weapons repeat the Northern Black Sea and Balkan-Carpathian models.

The processes of cultural genesis in the eastern zone of the European province were characterized by active contacts and interaction between the cultures of the southern and northern blocks. This was reflected in the appearance of ceramics with ridges in the post-Shnurov cultures (especially in the Belogrudovskaya), which is considered characteristic of the Sabatinovskaya, Noa, Belozerskaya and other cultures of the KVK community. At the end of the Bronze Age, under the influence of the Thracian Galyitate cultures in the northern forest-steppe, in the Vysotsk and Belogrudov cultures, black polished cups, bowls, pots, sometimes inlaid with white paste, appeared. At the same time, in the steppe Sabatinovskaya and Belozersk cultures, tulip-shaped vessels are known, characteristic of post-cord cultures. In the early Bondarikha monuments of the Dnieper Left Bank there are expressive vessels with vertical combs and “textile” imprints on the outer surface, the origins of which are in the Volga-Oka interfluve.

The southern and northern blocks of cultures of the European province are characterized by common and special features in house-building. Common ones include a combination of deep dugouts and half-dugouts with above-ground dwellings and outbuildings located on the banks of rivers, estuaries, lakes, and ravines. In the south, in the Sabatinovskaya and Belozersk cultures, dwellings with stone wall foundations are also common. The roofs were flat, single- and double-sloped, hipped. Dwellings were built using a frame-post construction, when a matrix was laid on the central pillars, which served as the basis for the rafters; heated by 1-3 fireplaces.

The cultures of the eastern zone of the European province are characterized by large and small ground burial grounds. At the same time, in both the south and north of Ukraine, at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the burial ritual under the burial mound was preserved, but in the forest-steppe the ancient traditions of local cultures - with their characteristic pound burial grounds - prevailed more quickly. They are without external signs, from several dozen burials, grouped 3-4 together. There are known small ground burial grounds located on the territory of settlements. Stone structures, widespread in previous Corded Ware cultures (especially in Volhynia and Podolia), are preserved, but they become simpler (stone boxes; ground pits lined with stones; stone fences around burials on the horizon). The most common burials are in simple ground pits, sometimes lined and covered with wood.

At the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, the dominant rite of corpse laying was crouched on the side, with different orientations according to the cardinal points. On the Dnieper Left Bank it will remain until the end of the Bronze Age. On the Right Bank, it was gradually replaced by the rite of cremation of the buried. By the end of the era he was already dominant. In the Dniester region, corpse burnings were detected not only in ground burial grounds, but also in mounds (at the level of the ancient horizon) and in urns. In most cases, cremation was carried out externally, and the remains were poured into urn vessels or pits.

Late Bronze Age dwelling (Pustynka):
1 - reconstruction of the process of constructing a dwelling with a frame-and-pillar structure; 2 - reconstruction of the appearance of the home

Thus, at the end of the Bronze Age, the vast European area of ​​urn-field cultures, extending far to the west, included cultures related in origin to the equally vast area of ​​the Corded Ware and Battle Ax cultures of the Middle Bronze Age. The population of these cultures is identified with the northern branch of the ancient Indo-Europeans. The eastward migration of the early Hallstatt cultures led to a change in the ethnocultural map in the Northern Black Sea region. In the west of the region, the dominant role passed to the Thracian ethnocultural groups.

The transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean is commonly called the Bronze Age Catastrophe. Indeed, for a thousand years, civilizations developed, reached their peak and power, and suddenly it all collapsed. It was akin to the apocalypse. Truly catastrophic changes occurred in the social structure, cultural and industrial traditions, the largest cities and states of that time were destroyed, and writing was lost. Across much of the region, the “Dark Ages” are approaching.

In the 13th century BC, the Mediterranean was a developed system of wealthy states, hundreds of large trading cities, with well-established trade routes and contacts with other countries. The largest centers were Egypt, the Hittite Empire and the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization.

Egypt flourished under the rule of Ramses the Great, the city-states in Greece were well developed and fortified, culture and trade flourished there, and palaces rose. There were practically no wars; the last major confrontation occurred between the Egyptians and the Hittites in 1274 BC. e. Individual cities developed, increasing their power and influence. The city-state of Ugarit was located on the territory of modern Syria and was the largest transshipment point that connected sea trade routes with land ones.

