Kargaly is a
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
-
metallurgical
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys.
Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...
district in the
southern Urals
Southern Ural - the south, the widest part of the Ural Mountains, stretches from the river Ufa (near the village of Lower Ufaley) to the Ural River. From the west and east the Southern Ural is limited to the East European, West Siberian Plain and ...
of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. Prehistoric sites in Kargaly form a large and unique complex, especially when compared to neighboring
metal production centers or the more distant ancient centers that emerged on the vast territory of the northern half of the
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
n continent or supercontinent during the 5th to 2nd millennia BCE
-8
Location
“Kargaly” is derived from the name of a small river known as
Kargalka in the Ural "big"
river basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
ig. 2 IG, Ig, or ig may refer to:
Companies
* IG Farben, a former German industrial conglomerate
* IG Group, a UK financial services company
* IG Recordings, a record label formed by the Indigo Girls, an American folk/rock duo
* Production I.G, a Japa ...
The Kargaly district is situated in the southern Ural Mountains, within the borders of the
Orenburg Administrative Region of the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. Kargaly is located in the northern zone of the Great Eurasian steppe (the
Eurasian Steppe Belt
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago an ...
)
, 10
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...
The Kargaly deposits are surrounded by typical
steppe land cover, consisting of grasslands containing only an occasional small
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
consisting of willow, alder, birch, and aspen trees near springs and deep ravines. More substantial forests occur 200–250 km northeast of Kargaly, where they form part of the mountainous-taiga zone of the southern Urals.
The Kargaly
ore
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 Apr ...
deposits cover a large, oval territory about 50 by 10 km in area. This group of deposits is oriented northwest to southeast. The two main outlying groups of mines in Kargaly both occur in the southeast corner of the
ore field
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...
, at N 52' 16,186 / E 54' 36, 980 and N 52' 11, 114 / E 55' 14,848 .
General information
Kargaly embraces an extremely vast territory (nearly 500 km sq) characterized by
copper mineralization. In terms of
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
, the center belongs to the category of extensive ore fields. The discovery and subsequent frequent extractions of ores at Kargaly occurred either near the end of the fourth millennium ВСЕ or at the turn of the third millennium ВСЕ (
Early Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
). By the second millennium ВСЕ (
Late Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
) this production center had reached its peak in productivity. There are an extremely large number of working mines at Kargaly, with a wide chronological range including from ancient times all the way up to the 18th to 19th centuries. The grounds contain up to 35,000 superficial manifestations, such as shafts, drifts,
open casts, etc.
ig. 3
The total length of underground headings was likely to have been several hundreds of kilometers
ig. 4, 5
During the Bronze Age, the sinkings and headings of mines were a maximum of 40–42 m deep. By the New Age (18–19 cent.) they had reached as much as 80–90 m deep. The total amount of
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
,
crag and
marl, and other wastes extracted from the surface measured nearly 100–120 million cubic meters, equivalent to a weight up to 250 million tons.
Kargaly is exceptionally rich in
archaeological remains from ancient mines and metal production. So far, more than twenty settlements dated to the second millennium ВСЕ and three grave cemeteries with Early and Late Bronze Age
burials have been discovered. In addition, traces of the beginnings of the copper production industry in 18th-century Russia are widespread in Kargaly.
The volume of extracted
copper ore
Following is a list of minerals that serve as copper ores in the copper mining
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical proces ...
s (
malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fracture ...
and
azurite
Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France. The mineral, a basic carb ...
) from the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
is amazingly large and can be quantified by a wide approximation ranging from two to five million tons.
Within Kargaly alone, a large amount of copper ore was
smelted
Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...
during the Bronze Age, its total weight estimated at between 55,000 and 120,000 tons.
Copper of Kargaly origin was distributed during Bronze Age over a vast territory within the steppe and forest-steppe of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
. The maximum territory of its distribution was nearly one million km
2. During the New Age, the Kargaly complex had a significant impact on the
industrial development
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econom ...
of Russia. Approximately one quarter of all
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
copper was smelted in the middle of the 18th century from Kargaly ores. Before the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
(1853–1856) Kargaly copper was also exported as far west as
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.
