Shaitanskoye Ozero II: New aspects of the Uralian bronze age

Abstract

The present article describes materials from the ritual site of Shaitanskoye Ozero II, Sverdlovsk Oblast. Two excavations carried out at the site measuring less than 100 sq. m in size, yielded more than 130 bronze artifacts: utensils, weapons, rolled copper ornaments, and abundant smelting and casting waste. Apart from Seima-Turbino (celts and laminar knives) and Eurasian types (daggers with cast hilts, truncated knives with guards, fluted bracelets and rings), several metal artifacts were revealed manufactured in the style of the Samus-Kizhirovo tradition. Bronze artifacts, stone knives and scrapers, and numerous arrowheads are accompanied by ceramics of the Koptyaki type. The bronze is mostly stannic. This assemblage is shown to be relevant to the local tradition of metalworking, which, in this particular region, was comparatively ancient having been left uninterrupted by the rapid migrations of the Seima-Turbino people. In addition, the assemblage indicates the sources from which post-Seima artifacts reached the Alakul people. These artifacts may also have been linked with a large metalworking center located in the Middle Urals. © 2009.