Zotino III: An Early Iron Age Metallurgical Center in the Trans-Urals

Zotino III: An Early Iron Age Metallurgical Center in the Trans-Urals

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.066-074

V.A. Borzunov
Yeltsin Ural Federal University, Pr. Lenina 51, Yekaterinburg, 620083, Russia

In 1974 and 1977, an archaeological expedition from Ural State University excavated part (441 m2) of a fortified Early Iron Age manufacturing site on the Bagaryak River, near Zotino, in the forest zone of the Trans-Urals foothills. The site, with a total area of 3800 m2, is located on a 40–43 m high cliff. Its northeastern inland side is protected by a low stone and earthen rampart, preserved to a height of 0.7 m, and is delimited by a shallow outer drainage ditch, with a single entrance ~2 m wide. Under the wall, there is a thin layer of buried soil with fragments of the Itkul ceramics. Inside the wall, carbonaceous sandy loam, pieces of calx, and charred remains of wooden structures were found. Our reconstruction suggests that the original 2 m wide wall consisted of two rows of logs and a built-in subsquare tower ~3.0 m by 2.6 m. The base of the walls and tower were strengthened with rubble, and its outer face was enforced with limestone slabs. Near the rampart and along the northwestern edge of the site’s inner space, remains of three adobe platforms for processing copper and iron were identified, as well as two dug-in hearths, a utility pit and, apparently, remains of an adobe melting furnace. This is the easternmost and latest (400–100 BC) seasonal fortified metallurgical center of the Itkul culture—an autochthonous culture of the forest zone of the Trans-Urals. In the forest-steppe to the east and south of it, on the lower reaches of the Sinara and Karabolka rivers, the westernmost fortresses built by the Gorokhovo herders (500–100 BC) are situated—the likely source of the Itkul fortification tradition.

Keywords: Forest zone, Trans-Urals, Early Iron Age, metallurgy, fortification.