Sickles from the Sosnovaya Maza hoard of the Late Bronze Age from the Lower Volga region: Technological analyses, experiments and chronology

Abstract

The Sosnovaya Maza hoard was discovered by chance in the Saratov region in the Lower Volga in 1901 without any archaeological context. Based on the sickle form and the metal composition–copper with an elevated level of iron–so called Sosnovaya Maza type of sickles was singled out. The comparative analysis of the production technology and the alloying and lead isotope composition of the Sosnovaya Maza type of sickles found in the Volga region, in the Urals and the northern Kazakhstan sites helped obtained more data on the metalworking of this period which became a wide spread activity and required search of new deposits and new sources of surplus.The tracewear study assessed that all sickles were cast in a univalve mold with a flat lid. The ICP-MS analysis determined a rather high heterogeneity of the hoard item elemental composition as well as significant variability in the level of trace elements in the metal. Research experiments through smelting of chalcopyrite raw material and native copper from the Osenneye copper pyrite deposit in Ural melt was conducted, the copper obtained in general correspond to the copper composition of the Sosnovaya Maza tools.Significant variability of the isotope ratios of lead isotopes of Sosnovaya Maza hoard items confirms our hypothesis that raw material came from several ore sources: copper pyrite deposits in the southern Urals (the Trans-Urals and the northern periphery of the Urals-Mugodzhary region); Late Permian oxidized ores of the Urals from the Kargaly (Sakmar-Samara region) mining; and the metallurgical region and deposits characterized by the very radiogenic 208Pb/204Pb, localization of which at the moment does not seem possible. The analyses of the Alekseyevskoye items imply that it might be northern Kazakhstan.The 14C date obtained is used as a chronological marker for the Sosnovaya Maza type sickles and the entire Sosnovaya Maza hoard. This enabled us to narrow down the time interval during which such sickles made from ferrite copper were used and date the hoard to 1400–1300 calBC. The study identified the role of new metalworking provinces located in the eastern part of the Eurasian world.