Ancient mining sites in Afanas’evo culture of Eastern Kazakhstan

Purpose : This article discusses a problem of allocating the mining sites of Afanas’evo culture of Eastern Kazakhstan. Main content of this research is devoted to analyzing the archaeological finds from mines of this region, obtained in the 30-s of XX century in expeditions of State Academy of History of Material Culture led by S. S. Chernikov. As a part of complex research, we also studied random finds of stone axe-hammers, which were found in this region. Results : As a result of studying the archaeological collections of two mining sites, Karagoin and Karshiga, stored in the Hermitage, we found out that among the artifacts of Late Bronze Age the earlier materials, comparable to Afanas’evo finds, can be identified. Mining objects are represented by workings of copper and tin. The latter circumstance does not fit the theory that Afanas’evo industry can only be characterized by products of copper and gold. However, at this stage of research we do not have materials which can be connected to metallurgy of Afanas’evo culture of this region, but we do not completely exclude the possibility of using bronze alloys at the later stages of this culture. Due to the historiographical research and attracted archival materials, the origin of two drilled axe-hammers was clarified, one of them is directly related to gold mining industry of Ulanka river region. It is possible that there we can find another mining site of Afanas’evo culture. Another part of our work is dedicated to archival materials. In this article we discuss a problem of a large-scale research of all known ancient mining sites and specialized archives in order to identify early mining sites, because usually ore deposits have been exploited for a long time. Conclusion : S. S. Chernikov was the first researcher to formulate the problem of formatting and developing of mining and metallurgy of Bronze Age of Kazakhstan. However, at that stage of research due to inexpressiveness of materials and limitedness of information, Chernikov was unable to identify the earliest mining sites. Nowadays a successful research of the origins and development of mining and metallurgy can only be achieved by purposeful excavations. Long-term archaeological research shows that usually a large number of sites that form a single complex, including manufacturing sites, settlements and burials of the ancient metallurgists are situated close to the mine workings. Identification of this kind of complexes is necessary for a full study of the ancient mining production and therefore retrial field works on the mines of Karagoin and Karshiga are perspective.