Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
Metal Production of Andronovo Communities and Farmers of Central Asia and Iran: Stages of Development and Search for Interactions
https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.1.074-082
Abstract
The article examines late 3rd and 2nd millennia BC mining and metallurgy across vast territory of Central Eurasia, inhabited by Andronovo pastoralists and Central Asia farmers. We provide chronological framework for the emergence and evolution of mining techniques (exploitation of various horizons of the oxidation zone of volcanic massive sulfides, copper porphyry, skarn and copper sandstone deposits, the use of specialized mines), appearance of arsenic bronze, tin bronze, and iron. Despite local peculiarities, mining and metallurgy passed through similar consecutive developmental stages in Central Eurasia. Archaeological data suggest that in the Late Bronze Age, Andronovo communities settled southwards from the steppes of Northern Eurasia to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. They played a major role in the spread of tin bronze and the exploitation of tin mines in Central Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. So far, there is only indirect evidence of contacts between Andronovo communities and people of the Iranian Highlands. The most promising sites that may yield such evidence are those of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex in northeastern Iran. Mineralogical and geochemical research methods help to assess the technological features of metallurgy and to discover ore sources; however, the interaction between Bronze Age communities can be explored only through archaeological and typological studies of sites and artifacts.
Supporting agencies: The study was carried out within the budget topic No. 125013101191-9 of the South Urals Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, and supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Iran National Science Foundation, Project No. 20-59-56007.
About the Authors
M. N. Ankushev
South Urals Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ankushev M.N., Junior Researcher
Ilmensky Reserve, Miass, 456317
P. S. Ankusheva
South Urals Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ankusheva P.S., Junior Researcher
Ilmensky Reserve, Miass, 456317
D. A. Artemyev
South Urals Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Artemyev D.A., Researcher
Ilmensky Reserve, Miass, 456317
References
1. Abdi K. 2012 The Iranian plateau from Paleolithic times to the rise of the Achaemenid empire. In The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, pp. 13–36.
2. Agapov S.A., Degtyareva A.D., Kuzminykh S.V. 2012 Metalloproizvodstvo vostochnoy zony obshchnosti kultur valikovoy keramiki. Vestnik arkheologii, antropologii i etnografii, No. 3: 44–59.
3. Ankushev M.N., Alaeva I.P., Ankusheva P.S., Artemyev D.A., Blinov I.A., Varfolomeev V.V., Panteleeva S.E., Petrov F.N. 2023 Priroda nekotorykh zhelezosoderzhashchikh artefaktov Uralo-Kazakhstanskogo regiona v pozdnem bronzovom veke. Vestnik arkheologii, antropologii i etnografii, No. 3: 72–87.
4. Ankushev M.N., Artemyev D.A., Blinov I.A., Boganov S.V. 2021 Bronze Age metallurgical slags from the South Urals: Types, mineralogy and copper sources. Periodico di Mineralogia, vol. 90: 173–193.
5. Ankusheva P.S., Zazovskaya E.P., Yuminov A.M. Ankushev M.N., Alaeva I.P., Epimakhov A.V. 2022 Radiocarbon chronology of Bronze Age mines in the Southern Trans-Urals: First results. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, vol. 14: Art. n. 218.
6. Artemyev D.A., Ankushev M.N. 2019 Trace elements of Cu-(Fe)-sulfide inclusions in Bronze Age copper slags from South Urals and Kazakhstan: Ore sources and alloying additions. Minerals, vol. 9 (12): Art. n. 746.
7. Avanesova N.A. 1991 Kultura pastusheskikh plemen epokhi bronzy aziatskoy chasti SSSR (po metallicheskim izdeliyam) Tashkent: Fan.
8. Avanesova N.A. 2012 Drevniye gornyaki Zarafshana. Arkheologiya Uzbekistana, No. 1: 3–35.
9. Avanesova N.A. 2015 Keramika poseleniya gornyakov-metallurgov Zarafshana. Istoriya materialnoy kultury Uzbekistana, iss. 39: 47–62.
10. Berdenov S.A. 2008 Kazakhstanskiye mestorozhdeniya medi i olova i ikh razrabotka v bronzovom veke. Izvestiya Natsionalnoy akademii nauk Respubliki Kazakhstan. Ser. obshchestvennykh nauk, No. 1: 42–55.
11. Berger D., Kaniuth K., Boroffka N., Brügmann G., Kraus S., Lutz J., Teufer M., Wittke A., Pernicka E. 2023 The rise of bronze in Central Asia: New evidence for the origin of Bronze Age tin and copper from multi-analytical research. Frontiers in Earth Science, vol. 11: Art. n. 1224873.
