Статтю присвячено металевим ножам доби
бронзи, знайденим неподалік від відомої петрографічної та археологічної пам’ятки «Кам’яна Могила» у Запорізької області та їхнім аналогіям у похованнях ямної, катакомбної та зрубної культур.
Metal (copper and bronze) knives is one of the most
striking categories of artefacts in the materials of
the Black Sea cultures of the Early, Middle and Late
Bronze Age. In addition to introducing new archaeological
evidences to scientific community, the paper aims
to analyze the place of a representative series of knives
(8 items) from the vicinity of Kamyana Mohyla (Zaporizhzhya
region) in the cultural and chronological coordinate
system of the southern part of Eastern Europe
Bronze Age. Three knives came from the Yamna culture
burials. The one with an oval blade of the Zarechnoe
type (kurgan 1, burial 8) is similar to those used on the
vast area from the North-Western Black Sea region to
the North Caucasus. Knives from Novopilipovka (kurgan
6, burial 5) and Semenovka (kurgan 2, burial 1) introduce
some local features and were probably produced
by the local metalworking center. Four other knives are
related to the Catacomb culture. The one with a sub-triangular
blade and an accented handle from Zarechnoe
(kurgan 7, burial 1) belongs to the artefacts that occure
rarely during the Catacomb time, but was common for
the Yamnaya culture in Crimea and in the Dnieper region.
Other types of artefacts do not meet the analogies
in Yamnaya culture burials. Knives with a leaf-shaped
short blade and maximum widening in their upper part
(Zarechnoe, kurgan 17, burial 4) are usually attributed
to the Catacomb culture of the Seversky Donets basin
and to the east of the Don river. Knives of the Kamyana
Mohyla 5 type with a leaf-shaped blade and a long
handle are also usually found at the Catacomb sites of
the Seversky Donets basin. Knives of the Sekiz 3 type
with a long handle and a short sub-rhombic blade originated
in the Catacomb culture and the final Novotitorovka
group. They are localized in the eastern regions
(the Don basin, the Lower Volga, and the North Caucasus).
A knife from the Terpinnya site is associated with
the monuments of the second period of the Berezhno-
Mayevskaya Srubnaya culture and is similar to the
finds coming from the archaeological sites in the steppe
Dnieper region and Azov Sea region in the second half of
the second millennium BC. The large number of metal
knives found in the studied area during the Bronze Age,
which originate both from burials and settlements was
probably related to the use of Kamyana Mohyla Hill as
a ritual place.