Mineral Ore Characteristics
Kargaly belongs to the class of deposits situated in sandstone and
slate. These large deposits and insignificant ore locations form a long and wide north-south strip of approximately two thousand km. in width, stretching alongside the western outlying regions of the
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
. Kargaly is located in the southern part of this vast territory. The ore-bearing strata, consisting mainly of crag and sandstone, very often contain the remains of trees of the
Perm geological period. Kargaly's giant pocket is the richest load of copper minerals in the vast Ural zone adjacent to copper-bearing sandstone. The ores occur at different depths, beginning with outcroppings of surface deposits, easily noticeable on the sides of ravines, and ending with those situated 80–90 m deep. The ore-bearing streams are scattered among the sandstone and
clue rocks, sometimes appearing as short and broken veins. The size of the ore pockets and pods differs, from several centimeters to ten or more meters in length. Disordered and random distribution of these ore seats must have caused chaotic searches for these deposits by miners in the ancient Bronze Age, as it did for much later miners in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Main Types of Mining
The first type of mining utilizes shafts or sinkings, spaces that stretch, either vertically or sloping (from 90 to 60 degree of declivity), into the sandstone and crag rock, which is covered by a layer of
argillaceous soil ig. 6 These shafts lead directly to the ore and ventilate the underground shafts and facilitate the delivery of minerals and rocks to the surface. At present the majority of them are filled with collapsed clue rock and
detritus, others have been destroyed by the dump from later
excavations.
The second type occurs as galleries, or drifts (headings). This form of mining utilizes horizontal or nearly horizontal (slightly declined) shafts for
ore extraction from sandstone or crag. Drifts and galleries are the most widespread type of mining form in Kargaly. The form and size of the galleries is not fixed, but flexible depending on the composition of the ore layers and the different characteristics of the deposit. These criteria are assessed by the miners during underground and surface
gophering for copper minerals. This variability explains the changes in form and size of galleries, which often have no regular geometric profile and no strict direction. The predominance of the so-called nest, or lens accumulations of copper minerals in Kargaly led to the appearance of huge underground halls derived from galleries. Their ceilings are twenty meters high and are connected to other galleries and drifts. In some cases they were blind underground headings (
strecks).
Prospecting or trial pits are laid into the loam surface layer for the clearing of subsoil and are created in order to search for traces of copper minerals. The copper deposits are usually surrounded by residue of argillaceous soil and
sandy loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
.
Other Traces Accompanying Mine-workings
Collapses are
landslides of rocky or
loamy roof which occur either under shallow (5–15 m) mountainous workings of the horizontal or declined galleries type, or beneath large underground workings in the form of huge halls. Collapses should be treated as traces of previous underground work and may serve as markers of mining on the surface. The size of collapses differs greatly, from 2 to 70 m in diameter, and from 1 to 30 m deep. For this type of trace there is an absence of residue, though gaps in the latest residues can be seen. Because of this, verification of true collapses is rather difficult.
Rock disposals or dumps are the most common and characteristic traces of mining. They are usually situated near the mouth of galleries or mines, but can also be found further away, stretching onto the sides of
ravine
A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.[chronological dating
Chronological dating, or simply dating, is the process of attributing to an object or event a date in the past, allowing such object or event to be located in a previously established chronology. This usually requires what is commonly known as a "d ...](_blank)
from as early as the Bronze Age and to as late as the 18th to 19th centuries. The most ancient dump consisted of crushed
ore-bearing rock mixed with crushed rich malachite and azurite rock. These Bronze Age rock disposals, so-called
dry ore concentrations, are similar to those of ancient times. In the 18th century Russian industrialists used ancient dumps, rich in copper minerals, as a source of malachite and azurite.
The later rock disposals, large mounds of wasted sandstone slabs and blocks, are noticeably different from their predecessors. In comparison to the ancient dumps, they are poor in copper minerals and are located near the deeper excavations from the modern era. During the later exploitations of Kargaly, the miners often combined empty headings and sinkings of ancient or previously created shafts and drifts, sometimes filling them completely.
Stages in Exploitation and Discovery
Kargaly was discovered as history-archaeological complex in 1989-1990. The late discovery of the complex by archaeologists is odd, considering early knowledge of its existence. Ancient mines in Kargaly were the first of their kind mentioned in
scientific literature
: ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.''
Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scie ...
in Russia. In 1762, just after the beginning of its exploitation by Russian
industrialists, the Russian scholar of local history, P. I. Rychkov from
Orenburg, published the book “ Topography of Orenburg Province”, which included a chapter on the ancient mines of Kargaly. During the more than two hundred years since the book's publication, no archaeologists have visited or even conducted a cursory investigation of this unique complex. What is even more amazing about this neglect is that this complex is situated in the southern Urals near a large
administrative center
An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located.
In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...
.
The first theory on the beginnings of mining at Kargaly during the Early Bronze Age was developed more than thirty-five years ago. The ideas presented were based on the results from a series of
spectral analyses of metal objects from burials of the
Pit-grave
The Yamnaya culture or the Yamna culture (russian: Ямная культура, ua, Ямна культура lit. 'culture of pits'), also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, was a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age arc ...
and
Poltavka (
Yamno-Poltavka) community of the southern Urals and
Volga
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...
regions. In terms of
chemical composition, analysis of pure copper belonging to group of copper-bearing sandstone, indicates Kargaly as a possible source. It was only after the systematic
field research
Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct f ...
of the Kargaly archaeological expedition from 1990 to 1999 that the latest developments in the history of the exploitations of Kargaly were revealed.
