Materials on ferrous metallurgy on the complex prospikhinskaya Shivera IV in the Lower Angara region

Purpose. The article is devoted to the ferrous metallurgy installations found during excavations of the complex Prospikhinskya Shivera-IV located in the Lower Angara region. In the second cultural layer of the object, 13 metallurgical installations were found. Twelve of them are identified as metallurgical furnaces, one as a forge. Near the objects, there were numerous iron slags, stone tools for processing ore and forging metal, semi-finished forge products and iron products found. We typify the installations, date them and identify technological features of melting iron that were used by the local population. Development of the metallurgy technological tradition and metal working as well as sources of iron ore is considered. Results. The metallurgical furnaces found are divided into two types according to the form of the working camera: cylindrical and cubical ones. They differ in the design features. Within the archaeological opened area, the metallurgical installations were localized on three metallurgical platforms near the edge of the terrace. Each of the furnace types had a set of different tools, which helped to identify the type. Three furnaces were analyzed using the radio-carbon method of dating and the time of their operation was dated as XI-XIV centuries, i. e. the same interval as the medieval necropolis functioned on the platform. The metallurgical objects could have been connected with the burials found and could have been working for this purpose. The furnace of the Lower Angara region, together with the metallurgical objects from adjacent territories, appear to be similar in design, which proves the unity of technological traditions applied for obtaining and processing iron in the Middle Ages in the taiga zone of central Siberia. A piece of iron ore found in the second occupation layer of the monument appeared to be hematite-magnetite ore with porous texture and fine-grained structure. Galit-magnetite ores are widespread in the Angarsk iron ore area. Probable sources of similar ores are the fields located in the basin of the River Koda. The sample contained inclusions of ilmenite (FeTiO3), which points at the field Gorevoe as the most probable place of getting the ore, which is located 10 km upstream the River Koda from Prospikhinskya Shivera IV. Conclusion. We recorded the full cycle of getting and processing iron on the complex Prospikhinskya Shivera IV. It is for the first time in archaeology of this region that ore sources are localized, and they might have influenced the location of metallurgists' settlements. New data on ferrous metallurgy of the Lower Angara region accompanied by natural-science methods of analysis used will allow us to deal with further issues of metallurgical technologies development among the indigenous people of the region.