Aslaevo Copper Mine in the Southern Urals: The Mining Tools

Abstract

AbstractWe present the results of a survey of Aslaevo copper mine located on the border of the Chelyabinsk region and the Bashkortostan Republic. We described the peculiarities of mining materials from the mine dump and historical pieces of evidence indicate that the facility was in operation in the Late Modern Period, during the 18th–19th centuries. Several stone mining tools come from the mine dump surface. The characteristics of the tools from Aslaevo mine have a striking resemblance to the mining tools of the Bronze Age. This evidence may indicate the invariance of some elements of the technology for copper mining over millennia and enable usage of some Late Modern Period data when interpreting Bronze Age materials.KeywordsLate Modern Period (18–19 century)Bronze AgeCopper mineMining tools