Andrey V. Chugaev^1,*, Dmitry A. Artemyev^2,**, Anna D. Degtyareva^3,***, Sergey V. Kuzminykh^4,****, and Lyubov B. Orlovskaya^4,*****

¹Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry RAS, Moscow, Russia
²South Ural Federal Research Centre of Mineralogy and Geoecology, UB RAS, Miass, Russia
³Tyumen Research Centre, SB RAS, Tyumen, Russia
⁴Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia

*E-mail: vassachav@mail.ru
** E-mail: artemyev@mineralogy.ru
***E-mail: adegtyareva126@gmail.com
****E-mail: kuzminykhsv@yandex.ru
*****Email: lborl47@rambler.ru

Keywords: Petrovka culture, Alakul culture, Southern Urals, Kazakhstan, metal chemical composition, Pb isotopic composition, metal circulation.

The article discusses the ore sources of metals in the Petrovka and Alakul cultures of the Southern Trans-Urals and Middle Tobol region. Sixty-one Bronze Age artifacts (19th–16th centuries BC) from the Petrovka, Alakul, and Fyodorovka cultures of the Ural-Kazakhstan region were studied. The metal composition of the artifacts was analyzed and the contents of trace elements were determined using LA-ICP-MS analysis, AESA, SEM-EDA, and XRF analysis. The studied sample of artifacts is heterogeneous in terms of the composition and content of minor trace elements in the metal, as well as the Pb isotopic composition. For a range of items, the isotopic ratios of 206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb and 208Pb/204Pb vary widely from 17.48 to 18.79, from 15.49 to 15.64, and from 37.50 to 38.47. The established heterogeneity of the metal in chemical composition and Pb isotopic characteristics indicates that it originated from different ore provinces. Based on the discovered patterns in variations in the chemical composition of the metal and the isotopic composition of Pb, it is shown that the main centres of its extraction and production were located in the Southern Urals and in Rudny Altai. A smaller amount of the metal may have come from the mining and metallurgical centres of Kazakhstan and the Tien Shan.

DOI: 10.7868/S3034577426020039