The major civilizations of the Bronze Age seemed to have reached the peak of their development. However, as we know, after the peak comes a decline. In literally a hundred years, processes will begin that will lead the power of these lands to complete destruction. Cities will be destroyed, people sold into slavery, others will flee to new lands, once vibrant and wealthy centers will be completely abandoned for thousands of years. For the inhabitants of that time, this was a disaster, although in the future it gave impetus to the formation of a new era and the rise of other civilizations.

It is believed that in 1206−1150 BC. e. the regions suffered from raids by the “peoples of the sea” (immigrants from the Balkans and Asia Minor), the Mycenaean kingdoms and the Hittite kingdom were destroyed, the prosperous Egyptian empire fell into decay, all this led to the extinction of trade routes and a decrease in literacy. Most of the references to the “peoples of the sea” are preserved in ancient Egyptian sources.

Pharaoh Ramses III left a note in which he celebrated the victory over them and said that before the attack on Egypt they had already plundered the land of the Hittites, Alashiya and Amor. According to historians, these events can be dated back to 1179 BC. e. Around the same time, Mesopotamian cities were also subjected to devastating raids. Beginning in the last quarter of the 13th century, according to the historian Robert Drews, the disaster reached its maximum in 1180.

Its scale was amazing. Almost every city between Troy and Gaza was destroyed. Often, after raids, people left cities and never returned there again, as evidenced by the treasures discovered there thousands of years later, which were hidden by local residents from the invaders. This fate befell such cities as Hattusa, Mycenae, and Ugarit.

Mycenaean Greece disappeared into the Aegean Sea. During the coming “dark ages”, some bards still remembered it, but then it sank into oblivion until archaeological excavations shed light on this period. The Hittite Empire, which brought prosperity to the Anatolian Peninsula, fell. The New Kingdom in Egypt and the era of achievements of the pharaohs ended. Almost everywhere life was thrown back.

Architecture, shipbuilding, metal processing, water supply, and painting began to be revived only after almost 500 years. The Mycenaean linear and Luwian writing disappeared. People hid from raids wherever they could. In Crete, traces of ancient settlements were discovered in the highlands, which were completely unsuitable and inconvenient for ordinary life, but were safe. Within 40-50 years, all significant cities and palaces of the eastern Mediterranean were destroyed. XII century BC e. brought with it a “dark time” into which Anatolia and Greece plunged for 400 years.

But not only the destruction of the largest cities, the attack of the “peoples of the sea” and the subsequent large migration are considered to be the reasons for what happened. Tectonic activity is considered one of the possible factors that led to the disaster. Some believe that an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale in the Mediterranean could have had an irreparable impact on the region's economy. Other reasons, along with raids, include climate change.

According to the data, during that period, drought came to Greece, Turkey and the Middle East, which worsened the socio-economic situation of the region and led to wars and migrations. On the contrary, a more humid climate came to Central Europe. Ancient sources also speak about the drought that occurred after the Trojan War. The population of Western Anatolia migrated, and climate change pushed towards the collapse of the Bronze Age.

They also usually mention the systemic crisis, which, by the way, affected not only the Eastern Mediterranean, but also Central Europe. However, experts are not sure whether it was the cause or consequence of the collapse. Drought, population growth, and bronze casting and iron forging technology in the Middle East may have increased the cost of weapons and triggered systemic changes. Iron processing was another reason.

Allegedly, due to the fact that there was more iron than bronze, it was easier to arm numerous troops with it. Accordingly, small armies using bronze weapons and chariots would fall under the pressure of the invaders. However, it was later established that the final transition to iron occurred after the bronze collapse.

In addition, developed civilizations knew about iron and knew how to process it, just as they knew that it wore out much faster than bronze. Presumably, the disruption of international trade could have cut off or greatly reduced the supply of the region's rare tin, making it impossible to produce the bronze that fueled the economy and armed the army.

The true causes of the disaster, as well as the subsequent period, have yet to be comprehended by historians. The crisis plunged the region into oblivion and threw it back to zero for almost 400 years. It ended with the end of the Dark Ages, the rise of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah, the Aramaic kingdoms of the 10th century BC. e. and the New Assyrian Empire.

