ГЕНЕЗИС МЕТАЛЛУРГИИ ЖЕЛЕЗА В ЮЖНОЙ СИБИРИ: «ХУННСКАЯ» ГИПОТЕЗА

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the origin of iron metallurgy and the formation of the first large metallurgical center in the territory of Southern Siberia. On the basis of archaeological and radiocarbon data, it was concluded that not a single iron-smelting furnace of the Scythian time in southern Siberia is known. The oldest iron smelting sites appeared in the region in the 1st century BC — 1st century AD and were associated with the Xiongnu traditions of building oval smelting furnaces. Oval furnaces are known in the territory of Southern Siberia, Mongolia and the Baikal region and cover almost the entire area of the Xiongnu state. Taking account of the nomadic empire’s constant needs in huge volumes of iron, a hypothesis is expressed about a deliberate conquest of the iron-rich deposits of the Sayan-Altai by the Xiongnu, which explains the formation of the largest metallurgical province in Siberia and Central Asia on the northwestern periphery of the Xiongnu Empire. The article traces the further development of iron-smelting technologies in southern Siberia in the Xiongnu-Xianbei time. The archaeological materials presented in the article provide a basis for formulating a new hypothesis about the origin of unique rectangular furnaces, which were the largest iron-smelting structures in Asia. The appearance of this type of iron-smelting furnaces in Gorny Altai in the 3rd–5th centuries AD was the result of the consistent development of the Xiongnu traditions of oval furnaces with underground channels, which penetrated into Southern Siberia at the turn of the era.