Prehistoric technologies of mining: Novotemirsky mine in the Southern Trans-Urals

Metallurgical production in the Southern Trans-Urals gave a certain originality of the socio-economic component of the inhabitants of the Southern Trans-Urals for many millennia. One of the sites illustrating ancient mining technologies is the Novotemirsky mine (Chesma district, Chelyabinsk region, Russia). Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it was not disturbed by modern developments, as well as in the presence of a cultural layer with artifacts which can be dated. Until now, the ancient metal production in the Southern Trans-Urals was mainly studied only within the settlements, which precluded knowledge of the absolutely necessary and existing stages of mining. The overall aim is the study of the ancient mining technologies of the Southern Trans-Urals on the example of the ancient Novotemirsky mine. The tasks included the reconstruction of ore mining methods by studying the morphology of various objects of the site; mineralogical research of the ores; determination of the stages of field operation. A detailed plan of the heights of the mine in its current state was created using topographic survey. The mine is a complex of objects: the main quarry, surrounded on three sides with sickle-shaped dumps. Archeological excavations have investigated the structure of the dumps. All of them are composed of various sized rubble of serpentinites, rodingites, brown iron ore and copper minerals and were formed during different periods. The excavations also allowed to reveal the pits buried by the waste rock in antiquity: a vertical shaft with a depth of more than 6 m, a winding manhole in the board of the main quarry, as well as small pits left after depletion of low-power surface ore veins. The main objects of extraction were oxidized and semi-oxidized ores: malachite, azurite and chrysocolla. Primary ore mineralization has arsenic-nickel-copper specificity, which could give a natural admixture of arsenic in the metal. Massive macro-tools from sandstone, specially brought by the miners, used for splitting large pieces of rock during the primary enrichment. We can assume the seasonal nature of the field development (summer or summer-autumn period) due to the proximity of groundwater. The exploitation of a copper deposit on Novotemirsky mine began in the Late Bronze Age. This is evidenced by a fragment of ceramics found on the buried soil in the mound of the quarry dump. The development of the mine by Sintashta metallurgists is also indicated by the type of host rock, correlated with the slags of fortified settlements, the proximity of morphology and geology with the dated Vorovskaya Yama mine and the typological similarity of stone mining tools. Copper ore mining could be resumed at the turn of the era, as indicated by the vessels of the Kashino culture. Finally, it cannot be ruled out that the final stage of the field development falls on New Time. The authors are grateful to L.Ya. Kabanova, V.V. Ilyushina for help in the study, M.V. Shtenberg for photography of ore samples. Contribution of the authors: the authors contributed equally to this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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