Features of the Bronze Age.

In the Bronze Age (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC), the metallurgy of copper and bronze arose and developed, i.e. The technology for producing bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was invented. Therefore, this era was called the Bronze Age.

The Bronze Age is divided into three periods:
1) Early Bronze – ХVІІІ – ХVІ centuries. BC.
2) Middle Bronze – XV – XIII centuries. BC.
3) Late Bronze – XII – VIII centuries. BC.

In the Bronze Age, the archaic forms of economy and life of the Neolithic era are replaced by cattle breeding and agriculture; temporary camps for wandering hunters - permanent, with elements of improvement. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The steppe tribes of Kazakhstan are developing a complex cattle-breeding and agricultural economy. The Bronze Age is a time of development of cattle breeding as a form of economy, hoe farming also develops, and new tools are used in agriculture. In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. In the steppe zone of Eurasia, pastoral tribes are distinguished.

At the end of the 2nd - beginning. 1st millennium BC (Late Bronze Age) the majority of the population of the steppe regions of Kazakhstan switched to a new form of economy - nomadic cattle breeding. The separation of pastoralists from the rest of the tribes was the first major social division of labor.

In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. the tribes inhabiting modern Kazakhstan mastered the production of bronze products. Mining developed. There are many known ancient ore developments in the areas of Dzhezkazgan and Zyryanovsk (copper), in the Atasu Mountains, the Kalby and Narym Rivers (tin), in Kazangunkur, Stepnyak and Akdzhal (gold). More than 100 settlements and 150 burial grounds of the Bronze Age have been discovered. Foundry workshops were found, and the production of products from alloys of various metals was improved: tools (knives, sickles, scythes, axes), weapons (daggers, spear and arrowheads), jewelry (plaques, bracelets, beads, hryvnias).

The ancient masters of the Bronze Age were well versed in the techniques of casting, chasing, stamping, grinding, sawing and polishing. Stone tools (grain grinders, mortars, pestles) continued to be used for grinding grain. The production of products from other materials (horn, bone, silicon) developed; ceramics, fabrics, leather and wool products were produced.

There is a change in public attitudes. The rapid development of cattle breeding and metallurgy required mainly male labor, which led to a strengthening of the role of men in society and to the replacement of the maternal family with the paternal one. A patriarchal-tribal system is emerging. The products of labor accumulated, exchange developed, which entailed the emergence of property inequality, the isolation of individual patriarchal families, family property, and led to the disintegration of the primitive communal system.
In religious beliefs there was a cult of fire, a cult of ancestors, and cosmogonic1) cults arose.

Andronovo culture of the Bronze Age.

In the early (XVIII-XVI centuries BC) and middle (XV-XII centuries BC) periods of the Bronze Age, Kazakhstan was inhabited by tribes of the Andronovo culture, covering, in addition to Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals and Central Asia. The Andronovo culture is one of the largest Bronze Age cultures in Europe and Asia. Its monuments are spread over a vast territory from the Yenisei in the east to the Urals in the west, covering vast areas of Southern Siberia, Kazakhstan, the Urals, Central Asia to Southern Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Northern Pakistan. Andronovo culture is a conventional name for a number of cultures whose bearers are related in historical destinies and development.

In 1914, the expedition of B.G. Andrianov excavated the first monument of the Andronovskaya culture near the village of Andronov, near the city of Achinsk in Southern Siberia, so this culture was called Andronovskaya (established by A.Ya. Tugarinov). Archaeological monuments of the Andronovo culture indicate that the tribes that belonged to it led a sedentary lifestyle and built dwellings in floodplains. Patriarchal families settled in large dugouts, semi-dugouts, adjacent to which were various types of outbuildings, and were engaged in raising livestock and cultivating crops.
The Andronovo culture is characterized by the presence of metal (usually bronze) tools, weapons, decorations (made of gold, bronze, copper), ceramics decorated with geometric patterns.

The main ethnographic difference of the Andronovo culture is in the burial features: the deceased are on their sides, in a crouched position, in “boxes” made of stone slabs or rectangular ground pits, the walls of which are lined with stone, with a stone lid on top. Sometimes the corpse was burned.

