Reconstruction of the bronze-casting technological complexes based on the exploration of Ust-Poluy

The article considers the results of examination of items tied to bronze-casting technology that were found thanks to archeological diggings of the ancient sanctuary Ust-Poluy. The collections of these items are in «The Kunstkamera» in St. Petersburg, they consist of items from non-ferrous metals, their fractions and fire-polished fragments, and shaly models too. They all were described in the previous articles. V.N. Chernetsov was the first who examined bronze of Ust-Poluy from cultur-ological point of view. Nobody criticizes his opinion about relative chronological homogeneity of these objects. V.N. Chernetsov determined 2 groups of bronze items. The first group concludes the casting of bad quality with characteristic features of the temperature abuse. The second one is the casting of high quality, generally the casting from white bronze. V.N. Chernetsov explained that these groups differ technologically from each other because of the local production and the import. But lately there is an opinion that metal-makers of The Nizhnyaya Ob produced the items of the second group themselves. We tried not only to test this hypothesis, but we wanted to determine if there is the chronological component (not only the cultural one) in the variety of bronze items. That's why we analyzed not only the morphological characteristics of these objects but the alloy composition as well. The main conclusion is not new: bronze items of Ust-Poluy are heterogeneous by reconstructed characteristics of the technological complexes tied to their production. By virtue of the reconstruction of the technological complexes we can speak about the next step: determination of the possibility of their realization under conditions of the cultural environment of The north Taiga. Characteristics of the elaborate handicraft industry were determined due to the examination of some bronze items, this is the mark of the import. Analyzing the alloy composition of the items of Ust-Poluy we discovered some technological traditions. More ordered formula is typical for the items of the «import» groups. The shaly models were examined by us too, they could be used as matrixes for producing the casting forms. But the absence of series-produced items, fragments of used forms, the morphological characteristics of the bas-relieves, and the absence of the casting forms from shist contradict this idea. We can suppose that «the shaly models» could have other role as some explorers thinks.

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