Abstract
The article raises the questions related to the appearance of unique rectangular box-shape furnaces in the Altai mountains. These furnaces were the largest iron-smelting construction in Siberia and Central Asia. Archaeological field work carried out in 2018-2020 coupled with the series of radiocarbon dates made it possible to establish that furnaces of this type appeared in the Southeastern Altai not in the era of the Turkic Khaganates, as it was previously thought, but in a previous time within the 3rd-5th centuries AD. The article discusses the design and productivity of the box-shape furnaces. It is hypothesized that the similar in shape Xiongnu pottery kilns type could have been a prototype of large rectangular structures of the box-shape linear furnaces. Radiocarbon analyzes have proven the synchronicity of the Xiongnu pottery kilns and the rectangular furnaces. The sudden disappearance of the box-shape furnaces in the Altai Mountains in the 7th-8th centuries AD and the same sudden appearance of the similar furnaces in Japan in the same period is explained by the possible migration of smelters in the era of the Second East Turkic Khaganate. Keywords: archaeometallurgy, iron-smelting furnaces, Gorny Altai, Xiongnu-Xianbei time
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