Some of the centers of the Andronovo culture were found in Central Kazakhstan (Atasu, Buguly, Nurtai, Belasar), Eastern Kazakhstan (Trushnikovo, Kanai, Malokrasnoyarka), Northern Kazakhstan (Stepnyak, Borovoe, Alekseevskoye, Sadchikovskoye, Petrovka and Bogolyubovo in the Irtysh region). One of them is the city of Arkaim (on the border of the Kustanai and Chelyabinsk regions), in Semirechye and Southern Kazakhstan the largest concentrations of drawings were discovered - Tamgaly, Karatau.
In the lower reaches of the Syrdarya, in the Aral region, there is the mausoleum of Tegisken and Tautary. Dozens of monuments have been discovered in Western Kazakhstan - the settlements of Tasty-butak, Akhmet-auyl, Besbay, Kirgeldy, Uralysay, etc. Researchers of the Andronovo culture - A.Ya.Tugarinov, S.A.Teploukhov, M.P.Gryaznov, K.V.Solnikov, Kazakh scientists - A.H.Margulan, K.A.Akishev, A.G.Maksimova, S. S. Chernikov, A. M. Orazbaev.

The Andronovo culture of the Early Bronze Age (XVIII-XVI centuries) is called Fedorovsky for Northern Kazakhstan, and Nurinsky for Central Kazakhstan.

The middle bronze in Northern Kazakhstan is called the Alakul period, in the Central - the Atasu period (XV - XIII centuries BC). Since the 12th century BC. (third period XII - XIII centuries) Andronovo culture is replaced by nomadic cultural communities of the Late Bronze Age: Srubnaya - in Western Kazakhstan and Begazy - Dandybaevskaya - in Central Kazakhstan, named after finds near the village of Dandybay near Karaganda and in the Begazy tract in Northern Balkhash. In Northern Kazakhstan, monuments of the Early Bronze Age are known in the Petropavlovsk region.

Features of the Begazy-Dandybaevskaya culture.
1) Economic life was based on nomadic cattle breeding.
2) Construction of a special type of gravestone structures.
3) A kind of funeral rite.
4) The emergence of new forms of pottery.
5) The presence of a large number of copper mines.

Farming.

The invention of bronze gave a powerful impetus to the development of economic and social relations in society.

The predominant type of occupation of the Andronovo people was pastoralism. They mainly bred cows, sheep, goats, horses, and Bactrian camels.

During the Late Bronze Age, the yailage (semi-nomadic) type of cattle breeding arose to increase the number and productivity of cattle breeding. Home-based livestock farming, when livestock grazes close to the settlement, became unprofitable, as pastures were gradually trampled and became scarce. Yaylazh cattle breeding involves constant summer and winter migrations; the length of such seasonal migrations in different natural zones was different. For example, in Semirechye the distance from winter to summer pastures reached from 50 to 80 km. In Western Kazakhstan, migrations stretched for hundreds of kilometers, crossing steppes and deserts.

So, gradually, from the home-based cattle breeding, yailazh or transhumance cattle breeding grew, and then nomadic cattle breeding, in which both steppe and desert pastures were used, which made it possible to sharply increase the number of herds, where the number of cattle in it decreased, and the number of sheep and horses increased. In the X-IX BC. Horse breeding predominates among Andronovo residents.

The Andronovo people led a sedentary lifestyle until 1 thousand BC. Their economy was mixed: pastoral and agricultural. The land was loosened and cultivated using stone hoes, which is why farming was called hoe farming. Mostly barley, millet and wheat were sown. The harvest was harvested with bronze and copper sickles, and grain graters were used to grind grain into flour.

Metallurgy played an important role in the life of the tribes of that time. Raw materials for production
tools and weapons were bronze - an alloy of copper and tin. It was distinguished by its hardness, low melting point, and beautiful golden color.

Ore was mined by simple pickling. When making their way to ore-bearing veins, they also used the method of fire penetration, if there were dense rocks: a fire was lit on their surface and then watered. Ancient miners dug through adits and secured the roof. Ore was smelted in forge-type furnaces. Charcoal was used for smelting; quartz and ocher were used as flux. Copper and tin ore were smelted separately, and when casting a particular item, tin and copper were added.

