Abstract
This chapter builds on a previous publication by Hanks and Doonan (2009) that reviewed scholarship of early metallurgy in the central Eurasian steppe zone and presented recent field research on the development of the Bronze Age Sintashta culture (2100–1700 cal. BC) situated in the southern Ural Mountains of the Russian Federation. This chapter provides a revised discussion of these issues and outlines some of the important challenges that remain to be overcome in developing better understandings of the social and economic context of metal production, trade, and use. Additionally, a new section on recent field research at the Sintashta settlement site of Stepnoye and its local catchment zone are provided in the second half of the chapter. Since 2007, our collaborative field research has aimed to develop a better understanding of early mining, metallurgy, and socioeconomic change in the north-central steppe region. This has been accomplished through the application of theoretical and methodological approaches that highlight the unique characteristics of early mining communities, microregional resources, and the nature of local, in addition to long-distance, trade relationships.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anthony, D. W. (2007). The horse, the wheel and language: How Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Anthony, D. W. (2009). The Sintashta Genesis: The roles of climate change, warfare, and long-distance trade. In B. Hanks & K. Linduff (Eds.), Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, metals and mobility (pp. 47–73). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Anthony, D. W., & Vinogradov, N. B. (1995). Birth of the chariot. Archaeology, 48(2), 36–41.
Antipina, E. E. (2004). Arkheozoologicheskie materialy. In E. N. Chernykh (Eds.), Kargaly (Vol. III, pp. 182–239). Moscow: Nauka.
Baxter, M., Beardah C., & Westwood, S. (2000). Sample size and related issues in the analysis of Lead Isotope data. Journal of Archaeological Science, 27, 973–980.
Boyle, K., Renfrew, A. C., & Levine, M. (Eds.). (2002). Ancient interactions: East and west in Eurasia. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
Chernykh, E. N. (1997). Kargaly: Zabytyi mir. Moscow: NOX.
Chernykh, E. N. (Ed.). (2002a). Kargaly (Vol. I). Moscow: Nauka.
Chernykh, E. N. (Ed.). (2002b). Kargaly (Vol. II). Moscow: Nauka.
Chernykh, E. N. (Ed.). (2004a). Kargaly (Vol. III). Moscow: Nauka.
Chernykh, E. N. (2004b). Kargaly: The largest and most ancient metallurgical complex on the border of Europe and Asia. In K. Linduff (Ed.), Metallurgy in ancient eastern Eurasia from the Urals to the Yellow River (pp. 223–237). Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Chernykh, E. N. (2009). Formation of the Eurasian steppe belt cultures: Viewed through the lens of archaeometallurgy and radiocabon dating. In B. Hanks & K. Linduff (Eds.), Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, metals and mobility (pp. 115–145). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chernykh, E. N., & Kuz’minykh, S. V. (1989). Drevnyaya metallurgiya Severnoi Evrazii (seiminsko– turbinskii fenomen). Moskva: Nauka.
Chernykh, E. N., Avilova, L. N., & Orlovskaya, L. B. (2000). Metallurgicheskiye provintsii i radio- uglerodnaya khronologiya. Moskva: Institut Arkheologii RAN.
Diaz del Rio, P., Lopez Garcia, P., Antonio Lopez Saez, J., Isabel Martinez Navarrete, M., Rodriques Alcalde, A. L., Rovita-Llorens, S., Vicent Garcia, J. M., & de Zavala Morencos I. (2006). Understanding the productive economy during the Bronze Age through archaeometallurgical and palaeo-environmental research at Kargaly (Southern Urals, Orenburg, Russia). In D. Peterson, L. Popova, & A. Smith (Eds.), Beyond the steppe and the sown: Proceedings of the 2002 University of Chicago conference on Eurasian archaeology. (pp. 343–357).
Epimakhov, A. V. (2005). Rannie kompleksnye obshchestva severa Tzentral’noi Evrazii (po materialam mogil’nika Kamennyi Ambar-5), K. 1. Chelyabinsk: Chelyabinskiy Dom Pechati.
