Meat Supply of Alakul Miners at the Bronze Age Vorovskaya Yama Copper Mine (Southern Trans-Urals)

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we analyze what can be learned about the meat supply of the Alakul miners of the Late Bronze Age using archaeozoology, Sr-isotope analysis, and radiocarbon dating techniques. The study is based on a sample of domestic animal bone originating from the Vorovskaya Yama copper mine site in the southern Trans-Urals. The site functioned over a period of about two centuries starting around 1600 BCE. Cattle, caprines, and horses constituted the herd; the bones of young-adult cattle and caprine individuals predominating in the sample were mainly between 2–2.5 years of age. While the obtained species composition proportions are concomitant with those from ordinary Alakul settlement sites, due to the absence of embryos and newborns, we hypothesise that adult animals were deliberately supplied to the mine site for the purposes of slaughter and consumption. The Sr-isotope compositions in the enamel of the fourteen individuals may reflect the grazing regions within the southern Trans-Urals from which the animals may have been sourced (both near the site and up to 20–100 km eastwards of this location). Mine operation seasonality is indirectly indicated following cementum increment analysis showing that five out of seven studied animals were slaughtered during the warm season.

KEYWORDS:

• Late Bronze Age
• South Urals
• copper mine
• archaeozoology
• strontium isotope analysis

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Here and below, the numbering of structures and hearths is given according to the Report on archaeological excavations (Ankusheva 2022) in order to avoid confusion in further work with materials.

2 An additional examination of the foundation pit of the building in 2023 made it possible to establish its dimensions which are about 7 m × 3.3 m.

3 By significant difference we mean the difference in values of n ≥ 0.001, as established elsewhere by the analysis of the background values (Epimakhov et al. 2023c). In the current case, only one specimen significantly differs from the local value (Individual 12), and the rest of Group 2 only has some tendency with the difference of n ≥ 0.0007. However, the analysis suggests the heterogeneity of the sample, though it impossible to draw a clear boundary between the groups. The transition between the groups is smooth due to the nature of the environment without abrupt changes.

Additional information

Funding

This research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 20-18-00402П ‘The multidisciplinary analysis of group migration and individual mobility in the light of archaeological data (the case study of the Bronze Age of the Southern Urals)’.

Notes on contributors

Polina S. Ankusheva

Polina S. Ankusheva is a junior researcher at the South Ural Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology of UB RAS (Miass, Russia), specialising in field archaeology of the Bronze Age. She studies the formation of mining in the Southern Trans-Urals, the technology of extracting copper ore and the social organisation of prehistoric miners and metallurgists.

Alexey Yu. Rassadnikov

Alexey Yu. Rassadnikov is a researcher at the Institute of History and Archeology of UB RAS (Yekaterinburg, Russia), specialising in archaeozoological research. He explores the archaeozoological materials of the Bronze Age and modern pastoralism in the area of study of settlements of pastoralists of the Bronze Age.

Maksim N. Ankushev

Maksim N. Ankushev is a junior researcher at the South Ural Federal Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology of UB RAS (Miass, Russia), specialising in ancient metallurgy and mineralogy of slags.

Olga P. Bachura

Olga P. Bachura is a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Paleoecology of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of UB RAS (Yekaterinburg, Russia). She works with osteological collections from archaeological sites, her research interests include reconstruction of the types of economy of the ancient population, assessment of anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment in the past. In addition, she is a specialist in the reconstruction of history of the animal individual life by on the growth structures in the teeth.

Igor V. Chechushkov

Igor V. Chechushkov is an independent researcher. He investigates social complexity and related cultural and economical processes during the Bronze Age in Inner Eurasia.

Daria V. Kiseleva

Daria V. Kiseleva is a senior research fellow at the Zavaritsky Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of UB RAS, and an Associate Professor at the Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg, Russia). Her scientific interests include spectroscopic analytical methods for minerals and biominerals, teeth and bones of fossil and modern vertebrates and humans, archaeometry, strontium and lead isotopes.

Elya P. Zazovskaya

Elya P. Zazovskaya is an associate research scientist at the Center for Applied Isotope Studies University of Georgia (USA). Her research interests include methodical and methodological aspects of radiocarbon dating and its application for studies of soil organic matter, sediments of extreme habitat conditions, geoarchaeology, and anthropology.

Andrey V. Epimakhov

Andrey V. Epimakhov is a professor at the South Ural State University (Chelyabinsk, Russia), a specialist in the archeology of the Bronze Age of Northern Eurasia, with experience in participating and leading interdisciplinary projects. He is engaged in field and analytical research using methods of radiocarbon dating, isotope analysis, etc. His areas of special interest are social archeology, chronology, migration and mobility.