During the Bronze Age, crafts and weaving developed, ceramic dishes were made by hand modeling, using the tape technique, and formed on blanks; The dishes were polished, ornamented, and fired. Weapons were made: arrows with bronze leaf-shaped tips, spear tips, axes, bronze daggers.

During the Bronze Age the art of jewelry developed. Jewelry from the Andronovo culture testifies to the emergence of jewelry art on the territory of Kazakhstan in the 2nd millennium BC. (XVI-XIV centuries). They are few in number and mostly found in relatively rich burials.

Among Andronovo jewelry, the most common are earrings in the form of rings with closed ends. The archaeological symbol of the Andronovo culture are earrings and pendants made of one and a half turns of plate, covered with sheet gold. Mirrors, beads, pins, plaques, stripes are of high perfection.

Women of the Bronze Age wore bronze earrings in their ears. The neck was decorated with bronze hryvnias, and the hands were decorated with bracelets and rings. Andronovo residents produced works of art needed in everyday life. For example, a stone pestle with a sculptured image of a man’s head was found on the Nura River.

Social system.

During the Bronze Age, noticeable changes occurred in the organization of social life. The maternal line was replaced by the paternal line. Primitive communal relations gradually decomposed, and property differentiation intensified. This is evidenced by the Andronovo burials, some of which were built in the form of large mounds, where rich weapons and jewelry were located along with the deceased. But there were also poor burials, in which clay pots, modest jewelry, and parts of sacrificial animals were placed.

By the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. The tribal community of Andronovo decomposed, as a result, three solo groups were identified: the military aristocracy, priests and tribal community members.

Wars, as a means of enrichment, are becoming commonplace, therefore, from among the community members, a military aristocracy-warriors - charioteers stand out. Priests are included in a special group. The priests were stewards of religious rites, keepers of ancient traditions and knowledge; their distinctive feature was a wooden bowl and a special hat. Thus, groups of the population appeared in society that were not directly involved in production. Regulation of relations in society took place through the people's assembly. It decided all matters - it elected and mixed the elders of the clan, and strictly monitored the observance of clan customs and traditions. The tribal elite concentrates power and control over the surplus product in their hands, which leads to the emergence of property inequality in society. The Andronovo people lived in half-dugout type dwellings, covered with branches, skins and turf.

In terms of their anthropological make-up, the Andronovo people were representatives of the Europoid race - broad-faced, with open eyes, a developed glabella, and a sharply protruding nose. Most scientists believe that the Andronovo culture was formed on the basis of the natural development of local tribes of the era
Neolithic and Chalcolithic. There are different versions regarding the definition of the ethnicity of the Andronovo people. According to one of them, they belonged to the Finno-Ugric ethnic group. In recent years, a hypothesis has been put forward about the Turkic-speaking nature of the Andronovo tribes. However, the most well-reasoned and established position is their Indo-Iranian, Aryan affiliation. This is confirmed by the analysis of ancient written sources, anthropological data, linguistic research, toponymy, and onomastics of archaeological materials.

Andronovo people worshiped the sky, the sun, sacred fire, and believed in the afterlife. They had a cult of ancestors, a custom of commemoration, and a ritual of sacrifice. The main altar was the horse. A custom of prohibition - “taboo” - arose. Religious ideas were quite developed.

Thus, during the period of the primitive communal system, man, waging a harsh and intense struggle with nature, created new, more and more carefully finished tools from stone, and then, after the discovery of matella, he began to make metal tools. From simple collection of finished products of nature and primitive hunting, man moved to cattle breeding and agriculture. From the initial herd state, humanity has passed through the following stages: maternal clan, paternal clan, the formation of tribes and the separation of separate families. The improvement of tools, as well as methods of making fire and taming animals, all this was carried out in the process of daily human labor.

Over the course of centuries and millennia, global climate change has had a radical impact on the course of world history. Suffice it to recall the great migration of peoples, when the cold approaching from the north drove the tribes of barbarian Europe to Rome. Climate is one of the most powerful engines of history.

Events that in the historical environment are usually called Late Bronze Age crisis, took place about 3200 years ago, that is, around 1200 BC.

