Technology for Manufacturing Blacksmith Products from the Laishevo Settlement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2026.3.238.247Keywords:
archaeology, Laishevo settlement, Volga Bolgaria, blacksmithing manufacturing technology, Bolgars, dating, knives, archaeometallography, locks, keys, technologyAbstract
This paper deals with the results of a study of iron artifacts from the medieval Laishevo settlement. It is located in the Laishevo district of the Republic of Tatarstan on the right bank of the Kama River. Since 1955, the settlement has been destroyed by the Kuibyshev Reservoir. Currently, it is almost completely destroyed. Laishevo settlement emerged in the second half of the 10th century and existed until the early 15th century. This settlement was a major center of iron metallurgy and metalworking, as well as a regional trading post. The Laishevo settlement flourished from the 11th to early 13th centuries. This article presents a collection of 34 artifacts discovered by K.A. Rudenko from the destroyed cultural layer in the early 1990s. Among them: 1) knives - 28 pieces, 2) base of a spring lock unit - 1 piece, 3) key from a spring lock - 1 piece, 4) belt mounts - 2 pieces, 5) punch - 1 piece, 6) metallurgist's tool - 1 punch. Metallographic studies of these items, conducted by Yu. A. Semykin, established that the majority of products from the Laishevo settlement were made using technologies characteristic of the advanced stage of development of blacksmithing, coinciding with the pre-Mongol period of the Volga Bolgaria. Just a few blacksmith items from the Laishevo settlement bear traces of technologies characteristic of the Golden Horde period - the technology of oblique side and V-shaped welding. Interestingly, the technological scheme of end welding was not found in the collection.
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