The myth of the Kulay iron metallurgy: historiography of the problem and the prospects of its solution

The article is devoted to the problem of the existence of iron metallurgy in Western Siberia in the early iron era. Historiographic analysis has shown that various scientists believe that the population of the Kulay culture had mastered the metallurgy of iron and smelted local ores. However, the analysis of archaeological materials demonstrates exactly the opposite - there is no reliable archaeological evidence of the existence of local iron metallurgy in the taiga zone of Western Siberia in the Early Iron Age. The emergence of reliable evidence of local metallurgy dates back to the subsequent Middle Ages. The article concludes that iron objects, and possibly blooms, entered in the Kulay culture as an import. The reasons for the appearance of such myths about the developed taiga metallurgy are explained by the fact that many archaeologists, including specialists in metallography, automatically attribute the iron objects found on the Kulai sites to products of local production. After carrying out metallographic studies, archaeologists draw conclusions about the level of blacksmithing technologies, and then these conclusions flow from one article to another, where scientists attribute the identified technologies to the local taiga population. The article focuses on the fact that before reconstructing the dynamics and level of development of blacksmithing, it is first necessary to identify the origin of iron objects and prove their local production by natural scientific methods. This task is especially relevant for the study of Siberian taiga metallurgy, where until the New Age lived collectives who did not know either smelting or blacksmithing, using imported iron, or owned only primitive forging, knowing nothing of how to smelt iron ores. The article discusses the possibility of establishing the place of ore mining for the manufacture of a specific iron object. Some elements are transferred from the ore not only to the slag during smelting, but also to slag inclusions that are always present in iron products. The method for analyzing slag inclusions from iron products is similar to the method for analyzing smelting and smithing slags, since the same elements are analyzed, including rock-forming (main) ones, as well as rare and trace elements. The article provides a brief description of geochemical methods aimed at establishing the place of manufacture of an iron object. The article summarizes that all conclusions about the taiga iron metallurgy of the Early Iron Age can be attributed to archaeological myths until such studies are carried out, as long as the iron-smelting and forges of the Kulai culture are not discovered.

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