Three rather disparate chronological periods are evident. The earliest evidence for mining metallurgical production at Kargaly was connected with representatives of s.c. Yamno-Poltavka archaeological community and dates back to the second half of the IVth mill.BCE. Production of their manufacturing focuses corresponded completely to the morphological and technological standards of the
Circumpontic metallurgical province. In Kargaly’s operation was the long interruption in six centuries (2500-1900). The second and much more active period begins and extended up to 15/14 cent. BCE. This period was close connected with the standards of the Eurasian metallurgical province. Next very long interruption prolonged during the three thousand years – up to the New Age. In the 1740s, Russian merchants and manufacturers bought vast territories from the local
Bashkir population, including that of Kargaly, at an incredibly low price. Bashkirs, the nominal owners of these territories, were not aware of the value of this land, upon which they tended their herds.
The Early Bronze Age Discoveries at Kargaly
Judging from the materials available, Kargaly mines were discovered by the Yamno-Poltavka community, a nomadic population of the stockbreeders. Numerous tribes of this community occupied vast territories in Eastern Europe, from the southern Urals to the
Carpathian foothills, adjacent to the middle Danube steppe in
Pannonia. The nomadic lifestyle of many cultures in the northern zone of this extensive territory, formerly of the Circumpontic Metallurgical Province, is evidenced in the thousands of burial
kurgan
A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central As ...
s and complete absence of settlement remains. Excavations of the big open cast on one of the lots of the Kargaly complex (the hill of the ancient settlement Gorny) exhibited connections to the early groups of pastoral tribes who inhabited the southern Urals region of Kargaly.
Radiocarbon calibrated dates showed that the miners could have begun their quest for this place no later than the fourth to third millennium ВСЕ. Much was yielded from excavation of the burial of a youth
ig. 7in the very center of the Kargaly mining field, a site occupied by the kurgan cemetery of
Pershin. Included in the finds were a
casting mould of an early type shaft-hole axe and a copper flat axe dated to the Early Bronze Age. Radiocarbon calibrated dates place the burial between 2900-2700 ВСЕ Finally, the wide distribution of copper products made from Kargaly ores of the Early and
Middle Bronze Ages found in the area between the Volga and the Urals shows the significant impact of Kargaly on the development of cultures inhabiting this region. Copper ores from Kargaly were also found among the artifact inventories of rich contemporaneous kurgan burials of the tribal chiefs in Volga basin.
Archaeological Evidence from the Late Bronze Age
Although extraction of copper ores began at Kargaly in the Early Bronze Age, it was not until the Late Bronze Age or the second phase of Late Bronze Age that metallurgical activity reached its peak. The main deposits of the upper horizon in the Kargaly ore field had already been discovered in the first half and middle of the second millennium ВСЕ (Late Bronze Age), which is supported by 18th-century archival materials. The most significant archaeological remains uncovered by our expedition were in the Late Bronze Age Gorny settlement of the pastoral
Srubnaya archaeological community. Gorny is a settlement of ancient miners and metallurgists, situated on the top of the promontory hill and surrounded by thousands of traces of mine production
ig. 8 Simultaneously, the life of the local population and different stages in the mining-metallurgical cycle seem to have been compressed in time and space. What is more, everyday life, including mining, ore concentrating, casting, molding, and forging of tools, was combined with sacred rituals. Exceptionally uncomfortable living and working conditions prompt questions, as the dwellings were situated on top of a hill, a place characterized by intense cold in winter and heat in summer, as well as by an absence of water. This irrational phenomenon must be considered in light of the sacred beliefs of the population.
Isolated groups of miners and metallurgists whose professional skills were highly developed, lived and worked in Gorny for a long period of time. Their occupation alone dictated a kind of social and professional isolation unknown to other groups within the Srubnaya community. Remaining evidence leaves no doubt that alongside ore extraction, the large amount of copper was melted here for the casting of tools
ig. 9 These processes were profoundly influenced by the ecological situation in Kargaly.
Pyrometallurgical
Pyrometallurgy is a branch of extractive metallurgy. It consists of the thermal treatment of minerals and metallurgical ores and concentrates to bring about physical and chemical transformations in the materials to enable recovery of valuable ...
operations were limited by poor wood resources, which explains the fact that most of the copper in Kargaly was used for the production of heavy mining tools. In addition, extracted ores became important in wide commercial and exchange operations. All ore exchanges, and sometimes copper trade, were directed predominantly towards the west. Evidence for copper casting from ores mined at Kargaly was found in many settlements of the Srubnaya community, reaching as far as the Volga basin.
