The non-ferrous metal toolkit of the Petrovka Culture of the South Trans-Urals

Abstract

The article presents data on the morphological and typological characteristics of the trade tools of the Petrovka Culture of the South Trans-Urals and middle Tobol River region, originating from the sites of Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and Tyumen Regions (77 specimens in total; 126 specimens in total including knives). According to the radiocarbon dating, the chronological period of the Petrovka sites in the Southern Trans-Urals spans the 19th through 18th centuries B.C. The distribution of tools into types was based on the techniques of typological division of the artifacts, taking into account their shape, presence of certain qualitative features, as well as consideration of the geographical and cultural areal of similar articles. The produce of the Southern Trans-Urals center is represented by a diverse set of metal tools and by functioning of large settlements with metallurgical specialization — Kulevchi 3, Ustye 1, and Shibaevo 1. In the typology of the tool complex of the Petrovka Culture of the Southern Trans-Urals and the Middle Pre-Tobol region, common Eurasian types dominate, being genetically associated with the centers of the Middle Bronze Age of the Circumpontian Metallurgical Province — the Late Yamnaya-Poltavkino, Catacomb Culture, and metal-producing centers of the Corded Ware Culture — Volsk-Lbische and Balanovo. A pronounced variety of the morphotypes of the tools, especially knives, is characteristic of the initial stage of ethnogenesis of the cultures of the forest-steppe and steppe zone of Eurasia during the transitional period from the MBA to the LBA. Common Eurasian types of tools are characteristic of the cultures of the 1st phase of the Eurasian (West Asian) metallurgical province of the forest-steppe and steppe belt from the Don region to the Irtysh region: Abashevo; Sintashta; Early Srubnaya (Pokrovka); Petrovka (Early Alakul). Specific groups of tools inherent in the tribes of the Petrovka Culture were revealed: axes with a massive head; medium-curved sickles with a prominent handle; socketed spearheads without eyelets and raised ribs along the edge of the socket; forged arrowheads with a through socket; knives with a straight prominent handle — double-edged and single-edged; knives with a forged open socket. In the appearance of some types of tools among the Petrovka population of the Trans-Urals, such as forged socketed tools — chisels, knives, arrows, double-edged knives with a prominent handle, and sickles with a small curvature, the influence of the Abashevo stereotypes of production is discernible. In the meantime, sufficient data have been obtained on the direct imports or on the conjugation of types of the metal tools and weapons of the Sintashta, Petrovka, and Seima-Turbino Cultures in closed complexes.

Keywords

• petrovka culture
• metal products
• typology of tools
• south trans-ural region
• middle tobol region