Gak E.I. The Transitional Period of Metalworking in Ciscaucasia and the South-East of the Russian Plain at the Turn of the Early and Middle Bronze Age

Abstract: The article presents a study on the morphological, chemical and technological features of the metal from the North Caucasian, Novotitorovskaya and Yamnaya cultures during the transitional period from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age in the regions of Ciscaucasia and the South-Eastern Russian plain. A series of instruments, decorative objects and fastening devices from 62 burials, 51 kurgans, 43 burial grounds are reviewed. Using close and distant analogies, the author undertakes a detailed typological analysis of the findings, noting consequent remnant forms, modifications and innovations. The author also gives a description of the chemical composition of their metal, which is mostly arsenic bronze. Attention is drawn to the uninterrupted dominance of forming forging in metalworking technologies. The research’s results on the whole allow to make conclusions about the particularities of the given series of objects, which illustrate the general evolutionary tendencies of the steppe zone. The essence of the occurring changes consisted in the eradication of metal production standards of the Early Bronze Age and the formation of new traditions, developed and widely diffused contemporaneously with the spreading of the catacomb burial rite at the beginning of the Middle Bronze epoch in the south of Eastern Europe.

Keywords: