Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 53 (1) 2025   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.1.074-082

Annotation:  The Peopling of Uzbekistan by Homo sapiens denisovan Microblade Production in the Sukhotino-4 Industry, Eastern Transbaikalia Masks and Sculptured Human Heads in Early Neolithic Complexes of Northern Mesopotamia Shell of Tritia nitida Sea Snail from a Neolithic Burial at the Ust-Aleyka-5 Flat Burial Ground, Bar A Neolithic Burial in the Northern Upper Ob Basin A Study of Seima-Turbino Bronze Artifacts Discovered in China Metal Production of Andronovo Communities and Farmers of Central Asia and Iran: Stages of Developme Antimony Ornaments, Votive and Ritual Items of the Koban Culture in the Caucasus as a Historical So Burial of a Warrior in the Pazyryk Mound at Khankharinsky Dol, Altai A Tes Stage Mound-Vault at Skalnaya-5, Khakassia “Angular” and “Trestle” Forts in 17th to Early 18th Century Russia Ritual Structures in the Volga and Ural Regions, Based on Findings of the Peter Simon Pallas Expedit A Relative in Bearskin: The Bear in Lower Amur Folk Beliefs Reminiscences of Traditional Prayer Rituals in Modern Udmurt Culture Digital Forensic Analysis of Tooth Wear in Prehistoric and Modern Humans   

Metal Production of Andronovo Communities and Farmers of Central Asia and Iran: Stages of Development and Search for Interactions

M.N. Ankushev, P.S. Ankusheva, and D.A. Artemyev

South Urals Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ilmensky Reserve, Miass, 456317, Russia

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.

Keywords: Ancient metallurgy, mining, ancient mines, Bronze Age, metal artifacts, Andronovo