The Copper Smelting Furnace at the Novotemirsky Ancient Mine

Abstract

The paper presents research results of the copper smelting furnace at the turn of the 3rd/2nd millennium BC discovered in the ancient mine Novotemirsky. This is the first evidence of the metals smelting from ores directly at the deposit in the Bronze Age of the Southern Trans- Urals. The technology of smelting metals from ores (the furnace structure, the type of ores and slags, the melting temperature, and the metal composition) was determined using a complex of mineralogical and geochemical research methods (optical and electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence analysis and LA-ICP-MS)., The results demonstrate an original metallurgical technology despite the territorial-chronological localization of the furnace within the Sintashta culture. In particular, sulfide inclusions in the Cr-rich containing olivine slags find analogies in the Abashevo culture from multilayer Bronze Age settlements of the Southern Urals.

Keywords

• archaeology
• ancient mine
• bronze age
• southern trans-urals
• furnace
• metallurgical slag
• sintashta culture
• abashevo culture