Epimakhov, A. V., Hanks, B. K., & Renfrew, C. (2005). Radiouglerodnaya khronologiya pamyatnikov bronzovogo veka Zauralya. Rossiiskaya Arkheologiya, 4, 92–102.
Gening, V. F., Zdanovich, G. B., & Gening V. V. (1992). Sintasthta. Arkheologicheskie pamyatniki Ariiskikh plemyon Uralo–Kazakhstanskikh stepei. T. 1. Chelyabinsk: Uzhno-Ural’skoe knizhnoe Izd-vo.
Grigoryev S. A. (1999). Drevnie indoevropeitsy. Opyt rekonstruktsyi. Chelyabinsk: Ural’skoe otdelenie RAN.
Grigoryev S. A. (2000). Metallurgicheskoe proizvodstvo na Uzhnom Urale v epokhu sredney bronzy. In N. O. Ivanova (Ed.). Drevnyaya istoriya Uzhnogo Zauralya. T.1. Chelyabinsk: Uzhno-Ural’sky Universitet, 443–531.
Hanks, B. K. (2009). Late prehistoric mining, metallurgy and social organization in north central Eurasia. In B. Hanks & K. Linduff (Eds.), Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, metals and mobility (pp. 146–167). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hanks, B. K., & Doonan, R. (2009). ‘From scale to practice: A new agenda for the study of early metallurgy on the Eurasian Steppe’. Journal of World Prehistory, 22, 329–356.
Hanks, B. K., & Linduff, K. M. (Eds.). (2009). Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, metals and mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hanks, B. K., Epimakhov, A., & Renfrew, C. (2007). Towards a refined chronology for the Bronze Age of the southern Urals, Russia. Antiquity, 81, 333–367.
Jones-Bley, K., & Zdanovich D. G. (Eds.). (2002). Complex societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennia BC—Regional specifics in light of global models. Volumes I and II (Journal of Indo–European Studies Monograph Series 45–46). Washington: Institute for the Study of Man.
Kassianidou, V., & Knapp, A. B. (2005). Archaeometallurgy in the Mediterranean: The social context of mining, technology and trade. In E. Blake & A. Bernard Knapp (Eds.), The archaeology of Mediterranean prehistory (pp. 213–251). Oxford: Blackwell.
Kirchmayer, M. (1987). Universal stage grain fabric statistics on dendrites of mine cave pearls. Carbonates and Evaporites, 2(1), 59–65
Knapp, A. B. (1998). Social approaches to the archaeology and anthropology of mining. In A. Knapp, V. Pigott, & E. Herbert (Eds.), Social approaches to an industrial past: The archaeology and anthropology of mining (pp. 1–23). London: Routledge.
Knapp, A. B., Pigott, V. C., & Herbert, E. W. (1998). Social approaches to an industrial past: The archaeology and anthropology of mining. London: Routledge.
Kohl, P. L. (2007). The making of Bronze Age Eurasia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kolb, M. J., & Snead, J. E. (1997). It’s a small world after all: Comparative analyses of community organization in archaeology. American Antiquity, 62(4), 609–628.
Koryakova, L. N., & Epimakhov, A. V. (2007). The Urals and western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kristiansen, K. (1984). Ideology and material culture: An archaeological perspective. In M. Spriggs (Ed.), Marxist perspectives in archaeology (pp. 72–100). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kupriyanova, E. (2008). Ten’ Zhenshiny: zhenskii kostum epokhi bronzy kak “tekst” [po materialam nekrpoloei Yuzhnogo Zaural’ya i Kazakhstana]. Chelyabinsk: Avto Graf.
Kuz’mina, E. E. (1994). Otkuda prishli indoarii? Material’naya kul’tura plemen andronovskoi obshchnosti i proiskhozhdeniye indoirantsev. Moskva: Vostochnaya Literatura.
