У статті на основі порівняльного аналізу джерел, що походять з гірничо-металургійних центрів епохи пізньої бронзи східноєвропейського степу, досліджених розкопками, визначається загальне і
особливе в виробничій діяльності Донецького центру, активне функціонування якого пов’язується з
носіями зрубної спільноти в її бережнівсько-маївській культурній традиції.
Large-scale works have been carried out at the beginning
of this century on the background of the set of
Bronze Age monuments in the zone of Kartamysh copper
ore occurrence in the Bakhmut basin of Donbass.
Taking into account some previously researched monuments
of mining and metallurgical activities within other
ore occurrences of the Donetsk ridge, those works enable
to compare the monuments of the Donetsk Mining
and Metallurgical Center (DMMC) with other specialized
monuments of Srubnaya cultural community in the
copper ore territories of the Eastern European steppe.
The monuments of Kartamysh archaeological microdistrict,
as well as the other monuments of the Donetsk
mining and metallurgical center, located in the zone of
copper ore occurrences in the Bakhmut basin of Donbass,
give evidences of all the cycles of ancient metal
production. The majority of them are the evidence of
the mining and ore-dressing cycle. Thus, the considerable
volumes of mined and dressed ore, found in Kartamysh,
as well as in other ore occurrences of the Bakhmut
basin, currently suggest that the monuments
in the ore territory of Donbass mainly operate within
mining system. Similar specialization is observed in
other mining and metallurgical areas in Eastern Europe,
such as Mikhailo-Ovsyanka (Povolzhye) and
Kargaly (South Ural). A feature of the DMMC is far
lesser intensity of metallurgy and metalworking in its
cultural frames. Limited range of DMMC monuments
indicate that the production of metal products was focused
only on domestic consumption.
Fracturing of the Donbass bedrock, in contrast to the
monolithic bedrock of Povolzhye, and especially to the
Southern Urals, facilitated the effective use of stone
tools in the process of mining. In the MMC, operating
within the eastern production zone of the Srubnaya cultural
community (Mikhailo-Ovsyanka, Kargaly), miners
and metallurgists had to develop metallurgy more
actively, since the features of geology in these regions
required the use of metal tools to extract copper ores.
Obviously, this circumstance explains a large number
of end fragments of metal pickaxes found at Kargaly,
as well as casting molds for casting these tools.
The functioning of the full-scale cycle of ancient
metal production and even visually recorded scale of
ancient mining activity in the zone of copper ore occurrences
of the Bakhmut basin gives reasons to assert the
existence of mining and metallurgical center focused
on large-scale production in the Donetsk Ridge in the
Bronze Age. The main products of the DMMC were not
metal items or even ingots, as it had been considered
previously, but enriched copper ore (concentrate) as
raw material for metallurgical production.
Enriched ore was the commodity to be exchanged
by the miners and metallurgists of the Donetsk center.
It could be possibly done via professional traders with
neighboring and distant tribes, and was exchanged for
livestock and agriculture products, as well as for various
household items.
The analysis, carried out in the paper, proves that
other mining and metallurgical complexes of the Eastern
European steppe (Kargaly, Mikhailo-Ovsyanka),
which had been previously explored, also operated at
the same time and in similar to the DMMC production
system.
