Evgeny I. Gak^1,2

¹State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia
²Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems of Soil Science RAS, Pushchino, Russia

E-mail: e.i.gak@mail.ru

Keywords: Bronze Age, Middle Don Catacomb culture, Voronezh culture, settlement, metal production, smelting bowl, crucible, nozzle, casting mold, arsenic bronze.

The article analyzes evidence of copper-bronze casting at the Ksizovo 1 settlement of the Middle Don Catacomb culture in the context of materials similar in industry specificity and chronology in the forest-steppe Don region. The author characterizes in detail means of production documented with fragments of smelting bowls, nozzles and casting molds. The remains of casting in the form of oxidized melt splashes and inclusions on the smelting bowls were identified by the XRF method as low-alloy arsenic bronze. A comparison of the chemical composition data showed that the metal of Ksizovo-1 is similar to the metal of regional Catacomb sites and reveals signs of internal unity. The range and localization of the finds suggest that all of this is evidence of non-systematic production activity, which was conducted in a vacant area at the outskirts of the settlement in order to meet the needs for essential items. It is proved by the examples of individual smelting and casting tools found at a number of the Catacomb and Voronezh sites of the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. It is shown that, together with the materials of Ksizovo-1, they mark the initial period of bronze casting production in the region. The organization of this process corresponded to the domestic handicraft level and it was due to the peripheral position of the Don forest-steppe relative to the mining and metallurgical centres, the nearest of them located in Donbass.

DOI: 10.31857/S0869606325030062