Kuz’mina, E. E. (2002). On the origins of Indo–Iranians. Current Anthropology, 43(2), 303–304.
Kuz’mina, O. V. (2000). Metallicheskiye izdeliya i voprosi otnositel’ noi khronologii abashevskoi kul’turi. Drevniye obshchestva yuga Vostochnoi Evropi v epokhu paleometalla (rannie kompleksnye ob- shchestva i voprosi kul’turnoi transformatsii). Arkheologicheskie iziskaniya (pp. 65–134). Vip. 63. SPB: Evropeiskii dom.
Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (2002). Archaeology and language: The Indo–Iranians. Current Anthropology, 43(1), 63–88.
Levine, M., Renfrew, A. C., & Boyle, K. (Eds.). (2003). Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
Levy, T. E. (2003). Production, space and social change in protohistoric Palestine. In A. Holl & T. E. Levy (Eds.), Spatial boundaries and social dynamics: Case studies from food-producing societies (pp. 63–81). Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory.
Linduff, K. M. (Ed.). (2004). Metallurgy in ancient eastern Eurasia from the Urals to the Yellow River. New York: Edwin Mellon Press.
Macfarlane, A. (1999). The lead isotope method for tracing the sources of metal in archaeological artefacts: Strengths, weaknesses and applications in the Westrn Hemisphere. In S. Young, A. Pollard, P. Budd, R. Ixer (Eds.), Metals in antiquity, BAR International Series 792. (pp. 310–316). Oxford: Archaeopress.
Maddin, R. (Ed.). (1988). The beginning of the use of metals and alloys. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Merrony, C., Hanks, B. K., & Doonan, R. C. P. (2009). Seeking the process: The application of geophysical survey on some early mining and metalworking sites. In T. K. Kienlin & B. W. Roberts (Eds.). Metals and societies. Studies in honour of Barbara S. Ottaway. Universita Ìtsforschungen zur pra Ìhistorischen Archa Ìologie. Bonn: Habelt.
Peterson, D. L. (2009). Production and social complexity: Bronze Age metalworking in the Middle Volga. In B. Hanks & K. Linduff (Eds.), Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, metals and mobility (pp. 187–214). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peterson, D. L., Kuznetsov, P., & Mochalov, O. (2006). The Samara Bronze Age metals project: Investigating changing technologies and transformations of value in the Western Eurasian Steppes. In D. Peterson, L. Popova, & A. Smith (Eds.), Beyond the Steppe and the Sown: Proceedings of the 2002 university of Chicago conference on Eurasian Archaeology (pp. 322–342). Leiden: Brill.
Roberts, B. W., Thornton, C. P., & Pigott, V. C. (2009). Development of metallurgy in Eurasia. Antiquity, 83.
Rowlands, M. J., Larsen, M., & Kristiansen, K. (Eds.). (1987). Centre and periphery in the ancient world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shennan, S. J. (1986). Central Europe in the third millennium BC: An evolutionary trajectory for the beginning of the Bronze Age. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 5, 115–146.
Shennan, S. J. (1998). Producing copper in the eastern Alps during the second millennium BC. In A. B. Knapp, V. C. Pigott, & E. W. Herbert (Eds.), Social approaches to an industrial past: The archaeology and anthropology of mining (pp. 191–204). London: Routledge.
Stos-Gale, Z. A. & Gale N. (2009). Metal proveniencing using isotopes and the Oxford archaeological lead isotope database (OXALID). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 1(3), 195–213.
Timberlake, S. (2003). Early mining research in Britain: The developments of the last ten years. In P. T. Graddock & J. Lang (Eds.), Mining and metal production: Through the ages. London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 21–42.
Tylecote, R. F. (1987). The early history of metallurgy in Europe. London: Longman.
