ANCIENT ORE SOURCES OF METALLURGY IN CENTRAL ASIAN INTERFLUVE

Abstract

In the paleometallic era, the metallurgy of the Central Asian Interfluve was based on the ore bases of
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The traces of smelting of copper, tin and polymetals, semi-finished products,
foundries, ingots, metal drop-lets and, finally, products found in settlements, in burial grounds and mines
and near them serve as evidence of local metallurgical production. The bulk of the finds come from
monuments located in the Zarafshan, Ferghana-Tashkent and Kyzylkum regions. Obviously, there were
large centers for the extraction of copper, tin and polymetals, as well as the manufacturing of tools of the
most ancient period.
According to the statistical processing of the results of spectral analysis, the metal collections of cultures
and monuments in the Northern and Central zone of the Central Asian Interfluve are split into 23 chemical
groups, which implies the use of an appropriate number of ore sources of copper and polymetals, without
considering the tin sources. It is necessary to note the different connections of the ancient metallurgy of the
Central Asian Mesopotamia with the sources of raw materials at one or another stage of its development.
So, in the Eneolithic era, local craftsmen (Sarazm, Shagym and the Zamanbaba culture) used metal from
Iranian and Afghan sources more often, copper from local deposits was used much less often at that time,
for example, in the Kyzylkum mining region and the Zaravshan metallogenic province. The development
of mines in the northern zone, covering the Chatkal-Kuramin mining region, begins in the Bronze Age (the
first half of the 2nd millennium BC). Later, in the second half of the first quarter of the 1st millennium BC
judging by the high proportions of products in the collection that are genetically related to the deposits
and ore occurrences of the Chatkal and Kuramin mountains, the exploitation of the latter is becoming
more active.