AHRC-NSF MOU: Metallurgical Practice, Technology and Social Organization during the Middle to Late Bronze Age in the Southern Urals, Russia

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With support from the National Science Foundation Dr Bryan Hanks will conduct archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis to investigate the nature of copper metallurgy and socio-economic organization as practiced by Bronze Age communities who inhabited the Southern Russian steppe from the Middle to Late Bronze Age phases (2100 to 1500 BC). This project will focus on two Bronze Age settlements and include 1) geochemical survey, 2) targeted small-scale excavation, 3) additional site catchment study and 4) the comparative analysis of archaeometallurgical materials and associated features. Many scholars have tied copper production to both extensive regional and inter-regional trade and societal conflict, which in turn has afforded the role of metallurgy a powerful position in models that seek to explain the emergence of social inequality and regional hierarchies. This research will examine the proposition that the development of metallurgy plays a major role in this process.The research targets both persistent anthropological questions relating to the interface between regional socio-economic development, technological practice and social organization and more specific questions connected with social change during the Middle to Late Bronze Age in north central Eurasia. Metal production and consumption are frequently tied to models of social and economic development in Eurasia during the late prehistoric period. Yet, very little is actually known about where and how regional ores were being exploited, how regional social organization varied in connection with metallurgy as a segmented process, and to what degree local and regional variability in copper smelting and metal production technologies developed. The broader impacts of this project build on a highly successful and already established collaborative program of study between individuals and institutions in the United States, United Kingdom and Russia. The proposed research has as one of its principal aims the integration and training of students in both archaeological fieldwork and laboratory analysis.