Vicent, J., Ormeno, S., Martinez-Navarrete, M. I., & Delgado, J. (2006). The Kargaly project: Modeling Bronze Age landscapes in the steppe. In S. Campana & M. Forte (Eds.), From space to place: 2nd International conference on remote sensing in archaeology (BAR International Series 1568) (pp. 279–284). Oxford: BAR.
Vinogradov, N. B. (2003). Mogil’nik bronzovogo veka Krivoe Ozero v Yuzhnom Zaural’ye. Chelyabinsk: Yuzhno-Ural’skoe knizhnoe izd-vo.
Wallerstein, I. (1974). The modern world system. New York: Academic Press.
Zdanovich, G. B. (1988). Bronzovyi vek Uralo–Kazakhstanskikh stepei (osnovy periodizatsii). Sverdlovsk: Izd-vo Ural’skogo Universiteta.
Zdanovich, G. B. (1989). Fenomen protogorodskoi tsivilizatsii bronzovogo veka Uralo–kazakhstanskikh stepei. Kulturnaya i sotsialnaya obuslovlennost. In V. M. Masson (Ed.), Vzaimodeistvie kochevykh kultur i drevnikh tsivilizatsiy (pp. 179–189). Alma-Ata: Nauka.
Zdanovich, G. B. (1995). Arkaim: Arii na Urale ili nesostoyavshayasya tsivilizatsiya. In G. B. Zdanovich (Ed.), Arkaim: Issledovaniya. Poiski. Otkrytiya (pp. 21–42). Chelyabinsk: Kamenny Poyas.
Zdanovich, G. B. (1997a). Arkaim—kul’turnii kompleks epokhi srednei bronzi Yuzhnogo Zaural’ya. Rossiiskaya Arkheologiya, 2, 47–62.
Zdanovich, D. G. (1997b). Sintashtinskoye obshchestvo: sotsialnye osnovy kvazigorodskoi kultury Yu- zhnogo Zauralya epokhi srednei bronzy. Chelyabinsk: Chelyabinskiy Gosudarstvenny Universitet.
Zdanovich, D. G. (Ed.) (2002). Arkaim: Nekropol’, Kn. 1. Chelyabinsk: Yuzhno-Ural’skoe knizhnoe izd-vo.
Zdanovich, G. B., & Batanina, I. M. (2002). Planography of the fortified centers of the middle Bronze Age in the Southern Trans-Urals according to Aerial photography data. In K. Jones-Bley & D. G. Zdanovich (Eds.), Complex societies of central Eurasia from the third to the first Millennia BC: Regional specifics in the light of global models (pp. 121–147). (Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation/Journal of Indo–European Studies Monograph Series.) Washington D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man.
Zdanovich, G. B., & Zdanovich, D. G. (2002). The ‘country of towns’ of southern Trans-Urals and some aspects of steppe assimilation in the Bronze Age. In K. Boyle, A. C. Renfrew, & M. Levine (Eds.), Ancient interactions: East and West in Eurasia (pp. 249–263). Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Ben Roberts and Chris Thornton for their invitation to contribute to this important volume and for their patience in the preparation of this new version of our original paper (Hanks & Doonan 2009). We also gratefully acknowledge the following individuals and institutions for their generous support of our collaborative field research in the southern Urals, from which many parts of this chapter originate: R. Khayryatdinov, N. Batanina, M. Batanina, S. Batanin, I. Batanina, L. Gayduchenko, C. Merrony, V. Valdaiskykh, E. Efimova, M. Gorbunov, and numerous students of Ural State University, Southern Ural State University, Chelyabinsk State University, and the Plast regional schools. We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation (BCS #0726279; BCS #1024674-AHRC-NSF-MOU) and Wenner-Gren Foundation (#7552). All opinions and mistakes within this chapter remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Doonan, R. et al. (2014). Metals, Society, and Economy in the Late Prehistoric Eurasian Steppe. In: Roberts, B., Thornton, C. (eds) Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9017-3_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9017-3_26
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-3357-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9017-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)