Staggering giant
zooarchaeological materials from Gorny
ig. 10substantiates material for independent research. Extermination of the stock herd there was so profound that some zooarchaeologists reject the possibility that local ancient miners owned and regularly bred them. Considering this evidence, it can be concluded that the livestock was used as an exchange product for the ore and metal produced in Kargaly. It should not be assumed that all stock herds were used for consumption. Ethnographic materials provide evidence for the unbelievable
mass slaughtering of animals during rituals accompanying mining and metallurgical processes. It appears that the majority of animals were slaughtered according to the beliefs of Kargaly masters. Many complexes were found in Gorny which contained multiple large sacrificial pits. These pits were filled with specially chosen and arranged bones, particularly those of the lower jaws and ribs of animals.
All aspects of the everyday life and work of the Kargaly professionals were saturated in ritual. Gorny, in particular, exhibits various and consistent manifestations of these rituals. Numerous
oracle bones
Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for th ...
were discovered, most likely those of the miners, representative of their difficult and dangerous work.
Exceptionally peculiar magical rituals accompanied the activity of Kargaly metallurgists. As evident from ethnographic parallels, archaic masters related the process of molding and casting metal to the act of giving birth. The existence of this new object was possible only through the process of
copulation
Sexual intercourse (or coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina for sexual pleasure or reproduction.Sexual intercourse most commonly means penile–vaginal penetra ...
between feminine and masculine essences. For this reason, masculine and feminine symbols were created before the construction of
foundation ditches for casting yards as well as for the pits of the large central
hearths.
Kargaly in the New Age
Kargaly have been again opened in the third time in 1740th years, thanks to uncountable traces of workings out of the Bronze Age. All copper ore mining was conducted up to the end of 19th centuries in the area of ancient ore developments. The extracted minerals went on the north, to mountain areas of Southern Urals Mountains rich with the different forests. The nearest metallurgical works where Kargaly copper ore melted, have defended from this mining complex approximately on 180–200 km; the most remote – to 500 km. During third period tens of million tons of extracted Kargaly’s ore delivered to these distant metallurgical plants by the horse cartage. According to archival documents, for all time of operation Kargaly for a late (third) phase it has been melted not less than 126,000 tons of high-quality copper. By the turn of the 20th century, mining of ores in Kargaly complex has definitively finished.
References
# Каргалы. Том I. Geological and geographical characteristics. History of discoveries, exploitation and investigations. Archaeological sites. Ed. by E. N. Chernykh. Москва: Языки славянской культуры, 2002. .
# Каргалы. Том II. Gorny – the Late Bronze Age settlements. Topography, lithology, stratigraphy. Household, manufacturing and sacral structures. Relative and absolute chronology. Ed. by E. N. Chernykh. Москва: Языки славянской культуры, 2002. .
# Каргалы. Том III. Archaeological materials. Mining and metallurgical technology. Archaeobiological studies. Ed. by E. N. Chernykh. Москва: Языки славянской культуры, 2004. .
# Каргалы. Том IV. Kargaly’ necropolis. Kargaly population: palaeoanthropological investigations. Ed. by E.N. Chernykh. Москва: Языки славянской культуры, 2005.
# Черных Е.Н. Каргалы, том V. Kargaly: phenomenon and paradoxes of development. Kargaly in the systems of Metallurgical Provinces. Hidden (sacral) life of archaic miners and metallyrgists. Москва: Языки славянской культуры, 2007. .
# Черных Е. Н. Каргалы. Забытый мир. Москва: NOX, 1997. .
# Černych E. N. Die vorgeschischtlichen Montanreviere an der Grenze von Europa und Asien: das Produkzionszentrum Kargaly. In: Man and Mining – Mensch und Bergbau. Studien in honour of Gerd Weisgerber on occasion of his 65th birthday. Ed. By T. Stöllner, G. Körlin, G. Steffens, J. Cierny. Der Anschnitt. Beiheft 16. Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, 2003: 79–92.
# Chernykh E. N. Kargaly: The Largest and Most Ancient Metallurgical Complex on the Border of Europe and Asia. In: Metallurgy in Ancient Eastern Eurasia from the Urals to the Yellow River. Ed. by K.M. Linduff. The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. 2004: 223–238. .
# Chernykh E. The “Steppe Belt” of stockbreeding cultures in Eurasia during the Early Metal Age. In: Trabajos de prehistoria, 65, no.2, Julio–Diciembre 2008: 73–93.
# Черных Е.Н. Степной пояс Евразии: феномен кочевых культур. Москва: Рукописные памятники Древней Руси. .
{{Coord, 52, 15, N, 54, 49, E, type:landmark, display=title
Surface mines in Russia
Cultural heritage monuments in Orenburg Oblast