By this time, the Eastern Mediterranean stood at the forefront of civilization. In its western part, as earlier in Mesopotamia, and before that in the Nile Valley, powerful political and military formations began to emerge - the Mycenaean city-states: Mycenae And Tiryns V Argolis, Athens in Attica , Knossos in Crete and so on. Mighty Hittite kingdom covered most of Anatolia, the northwestern regions of Syria and invaded upper Mesopotamia. In the Levant (mainland of the Eastern Mediterranean), coastal cities Canaan flourished due to trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia. The wise reign of the pharaohs Networks I And Ramesses II ascended New Egyptian Kingdom to the heights of prosperity.

However, at the end of the XIII - beginning of the XII centuries BC. these grandiose and promising civilizations are collapsing one after another.

Historians have found more than enough reasons for this: natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.), technological progress, which entailed a fundamental reorganization of Eastern Mediterranean society, internal instability of huge but fragile empires, the struggle between the center and the periphery, and, finally, invasion of strong northwestern tribes - peoples of the sea.

All sources of that time shout about these tribes where people owned writing - Egyptian, Hittite, Mesopotamian, but it is hardly possible to find out who they were, where they came from and where they disappeared.

What is known for certain is that

the emergence of the Sea Peoples coincided with the crisis of the Late Bronze Age.

Were they the cause of this crisis or, on the contrary, were its consequences? And if so, what could force them to leave their homes and move south with weapons in their hands?

A group of French and Belgian scientists led by David Kanevsky. The results of their research were published by a reputable scientific journal PLOS ONE .

XIII-IX centuries BC marked by noticeable climate changes throughout the planet,

which in the Eastern Mediterranean regions resulted in drought. However, so far it has not been possible to prove either the connection of these changes with the invasion of the Sea Peoples, or the very existence of these changes.

The study conducted by scientists is based on archaeological data that was obtained on the island of Cyprus - the center of trade routes of the civilizations of the Ancient East. Using various archaeological survey methods, scientists explored Larnaca Bay, a section of the coastal strip in the southeast of the island. The data obtained showed that the area where four salt lakes are located today was, until about 1350 BC. was covered by the sea (which explains the location in ancient times of a busy port city in this area). Archaeological evidence from surrounding areas shows a marked increase in forest fires and an almost complete cessation of agricultural activities between 1200 and 850–750 BC. All this indicates the onset of a long period of drought.

In themselves, these data are not of great importance; their importance is revealed by comparative study. Comparing the results with previously known droughts on the Syrian coast and some other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean during the same period, the scientists found that the Cyprus drought was part of

global climate change affecting at least the entire region.

Apparently, the decline in economic (and, as a consequence, economic and political) activity that reigned during this period throughout the Eastern Mediterranean is the result of precisely this climatic shift.

The Sea Peoples invaded Cyprus between 1220 and 1190 BC, just as the global drought began. From there they moved to the mainland - to Egypt and the Syrian coasts. These tribes undoubtedly stood at a lower level of social organization than the empires of the Ancient East that had existed for more than one millennium, and yet they conquered the territories under their control and were able to move further in an as yet unknown direction.

Perhaps they owe this victory precisely to the drought, which gave rise to famine and bled the powerful states of antiquity dry.

And if this is so, then, probably, climatic changes forced them, who, apparently, were still just beginning to master agriculture and had not taken root in their native territories, to leave these lands and go on a distant overseas voyage in search of fertile land.

Bronze Age. A new era in the history of our region, the era of dominance of the productive economy, was opened by the Bronze Age (beginning of the 2nd beginning of the 1st millennium BC). As we remember, the Volosovo population had just begun to move over to him. Now more significant changes have occurred.

In the economy of local tribes, the leading place is occupied by hoe farming, cattle breeding and metallurgy. Hunting and fishing recede into the background. Bronze tools and weapons began to gradually replace stone ones, although the stone industry still firmly held its position.

Bronze is harder than its base copper. This means that, having received bronze, a person has acquired additional capabilities in various areas of his activity. His technical skills and abilities were developed.

The centers of bronze production in the region, apparently, were the southeastern regions of Tatarstan. Here, along the coasts of Menzeli, Ika, Zaya, the remains of what were once large copper deposits are still preserved.