12. Biscione R., Vahdati A.A. 2021 The BMAC presence in Eastern Iran: State of affairs in December 2018 – towards the Greater Khorasan civilization? In The World of the Oxus Civilization, B. Lyonnet, N. Dubova (eds.). London, New York: Routledge, pp. 527–550.
13. Bonora J.L. 2021 The Oxus civilization and the northern steppes. In The World of the Oxus Civilization, B. Lyonnet, N. Dubova (eds.). London, New York: Routledge, pp. 734–775.
14. Buryakov Y.F., Kasymov M.R., Rostovtsev O.M. 1973 Arkheologicheskiye pamyatniki Tashkentskoy oblasti. Tashkent: Fan.
15. Chernikov S.S. 1960 Vostochnyy Kazakhstan v epokhu bronzy. Moscow, Leningrad: Izd. AN SSSR. (MIA; No. 88).
16. Chernykh E.N. 1970 Drevneyshaya metallurgiya Urala i Povolzhya. Moscow: Nauka.
17. Chernykh E.N. 2008 Formation of the Eurasian “steppe belt” of stockbreeding cultures: Viewed through the prism of archaeometallurgy and radiocarbon dating. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, No. 3: 36–53. (In Russian and English).
18. Degtyareva A.D. 2009 Khimiko-metallurgicheskiye gruppy metalla sintashtinskoy kultury. Vestnik arkheologii, antropologii i etnografii, No. 11: 29–41.
19. Degtyareva A.D., Kuzminykh S.V., Loman V.G., Kukushkin I.A., Kukushkin A.I., Dmitriev E.A. 2019 Metal vessels of the Bronze Age in Kazakhstan. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 28: Art. n. 102024.
20. Degtyareva A.D., Kuzminykh S.V., Loman V.G., Kukushkin I.A., Kukushkin A.I., Dmitriev E.A. 2020 Tsvetnoy metall rannealakulskoy (petrovskoy) kultury epokhi bronzy Tsentralnogo Kazakhstana. Povolzhskaya arkheologiya, No. 1: 98–116.
21. Degtyareva A.D., Ryndina N.V. 2019 Modeli tsvetnogo metalloproizvodstva zapadnoy i vostochnoy zon yamnoy kulturno-istoricheskoy oblasti. KSIA, No. 256: 58–74.
22. Degtyareva A.D., Vinogradov N.B., Kuzminykh S.V., Rassomakhin M.A. 2019 Metallicheskiye izdeliya alekseyevsko-sargarinskoy kultury Srednego i Verkhnego Pritobolya. Vestnik arkheologii, antropologii i etnografii, No. 4: 28–44.
23. Emami M. 2014 “Toroud”, the late motion for As-Sb bearing Cu production from 2nd millennium BC in Iran: An archaeometallurgical approach. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, vol. 2 (14): 169–188.
24. Garner J. 2021 Metal sources (tin and copper) and the BMAC. In The World of the Oxus Civilization, B. Lyonnet, N. Dubova (eds.). London, New York: Routledge, pp. 799–826.
25. Gimbutas M. 1977 The first wave of Eurasian steppe pastoralists into Copper Age Europe. Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 5: 277–338.
26. Gorbunov Y.V. 2008 Metalloproizvodstvo plemen uralskoy abashevskoy kultury. Problemy filologii, istorii i arkheologii, No. 21: 501–507.
27. Grigoriev S.A. 2015 Metallurgical Production in Northern Eurasia in the Bronze Age. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
28. Itina M.A. 1977 Istoriya stepnykh plemen Yuzhnogo Priaralya (II – nachalo I tysyacheletiya do n.e.). Moskow, Nauka. (Trudy Khorezmskoy arkheologo-etnograficheskoy ekspeditsii; vol. X).
29. Kalieva S.S., Kolbina A.V., Logvin V.N. 2016 Nekropol epokhi bronzy Dzhangildy-5. Kostanay: Kostanaypoligrafiya.
30. Kargaly. 2002 E.N. Chernykh (comp., ed.). Vol. I: Geologogeograficheskiye kharakteristiki. Istoriya otkrytiy, ekspluatatsii i issledovaniy. Arkheologicheskiye pamyatniki. Moscow: Yazyki slavyan. kultury.
31. Kargaly. 2004 E.N. Chernykh (comp., ed.). Vol. III: Selishche Gorniy: Arkheologicheskiye materialy. Tekhnologiya gornometallurgicheskogo proizvodstva. Arkheobiologicheskiye issledovaniya. Moscow: Yazyki slavyan. kultury.
32. Kraus S. 2021 Archaeometallurgical studies on BMAC artifacts. In The World of the Oxus Civilization, B. Lyonnet, N. Dubova (eds.). London, New York: Routledge, pp. 779–798.
