Первые металлурги Алтая: афанасьевская культура

Since the end of the 3rd millennium BC, non-ferrous metalworking has become widespread in the Altai region. The initial stage of metallurgy development in the Altai region is associated with the Afanasievo culture of the Early Bronze Age (4th to first half of the 2nd millennium BC). This culture was identified in the 1920s by S.A. Teploukhov and named after the first site studied, the Afanasievo Mountain burial ground in Khakassia. Further research revealed that the Afanasievo culture's distribution area encompassed southern Siberia (the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin and the Altai Mountains), as well as eastern Kazakhstan, northwestern Mongolia, and Xinjiang. The Afanasievo culture's bearers were not indigenous to Siberia: they came from the Volga-Ural region and were representatives of the Yamnaya culture. Anthropologically, the Afanasyevtsy belonged to the Proto-Europeans and were the easternmost branch of the Caucasoid population in Northern Eurasia. The Afanasyevtsy brought a number of innovations to Siberia that shaped the subsequent development of the economy, technology, culture, and religious beliefs. Livestock breeding (a productive economy) replaced gathering, hunting, and fishing (an appropriative economy). The Afanasyevtsy were the first to develop southern Siberian copper deposits and produce metal products. The lectures of the #archaeolecture project explore ancient mining bases and settlements of the first metallurgists, household items and jewelry made of metal, the beginning of animal domestication, and the tradition of burial mounds in southern Siberia. The #archaeolecture project is a joint effort of the New Archaeology Center (Novosibirsk State University) and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (IAE) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Lecturer: Sergey Petrovich Grushin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology, Ethnography, and Museology, Faculty of History, Altai State University (AltSU). Video by Elizaveta Manskova.