A Half of a Metal Bipartite Mold of the Seima-Turbino Period from the Upper Irtysh Region

A Half of a Metal Bipartite Mold of the Seima-Turbino Period
from the Upper Irtysh Region

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.059-065

A.P. Borodovsky
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

We describe a rare find—part of a Middle Bronze Age bipartite metal chill mold from the Upper Irtysh region, used for casting three socketed javelin heads of the Seima-Turbino type. The use of metal molds (chill molds) for bronzecasting is a sophisticated technique, which is rather rare even at the present time. Having originated in the Bronze Age, it was subsequently abandoned for a long time. Chill molds indicate an advanced and efficient bronze-casting. In terms of the gate system, the specimen is a hinged vertically split chill mold. In Eurasia, the technique of casting javelin heads in chill molds was practiced until the Early Iron Age. In Western Siberia, it originated no later than the Middle Bronze Age. At that time, bronze-casting in molds made of metal, stone, clay, or organic materials was highly developed. Apparently, the Upper Irtysh basin, including western Altai, was the region from whence prototypical metal molds had spread and were subsequently replicated in less valuable and less technologically efficient materials such as clay.

Keywords: Upper Irtysh, Seima-Turbino, bronze casting, metal molds (chill molds).