33. Krizhevskaya L.Y. 1977 Rannebronzovoye vremya v Yuzhnom Zauralye. Leningrad: Izd. Leningr. Gos. Univ.
34. Kulevchi VI – mogilnik pozdnego bronzovogo veka v Yuzhnom Zauralye. 2020 Vinogradov N.B., Berseneva N.A., Alaeva I.P., Alentyev Y.M., Blinov I.A., Galibin V.A., Epimakhov A.V., Ilyushina V.V., Kitov E.P., Kosintsev P.A., Rassomakhin M.A. Chelyabinsk: Yuzh.-Ural. Gos. Gumanit.-Ped. Univ.
35. Kuzmina E.E. 1966 Metallicheskiye izdeliya eneolita i bronzovogo veka v Sredney Azii. Moscow: Nauka.
36. Kuzmina E.E. 1994 Otkuda prishli indoarii? Materialnaya kultura plemen andronovskoy obshchnosti i proiskhozhdeniye indoirantsev. Moscow: Vost. lit.
37. Kuzmina E.E. 2000 Pervaya volna migratsii indoirantsev na yug. Vestnik drevney istorii, No. 4: 3–20.
38. Kuznetsova E.F., Teplovodskaya T.M. 1994 Drevnyaya metallurgiya i goncharstvo Tsentralnogo Kazakhstana. Almaty: Gylym.
39. Marchenko Z.V., Svyatko S.V., Molodin V.I., Grishin A.E., Rykun M.P. 2017 Radiocarbon chronology of complexes with SeimaTurbino type objects (Bronze Age) in Southwestern Siberia. Radiocarbon, vol. 59 (5): 1381–1397.
40. Margulan A.K. 1979 Begazy-dandybayevskaya kultura Tsentralnogo Kazakhstana. Alma-Ata: Nauka.
41. Margulan A.K., Akishev K.A., Kadyrbaev M.K., Orazbaev A.M. 1966 Drevnyaya kultura Tsentralnogo Kazakhstana. AlmaAta: Nauka.
42. Merts I.V. 2017 Kultura naseleniya Vostochnogo Kazakhstana v epokhu ranney bronzy: Cand. Sc. (History) Dissertation. Barnaul: Alt. Gos. Univ.
43. Momenzadeh M. 2004 Metallic Mineral Resources of Iran, Mined in Ancient Times: A Brief Review. In Persia’s Ancient Splendour: Mining, Handicraft and Archaeology, T. Stollner, R. Slotta, A. Vatandoust (eds.). Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, pp. 8–21.
44. Narasimhan V.M., Patterson N., Moorjani P., Rohland N., Bernardos R., Mallick S., Lazaridis I., Nakatsuka N., Olalde I., Lipson M., Kim A.M., Olivieri L.M., Coppa A., Vidale M., Mallory J., Moiseyev V., Kitov E., Monge J., Adamski N., Alex N., Broomandkhoshbacht N., Candilio F., Callan K., Cheronet O., Culleton B.J., Ferry M., Fernandes D., Freilich S., Gamarra B., Gaudio D., Hajdinjak M., Harney É., Harper T.K., Keating D., Lawson A.M., Mah M., Mandl K., Michel M., Novak M., Oppenheimer J., Rai N., Sirak K., Slon V., Stewardson K., Zalzala F., Zhang Z., Akhatov G., Bagashev A.N., Bagnera A., Baitanayev B., Bendezu-Sarmiento J., Bissembaev A.A., Bonora G.L., Chargynov T.T., Chikisheva T., Dashkovskiy P.K., Derevianko A., Dobeš M., Douka K., Dubova N., Duisengali M.N., Enshin D., Epimakhov A., Fribus A.V., Fuller D., Goryachev A., Gromov A., Grushin S.P., Hanks B., Judd M., Kazizov E., Khokhlov A., Krygin A.P., Kupriyanova E., Kuznetsov P., Luiselli D., Maksudov F., Mamedov A.M., Mamirov T.B., Meiklejohn C., Merrett D.C., Micheli R., Mochalov O., Mustafokulov S., Nayak A., Pettener D., Potts R., Razhev D., Rykun M., Sarno S., Savenkova T.M., Sikhymbaeva K., Slepchenko S.M., Soltobaev O.A., Stepanova N., Svyatko S., Tabaldiev K., Teschler-Nicola M., Tishkin A.A., Tkachev V.V., Vasilyev S., Velemínský P., Voyakin D., Yermolayeva A., Zahir M., Zubkov V.S., Zubova A., Shinde V.S., Lalueza-Fox C., Meyer M., Anthony D., Boivin N., Thangaraj K., Kennett D.J., Frachetti M., Pinhasi R., Reich D. 2019 The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia. Science, vol. 365: Art. n. eaat7487.
45. Oudbashi O., Emami S.M., Davami P. 2012 Bronze in archaeology: A review of the archaeometallurgy of bronze in ancient Iran. In Copper Alloys – Early Applications and Current Performance – Enhancing Processes. London: IntechOpen, pp. 153–178.
