Metallurgical Slags and Metalworking of the Orenburg Fore-Urals Late Bronze Age Settlements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2025.3.181.195Keywords:
archaeology, Bronze Age, ancient metallurgy, Western Orenburg region, Srubnaya culture, metallurgical slag, casting moldsAbstract
The paper deals with the study of the Bronze Age metallurgy artifacts of 11 settlements in the Western Orenburg region: stone tubs, metallurgical slag, casting molds and metal items. Even settlements remote from the rich ore occurrences of copper sandstones demonstrate intensive metal production activity. According to the XRF and optical microscopy, two mineralogical and geochemical associations were distinguished among 163 fragments of metallurgical slag: Ca-Ba-Sr-Zr is typical of glassy and pyroxene slags of the Srubnaya culture (XVIII–XV centuries BC); Fe-Cr-Ni-As is characteristic of olivine slags, presumably dating back to the end of the III – beginning of the II millennium BC. The typological diversity of metal items also indicates a wide chronological interval of the metal complex of the Western Orenburg region.
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