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Technology, organisation, and networks of metal production and circulation in the Eurasian Steppe Bronze Age: a case of large-scale copper production at the site of Taldysai (Kazakhstan)
 | Email: ilaria.calgaro.19@ucl.ac.uk Section: Archaeological Sciences Supervisors: |
- Profile
Technology, organisation, and networks of metal production and circulation in the Eurasian Steppe Bronze Age: a case of large-scale copper production at the site of Taldysai (Kazakhstan)
The 2nd millennium BC in Eurasia is marked by an exponential intensification of metal production, which contributed laying the foundations for the trade networks linking the far ends of this continent, later recognised as the historical Silk Roads. Towards the centre of this highly diversified setting were the Bronze Age steppe pastoralists, commonly regarded as merchants. My research project aims to explore their overlooked role as engineers of such an industrial-scale metal production and circulation.
The Late Bronze Age site of Taldysai (central Kazakhstan) yielded a unique complex of smelting installations, production debris, mining tools and bronze artefacts, which will be compositionally and microstructurally characterised, then to be integrated with a large body of comparative regional metallurgical datasets. In addition, the proximity of this workshop to Zhezkazgan, a major Bronze Age mining complex in the central steppes, allows the investigation of large-scale metalmaking technology and landscape exploitation and management, to address the role of Taldysai within this wide network of metal production and circulation on a full-round basis.
Methodology builds on a robust protocol that integrates innovative analytical tools from Archaeology, Material and Earth Sciences, Geography, Physics and Statistics through archaeomaterials and network analyses. Results will provide a more complete study of the metallurgical expertise among non-sedentary societies and expand our understanding of the network dynamics connecting different steppe regions, alongside forces driving metal production and circulation across the Eurasian continent.
Funding
LAHP (AHRC)
IAMS
Education
BA, Archaeology, University of Padova, 2015
MSc, Archaeological Sciences, University of Padova, 2018
MSc, Archaeological Science: Technology and Materials, UCL, 2020
- Conference papers
Calgaro, I.*, Radivojević, M., Veronesi, U. & Ermolaeva, A. 2021. Copper smelting at Mid-Late Bronze Age Taldysai (central Kazakhstan): its place in the wider Eurasian metalmaking framework. EMBERS, University of Oxford, Oxford, 25th-26th March 2021.
Calgaro, I., Sherbakov, N.B., Shuteleva, I.A.* & Radivojević, M. 2021. Bronze and copper metallurgy of the Kara-Abyz culture tribes from the Novo-Ufa burial ground, as an example of metalworking of the frontier population of the Southern Urals forest and steppe. Cultures of the Asian part of Eurasia in Ancient and Middle Ages [Культуры Азиатской Части Евразии В Древности И Средневековье], Samarkand State University, Samarkand, 28th May 2021 (in Russian).
Calgaro, I.*, Veronesi, U., Ermolaeva, A. & Radivojević, M. 2021. Copper production and technology at the Mid-Late Bronze Age Taldysai workshop (Kazakhstan): its place in the wider Eurasian metalmaking framework. EAA annual meeting, Kiel, 6th-11th September 2021.
Calgaro, I.*, Veronesi, U., Ermolaeva, A. & Radivojević, M. 2021. Copper production and technology at the Mid-Late Bronze Age Taldysai workshop (Kazakhstan): its place in the wider Eurasian metalmaking framework. Geoarchaeology and Archaeological Mineralogy 2021, Miass, 20th-22nd September.
