“Home, Sweet Home”: Stones from the Bronze Age Settlement Hearths (South Trans-Urals, Russia)

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the analysis of 200 stones from hearths, ash soil, and the inter-structure territory of the southern Trans-Urals Bronze Age settlements (21–16 centuries BC). Revealing of the stones’ main parameters (size, weight, breed, presence/absence of fire impact, surface treatment) made it possible to characterize the gradation using different types of stones. Stones from the hearths filling have similar characteristics: homogeneous rock composition, similar size and weight, traces of deliberate crushing chips to obtain the desired size, traces of strong fire impact. Stones from the ash soil strata are diverse: some rocks were used to manufacture tools (talcochlorite, quartzite), metallurgy (magnetite ore), and rocks used in the hearths. On many of the stones from the ash soil, the impact of the fire was noted. Such a composition of the ash soil may indicate the nature of its formation as a result of burning out the garbage. A wide variety of raw materials also characterizes the stones collected in the inter-structure area. Still, unlike stones from the hearths, they do not have a standardized size, many chips, and there are no stones with traces of fire. Based on a comparative analysis of the parameters of stones from different structures, it can be concluded that the selection of stones for hearths was intentional. Besides, the hearths were not associated with metallurgy (copper was practically absent in the hearth soils). These facts indicate that the hearths with stones were used only for heating.