Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 46 (3) 2018   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.066-074

Annotation:  The Discovery of a Bifacial Industry in Vietnam Technological Development of the Neolithic Pottery at Göytepe (West Azerbaijan) Reconstruction of Extreme Paleoclimatic Events in Northwestern Siberia Using Ancient Wood from Fort On the Construction Features of Wheeled Vehicles in Iran and Mesopotamia (Third to First Millennia B The Adaptation of the Seima-Turbino Tradition to the Bronze Age Cultures in the South of the West Si A Half of a Metal Bipartite Mold of the Seima-Turbino Period from the Upper Irtysh Region Zotino III: An Early Iron Age Metallurgical Center in the Trans-Urals Middle and Late Bronze Age House-Building in the Steppe and Forest-Steppe Altai Artistic Metalwork Found Near the Tomskaya Pisanitsa Cultural Ties Across Taiga and Steppe: Material Culture from the Medieval Lower Angara River and Pro Bronze Plaques from Northern Kyrgyzstan with Representations of Horsemen Kimak and Chu-mu-kun 處木昆: Notes on an Identification Traditional Buryat Burials: Changes and Stereotypes Substitute Offering: An Ob Ugrian Ritual Tradition Surviving in the 20th and Early 21st Century Seventeenth Century Siberia as a Land of Opportunity: Social Mobility Among the Russian Pioneers Deciduous Human Teeth from the Upper Paleolithic Site of Yudinovo, Western Russia Realism of Face Depiction in Portraiture   

Zotino III: An Early Iron Age Metallurgical Center in the Trans-Urals

V.A. Borzunov

Yeltsin Ural Federal University, Pr. Lenina 51, Yekaterinburg, 620083, Russia

In 1974 and 1977, an archaeological expedition from Ural State University excavated part (441 m2) of a fortified Early Iron Age manufacturing site on the Bagaryak River, near Zotino, in the forest zone of the Trans-Urals foothills. The site, with a total area of 3800 m2, is located on a 40–43 m high cliff. Its northeastern inland side is protected by a low stone and earthen rampart, preserved to a height of 0.7 m, and is delimited by a shallow outer drainage ditch, with a single entrance ~2 m wide. Under the wall, there is a thin layer of buried soil with fragments of the Itkul ceramics. Inside the wall, carbonaceous sandy loam, pieces of calx, and charred remains of wooden structures were found. Our reconstruction suggests that the original 2 m wide wall consisted of two rows of logs and a built-in subsquare tower ~3.0 m by 2.6 m. The base of the walls and tower were strengthened with rubble, and its outer face was enforced with limestone slabs. Near the rampart and along the northwestern edge of the site’s inner space, remains of three adobe platforms for processing copper and iron were identified, as well as two dug-in hearths, a utility pit and, apparently, remains of an adobe melting furnace. This is the easternmost and latest (400–100 BC) seasonal fortified metallurgical center of the Itkul culture—an autochthonous culture of the forest zone of the Trans-Urals. In the forest-steppe to the east and south of it, on the lower reaches of the Sinara and Karabolka rivers, the westernmost fortresses built by the Gorokhovo herders (500–100 BC) are situated—the likely source of the Itkul fortification tradition.

Keywords: Forest zone, Trans-Urals, Early Iron Age, metallurgy, fortification.