The exploration of the ferrous metallurgy sites in Altai in 2017

The article presents the first results of the joint Russian-Japanese expedition to study the monuments of ferrous metallurgy on the territory of three districts of the Republic of Altai - Ongudai, Kosh-Agach and Ulagan in the autumn of 2017. We searched and identified places with remnants of iron-making production. We examined the furnaces and sampling of the charcoal for radiocarbon analysis following the discovery. A total, nine sites with remnants of iron-making production were surveyed: Nizhnee Sooru, Bolshoy Ilgumen, Zolotarevka, Kuyaktanar-1 and Kuyaktanar-2, Yustyd (left and right bank), Kara-Suu, Balyktyule. On the sites, where it was possible, we have taken the pieces of the slag with inclusions of the coal, it guarantees the most accurate determination of the melting time, since their belonging to a particular smelting process is beyond doubt. Analysis of the selected samples allowed to obtain the six AMS-dates in the laboratory of the Institute of Accelerator Analysis Limited (Japan). The calibrated dates indicate that the surveyed Altaic sites of ferrous metallurgy functioned in the period from the end of the 5th to the second half of the 6th centuries AD inclusively. The Balyktyule furnaces according to their design and the features of the iron smelting are the earliest and date from the period of the 394-425 AD, it corresponds to the period of the Rouran domination in Central Asia. The early dates of the Balyktyule furnaces testify to the presence of iron production among the local Teles population (the Bulan-Coba archaeological culture) on the territory of the Russian Altai on an ongoing basis at the late stage of the Hun-Sarmatian period preceding the Early Turkic period. Others furnaces reviewed belong to a slightly later time, but their dates are also quite compact within the end of the Hun-Sarmatian time and the beginning of the Early Turkic period. According to the written sources, after the resettlement to the Altai mountains the Turks of Ashin became known as the metallurgists, who paid tribute to the Rourans with metal products. The radiocarbon dates adjust representations about time of occurrence of the iron-making production in the region on an ongoing basis no later than the turn of the 4th - 5th centuries AD. The radiocarbon dates allow us to put forward a hypothesis that the Turks have become skilled casters in the Altai Mountains, having borrowed the skills of mining and metallurgical production already available from the local Teles population. Thus, the results of our research are important for further study of the history of ferrous metallurgy in the Altai.

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