46. Oudbashi O., Naseri R., Malekzadeh M. 2016 Technical studies on the Bronze Age metal artifacts from the graveyard of Deh Dumen, south-western Iran (third millennium BC). Archaeometry, vol. 58: 947–965.
47. Pigott V.C. 1999 The development of metal production on the Iranian Plateau: An archaeometallurgical perspective. In The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World. Symposium series, Philadelphia: University Museum, pp. 73–106.
48. Pigott V.C. 2004 On the importance of Iran in the study of prehistoric copper-base metallurgy. In Persia’s Ancient Splendour: Mining, Handicraft and Archaeology, T. Stollner, R. Slotta, A. Vatandoust (eds.). Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, pp. 28–43.
49. Ruzanov V.D. 2013 Metalloobrabotka na yuge Sredney Azii v epokhu bronzy. Samarkand: Inst. arkheologii AN Resp. Uzbekistan.
50. Ruzanov V.D. 2016 K voprosu o syryevoy baze metallurgii FerganoTashkentskogo regiona v epokhu bronzy. Vestnik Mezhdunarodnogo instituta tsentralno-aziatskikh issledovaniy, No. 1: 62–87.
51. Shevnina I., Logvin A. 2015 Mogilnik epokhi bronzy Khalvay III v Severnom Kazakhstane. Astana: Fil. Inst. arkheologii im. A.K. Margulana.
52. Stöllner T., Mireskandari M., Roustaei K. 2011 Mining archaeology in Iran – investigations at Veshnaveh. In Early Mining and Metallurgy on the Western Central Iranian Plateau: The First Five Years of Work, Mainz: Verl. Philipp von Zaber, pp. 535–608. (Archäologie in Iran und Turan; Bd. 9).
53. Taldysai – poseleniye drevnikh metallurgov pozdnebronzovogo veka v Ulytauskoy stepi. 2020 Z. Kurmankulov (ed.). Almaty: Inst. arkheologii im. A.K. Margulana.
54. Thornton C.P. 2009 The emergence of complex metallurgy on the Iranian Plateau: Escaping the Levantine paradigm. Journal of World Prehistory, vol. 22: 301–327.
55. Thornton C.P. 2010 The rise of arsenical copper in Southeastern Iran. Iranica Antiqua, vol. 45: 31–50.
56. Thornton C.P., Rehren T., Pigott V.C. 2009 The production of speiss (iron arsenide) during the Early Bronze Age in Iran. Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 36: 308–316.
57. Tigeeva E.V., Novikov I.K., Shilov S.N. 2016 Metallokompleks epokhi bronzy Alakulskogo mogilnika (tipologiya i tekhnologiya izgotovleniya). Vestnik arkheologii, antropologii i etnografii, No. 4: 18–32.
58. Vahdati A.A. 2020 Iron Age in Eastern Iran (1500–550 BC). In 1st Biennial International Conference of the Society of Iranian Archaeology: “Cultural Interactions, Continuity and Disruption”. Tehran: Ariyaramna Press, pp. 173–230. (In Persian).
59. Vinogradov N.B. 2017 Problemy sinkhronizatsii, kulturnoy blizosti pamyatnikov sintashtinskogo i petrovskogo tipov i vozmozhnosti ikh resheniya. Vestnik arkheologii, antropologii i etnografii, No. 2: 38–47.
60. Vinogradov N.B., Degtyareva A.D., Kuzminykh S.V. 2013 Metallurgiya i metalloobrabotka v zhizni obitateley ukreplennogo poseleniya Ustye 1. Vestnik arkheologii, antropologii i etnografii, No. 3: 4–30.
61. Yuminov A.M., Zaykov V.V., Korobkov V.F., Tkachev V.V. 2013 Bronze Age copper mining in the Mugodzhary. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, No. 3: 87–96. (In Russian and English).
62. Zaykov V.V., Yuminov A.M., Dunaev A.Y., Zdanovich G.B., Grigoriev S.A. 2005 Geologo-mineralogical studies of ancient copper mines in the Southern Urals. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, No. 4: 101–114.
63. Zhauymbaev S.U. 1987 Khronologiya drevnikh rudnikov Tsentralnogo Kazakhstana. In Voprosy periodizatsii arkheologicheskikh pamyatnikov Tsentralnogo i Severnogo Kazakhstana. Karaganda: Karagand. Gos. Univ., pp. 109–114.
Review
For citations:
Ankushev M.N., Ankusheva P.S., Artemyev D.A. Metal Production of Andronovo Communities and Farmers of Central Asia and Iran: Stages of Development and Search for Interactions. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 2025;53(1):74-82. https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.1.074-082
Views:
265
Email this article 