Early Metal Age Stone Axes from the Collection of the Sovetsk District Museum of Regional Studies named after A.S. Lebedev

Abstract

The article deals with the Early Metal Age stone axes kept in the Sovetsk District Museum of Regional Studies named after A.S. Lebedev. According to morphological features, in accordance with the classification of battle bored axes of Balanovo culture by O.N. Bader and A.Kh. Khalikov, these stone items were typologized by the authors, five types of stone axes were distinguished on this basis. Such stone axes of the Early Metal Age were the most widespread among the representatives of the Balanovo culture of corded ware in the Bronze Age in the Upper and Middle Volga area, which indicates close cultural relationship between the bearers of the above-mentioned culture of the Vyatka River basin and the Volga region. The chronological boundary of the use of these stone axes is determined by the end of the III – 1st quarter of the II millennium BC. A special place in the collection above-mentioned is occupied by a zoomorphic shaped axe – the axe-hammer. The presence in the collection of the Sovetsk Museum of a figured axe-hammer, the location of which is associated with the surroundings of Sovetsk (Kirov region), is presumably a reflection of cultural contacts of the Balanovo culture population, inhabited the Vyatka River basin, with the bearers of the asbestos ceramics culture at a certain stage of their development.

Keywords

• archaeology
• early metal age
• bronze age
• balanovo culture
• stone axe
• vyatka
• asbestos ceramics culture