Polina S. Ankusheva^1,*, Irina P. Alaeva^2,**, Maksim N. Ankushev^1,***, Dmitry A. Artemyev^1,****, Ivan A. Blinov^1,*****, Andrey V. Epimakhov^1,******, Elya P. Zazovskaya^3,*******, Darya V. Kiseleva^4,********, Aleksey Yu. Rassadnikov^5,*********, and Denis V. Sharapov^6,**********

¹South Ural Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology, UB RAS, Miass, Russia
²South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University, Chelyabinsk, Russia
³Institute of Geography RAS, Moscow, Russia
⁴A.N. Zavaritsky Institute of Geology and Geochemistry, UB RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia
⁵Institute of History and Archaeology, UB RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia
⁶Tyumen State University, Tyumen, Russia

*E-mail: polenke@mineralogy.ru
**E-mail: alaevaira@mail.ru
***E-mail: ankushev_maksim@mail.ru
****E-mail: artemyev@mineralogy.ru
*****E-mail: ivan_a_blinov@mail.ru
******E-mail: epimakhovav@susu.ru
*******E-mail: zazovskaya@igras.ru
********E-mail: podarenka@mail.ru
*********E-mail: ralu87@mail.ru
**********E-mail: d.sharapov@utmn.ru

Keywords: Bronze Age, Southern Trans-Urals, metal production, copper ore, metallurgical slags, radiocarbon dating, SEM-EDS, strontium isotopes.

This article deals with the issue of reconstructing the circulation patterns of mining and metallurgical products in the Bronze Age of the Southern Trans-Urals. The study aims to test the hypothesis regarding the relationship between copper deposits mined during this period and nearby settlements. The research is based on materials from the multi-layered, unfortified settlement of Lebyazhye IV. The typological characteristics of the pottery and radiocarbon dating indicate a long period of its functioning during the 2nd millennium BC. The mineralogical and geochemical features of metallurgical products from the settlement confirm the supply of raw materials from the nearby Vorovskaya Yama copper mine, located 8 km from the settlement and dated to the 17th–16th centuries BC. However, the characteristics of one of the slag groups, along with different Sr-isotope signals in the tooth enamel of animals from the mine and the settlement, suggest additional, currently unidentified, routes of import-export relations. Thus, at the Lebyazhye IV settlement, the study identified processed raw materials from at least two different copper deposits. The nearest of these, Vorovskaya Yama, was also a source of ore for several Bronze Age sites in the Southern Trans-Urals.

DOI: 10.7868/S3034577426010031