The Search Possibilities of the Ancient Ore Mining Sites in the North of the Kuznetsky Alatau

Abstract

The foothills of the North-Western Kuznetsky Alatau are considered as the copper-ore base of the Tagar archaeological culture. The paper introduced some published data on copper deposits on the banks of the river Kia and the bordering area of the Kuznetsky Alatau. Map-marking revealed the geographical the connection between the Koghuh tectonic area, the Central-Martaiga structure-formaton area, and the Tagar archaeological sites. The research registered the known settlements on the Kemerovo region territory with signs of the bronze industry (copper-bronze artifacts, tools for ore crushing, slag) related to Tagar and transitional Tagar-Tashtik Epoch. The peculiarities of such sites demonstrated the localization of the bronze industry process in the some fortified and stable settlements. The comparison of geochemical admixtures revealed the differences of copper-ore origin at the developed stage of Tagar culture and the transitional Tagar-Tashtik stage. This can be explained by the difference in geography of the sites as related to the copper deposits of North-Western, Northern, and North-Eastern Kuznetsky Alatau foothills. The authors believe that the banks of the Kia and its left tributaries, the Koghuh and the Kundat, can reveal some ancient copper mining archaeological sites in the future.

Keywords

• kiya-chulim drainage-basin
• tagar culture
• settlements
• metallurgy
• copper ore
• icp ae-spectrometry