Bronze Socketed Axe of the Early Iron Age from the Upper Reaches of the Konda River

Abstract

The paper features the results of a study of a bronze socketed axe. The artifact was found in the Tolum 1 settlement in the upper reaches of the Konda river in western part of the taiga zone of the West Siberian plain. The comparative study covered the morphological, technological, ornamental aspects of the tool as well as chemical composition of the metal. The Tolum axe as well a miniature axe-shaped pendant found near the Tabory village (located in the north-eastern part of Sverdlovsk Oblast), in terms of the complex of morphological, technological and ornamental features, form a group of original tools, which are typical for the early Iron Age antiquities of the Middle and High Trans-Urals. This group of artifacts probably appeared in the 6th–14th centuries BC as a result of close interactions of bronzeworking traditions of the Ananyino, Itkul and Kulay cultures of the Volga–Kama basins, the Urals and the Western Siberia.

Keywords

• archaeology
• western siberia
• early iron age
• socketed axe
• non-ferrous metalworking