The most prominent representatives of the Bronze Age of the Middle Volga region are considered to be the so-called Prikazanskie tribes are descendants of the Volosovo tribes. Their first settlements were discovered in the vicinity of Kazan (near the villages of Zaimishche, Balym, Kartashikha, Atabaevo).

The Prikazan tribes lived in the 16th-8th centuries. BC. Archaeological finds tell about the nature of their activities: beautifully polished stone axes, chisels, adzes, grain grinders, bronze hoes, sickles, knife-daggers, spearheads, women's jewelry, clay pots, bones of various domestic animals. This means that the Prikazan population knew construction, crafts, military affairs, agriculture, and cattle breeding. They sown millet, wheat, barley, and stored the grain in utility pits. They bred horses, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Near the villages there were, as a rule, family cemeteries. The dead were buried in pits with their heads or feet towards the river; pots with food, tools and household items were placed next to them. This suggests that the Prikazan tribes believed in the existence of the soul and its transmigration.

The Trans-Kama territories of modern Tatarstan were mainly inhabited by tribes log house culture (their name is due to the fact that they buried their dead in wooden log houses). Srubnyaki were at approximately the same level of development as the clerks. However, they were alien tribes for our territory. Srubnyaks moved here from more southern regions, where they were mainly engaged in cattle breeding. Hoe farming was developed on the floodplain soils of river valleys.

Monuments of the Prikazan and Srubnaya cultures reflected the serious changes that occurred in the life of people of the Bronze Age. The predominance of productive forms of economy contributed to the improvement of living conditions. People were no longer completely dependent on the results of the hunt. It became possible to have food supplies, primarily grain. Domestic animals provided meat, milk, wool and leather. The increase in living standards led to an increase in population. Thus, in some settlements of the Prikazan tribes there lived up to 500 people.

Further development of the economy leads to qualitative changes in the field of social relations. Within the clan groups there are metallurgists and foundry workers who specialized in the manufacture of bronze products. The role of exchange increased sharply, especially with the tribes of the Urals and Western Siberia, the southern steppes and the Caucasus, from where metal was brought in the form of ingots and finished products. Intertribal clashes over natural resource-rich territories occur more frequently. Under these conditions, a man begins to play an increasingly important role in the life of the tribal community: a metallurgist, a cattle breeder and a warrior. He becomes the head of the clan, large patriarchal(paternal) families. The woman now only does housework and raising children. Matriarchy is becoming a thing of the past.

The Bronze Age brought such innovations. Primitive society made significant progress in its development and acquired new features.

Early Iron Age. Ananyin tribes (VHI-III centuries BC). The use of iron became a powerful factor in the development of the economy of the entire ancient society. This metal is still one of the main materials in the production of material goods.

To obtain iron from ore, special smelting furnaces or furnaces with artificial blast are needed, which must have a very high temperature (1530°). The ancient metallurgists of the Bronze Age could not obtain such a temperature in their primitive furnaces and fires.

At first, iron was considered an expensive metal and, like copper, was used to make jewelry. But then it quickly replaced bronze, having undeniable advantages over it. Man received tools of unprecedented sharpness and hardness.

We were the first to enter the Iron Age in our area Ananyinsky tribes. The impetus for the discovery of Anannin culture was the publication in the middle of the 19th century in one of the Kazan newspapers of excerpts from a historical work, which spoke of the famous commander Aksak Timur’s visit to the cemetery of Muslim “saints” at the ancient “Devil’s” settlement near Yelabuga. The publication attracted the attention of Moscow archaeological professor K.I. Nevostrueva. He sent a letter to the mayor of Elabuga I.V. Shishkin with a request to inform whether there really are places near Yelabuga that are of interest to archaeologists. The answer was in the affirmative: yes, there are ancient burials near the village of Ananyino, where tombstones have been preserved. Amazing items made of bronze and iron are also found at this place.

Excavations began in the summer of 1858, with about a hundred peasants from the surrounding villages taking part. In one day, about 50 burials were excavated. Jewelry, tools, weapons, clay pots and other items were found. This is how a new archaeological monument, the Ananyinsky burial ground, was discovered.

Subsequently, wider excavations were carried out. Archaeologists in the vicinity of Elabuga, along the banks of the Volga, Kama, and their tributaries Vyatka, Belaya and Vetluga, discovered over 60 ancient settlements and about 30 of the same ancient burial grounds.

The Ananyin culture existed in the 8th-3rd centuries. BC. This was the heyday of ancient Greece, its Black Sea colonies of Olbia, Chersonesos, Bosporus; ancient Central Asian civilizations of Parthia, Margiana, Sogdiana and Bactria. The Ananyin people were also contemporaries of the warlike Scythians, whom the “father of history” Herodotus met, and the outstanding commander of antiquity, Alexander the Great, who created the first world empire in the East.

The natural and climatic conditions of the region predetermined a different path of historical evolution of the Anannians and did not allow them to rise to such heights in their development that their southern contemporaries reached. However, it would be incorrect to use the word “backwardness” here. It was the Ananyin people, whose ancestors were officers, who began to build the first military fortifications and real fortresses in our region. Their settlements usually occupied high headlands of river banks and were protected by powerful earthen ramparts and deep ditches. The presence of fortifications indicates frequent military clashes between tribes. After all, the discovery of iron led to the emergence of not only improved tools, but also new types of offensive and defensive weapons. In the society of the Ananyin people, a layer of artisans-gunsmiths arose.

With the growth of labor productivity, individual people began to accumulate food reserves and valuables. They could be sold or exchanged, accumulating new wealth. Thus, the Ananyin people maintained lively trade relations not only with their neighbors, but also with more distant tribes and peoples. Through the Scythians, even individual items of Greek and Egyptian production reached them. Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century. BC, knew the Ananyin people and called them Tissagets.

Wars also served to enrich people. Under these conditions, society becomes stratified, and wealth inequality. Tribal leaders and clan elders began to enjoy benefits that did not exist before.

With the advent of property inequality, the decomposition of the primitive communal system begins. This process is well reflected in archaeological materials.

The Ananyin people had practically the same funeral rites as the clerks. However, social changes manifested themselves here too. In some graves, two, sometimes even five or six people were buried - ordinary soldiers, ordinary people, maybe even slaves from among the captives. In some cases, the dead lie in special “houses of the dead” made from logs. Poor things were placed next to them. But there are also very rich graves, where tribal leaders and ancestors are buried with expensive weapons, jewelry made of gold and silver. The custom arose of placing tombstones over the graves of military leaders. These stones usually depicted a warrior and weapons.

The direct descendants of the Ananyin people were Pianobor tribes. They lived on the territory of Tatarstan from the turn of the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC.

The drunkards continued to develop the culture of the previous population. They lived mainly in unfortified villages, but during times of military danger they hid in specially built shelters.

In the society of drunkards, there was a further increase in property inequality. The basis of the tribal organization was large patriarchal families. Wars and military affairs occupied a significant place in the life of society. This is evidenced by numerous burials of men with iron swords, spears and other weapons, as well as collective (massive) graves of warriors who died during fierce inter-tribal fights.

Thus, various tribes lived on the territory of the region during the Stone, Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Their image and standard of living changed from century to century. A complex tribal organization was created, and the transition to a producing economy was made.

The tribes of the Volga-Kama, Volosovo, Prikazanskaya, Ananyinskaya and Pyanoborskaya cultures were not directly related to the history of the Tatar people. They belonged to the group of the so-called Volga Finns and became the ancestors of modern Mari, Udmurts and Komi.

Questions and tasks

1. What changes in the economic life of local tribes occurred during the Early Metal Age? Trace these changes using the example of the Volosovo and Prikazan tribes. 2. The tribes of the Srubnaya culture were newcomers. Try to explain why they were at approximately the same level of development as the clerks? 3. What happens in the Bronze Age in the field of public relations? Why is matriarchy becoming a thing of the past at this time? 4. Which tribes living on the territory of Tatarstan were the first to enter the Iron Age? Justify your statement. 5. Why did military clashes between tribes become more frequent during the Iron Age? How did this manifest itself in the way of life of the Ananyin people? 6. How can you confirm the emergence of property inequality between people at that time? 7. Why does this inequality lead to the disintegration of the primitive communal system? What is remarkable about the structure of life of the Pyanobor tribes in this regard? 8. Which modern peoples are descendants of local tribes of the Stone Age - Early Iron Age?