With support from the National Science Foundation Dr Bryan Hanks will conduct archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis to investigate the nature of copper metallurgy and socio-economic organization as practiced by Bronze Age communities who inhabited the Southern Russian steppe from the Middle to Late Bronze Age phases (2100 to 1500 BC). This project will focus on two Bronze Age settlements and include 1) geochemical survey, 2) targeted small-scale excavation, 3) additional site catchment study and 4) the comparative analysis of archaeometallurgical materials and associated features. Many scholars have tied copper production to both extensive regional and inter-regional trade and societal conflict, which in turn has afforded the role of metallurgy a powerful position in models that seek to explain the emergence of social inequality and regional hierarchies. This research will examine the proposition that the development of metallurgy plays a major role in this process.
The research targets both persistent anthropological questions relating to the interface between regional socio-economic development, technological practice and social organization and more specific questions connected with social change during the Middle to Late Bronze Age in north central Eurasia. Metal production and consumption are frequently tied to models of social and economic development in Eurasia during the late prehistoric period. Yet, very little is actually known about where and how regional ores were being exploited, how regional social organization varied in connection with metallurgy as a segmented process, and to what degree local and regional variability in copper smelting and metal production technologies developed.
The broader impacts of this project build on a highly successful and already established collaborative program of study between individuals and institutions in the United States, United Kingdom and Russia. The proposed research has as one of its principal aims the integration and training of students in both archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis.
The Sintashta Collaborative Archaeology Project (SCARP) extended on previous research in the Russian Federation (NSF grant # 0726279; 2007-2010) and standing research agreements between the University of Pittsburgh (USA), University of Sheffield (UK), Chelyabinsk State University (Russia), Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical Institute (Russia) and Ural State University (Russia). Student and faculty members from these institutions, including other team participants from Serbia, Japan, China, France, and Canada, undertook three summer field seasons of research from 2011-2013. This research program investigated the character and scale of copper mining, metal production, and socio-economic organization as practiced by Bronze Age communities who inhabited the Southern Ural Mountains steppe zone from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (2100 to 1500 BC). Project activities were carried out through comparative research at three Bronze Age settlements (Stepnoye, Chernorech'ye, and Ust’ye) and associated micro-regions. Field methods employed included: (1) geochemical survey (using hand held portable x-ray fluorescence), (2) geophysical survey (combining fluxgate gradiometry, cesium magnetometry, and ground penetrating radar), (3) targeted small-scale excavation, (4) site catchment analysis, (5) comparative study of archaeometallurgical materials and associated production features, and (6) full coverage, systematic pedestrian survey. A more intensive focus on the micro-regional contexts of metallurgical production was aimed at testing previous models of high-scale mining and metal production, emergence of craft specialization, and extensive regional and inter-regional trade. Such models have factored significantly into explanations that address the emergence of social inequality and regional hierarchies in the late prehistoric steppe region. Specific research questions examined through the project included: (1) To what extent does the evidence for metal production from the Stepnoye, Chernorech'ye and Ust’ye settlements support the concept of a uniform Sintashta culture metallurgical tradition? (2) Was the scale of production and spatial organization of metallurgy similar at Stepnoye and Ust’ye during the Sintashta period and is there evidence for a shift in technological practices and resource procurement strategies at Ust’ye between the Sintashta (Middle Bronze Age) and Petrovka (Late Bronze Age) phases? (3) What does lead isotope analysis of metal goods (from both cemetery and settlement contexts at Stepnoye and Ust’ye) indicate about the continuity of resource exploitation and metal circulation from the Middle to Late Bronze Age in terms of more defined local vs. larger regional procurement and exchange? What are the implications of such data for modeling regional economic development and how does this connect with wider systems of exchange and social, political and economic integration? The results of the research program have provided some of the first substantial empirical evidence for both the scale of metal production at these sites as well as the compositional characteristics of metal artifacts and by-products (e.g. slags, metal droplets, technical ceramics, etc.) of the metallurgical process. Project data indicate that the scale of metal production was at least an order of magnitude less than what has been hypothesized with only a few households smelting a few times per year. Comparative compositional data from two of the settlements examined, including metal artifacts, mineral ores from local catchments, and copper slag analysis, indicate that local copper ore resources were being exploited and that metals being produced at the sites were compositionally quite uniform lcoally but very different between settlement sites. This data supports a model of greater autonomy in metallurgical production that was based on local community needs rather than ore procurement and craft specialization associated with supra-local trade and networking. The broader contributions of this project have been realized through the unique opportunity afforded by international collaboration of scholars from the Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States. The employment of new methods in conjunction with a research program focused on comparative research between settlements has provided an outstanding opportunity for the sharing of intellectual and scientific traditions and the training of a new generation of students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
