The Bohai's Bronze Metallurgy in the Ilistaya River Valley

Excavated sites on Russian territories have yielded a variety, though not abundance, of bronze articles that show high level of Bohai craftsmanship. Until recently, traces of Bronze foundries were only found on three Bohai sites in Primorye. Still unknown remain such specifics as sources of raw material, locations of other metallurgic centers and their economic and social patterns, tools, inventory, etc. New data from the Bohai site of Gorbatka may add to our knowledge of bronze metallurgy what were got in the Nikolaevskoye-II walled town. Archival data from geological reports as well as the results of field research during a particular fieldwork effort permitted a preliminary assessment of mineral resources in the surroundings of the ancient town site of Gorbatka. This assessment shed some light on the problem of identification of sources of raw materials for bronze metallurgy in the region. Chemical compositions of bronze alloys of 13 samples were analyzed by the method of X-Ray in Kanazawa University (Kanazawa, Japan). Main archaeological sources we rely on in this paper come from excavations on the ancient town site of Gorbatka located in the valley of river Ilistaya, Mikhailovski District, Primorski Krai (Primorye). The site was under exploration since 1997 through 2005. Archaeological evidences directly tied to bronze metallurgy of the Bohai people in the valley of river Ilistaya include numerous fragmented and unbroken crucibles, bronze waste, bronze articles, and tools suitable for making or finishing of bronze goods. Crucibles are ceramic containers that immediately evince production of bronze articles by Gorbatka inhabitants inside the boundaries of the site. Among the tools found during the excavations in habitation area of the town site, particularly the tools suitable for processing of bronze articles, we need to mention three pincers, two drills, and burin. All of the Gorbatka site's occupation horizons yielded ten bronze objects in total, including bracelet fragments, belt plaques, belt buckles, nail, pendant, fragment of a mirror. The valley of river Ilistaya in the Bohai time became the location of bronze metallurgy centers that supplied the demand for bronze goods. Bronze founders lived and worked in industrial zones side by side with other craftspeople. We should not exclude that a single household could maintain different handicraft specialties because there are cases of dwelling sites containing tools and production waste characteristic of different trades. Most evident is the connection between non-ferrous metallurgy and smithery. In any case, the Bohai sites in Ilistaya valley do not demonstrate any obvious pattern of spatial arrangement in bronze-processing complex.

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