Excavations at a unique “Vorovskaya Yama” (“Thieves’ Pit”) archaeological site have wrapped up in the Kizilsky District of the Chelyabinsk Region. Scientists have been studying an ancient Bronze Age mine, where the local ancestors of Iranians lived and mined copper ore in the 17th-16th centuries BC. The group of archaeologists, that also included researchers from SUSU, have for the first time studied such an object in the Northern Eurasia at the depth of more than eight metres and have reconstructed the picture of life of the ancient miners.
It were not the archaeologists, who chose such a romantic name for the “Vorovskaya Yama” (“Thieves’ Pit”) monument. According to the local legend, horse-stealers had used to hide the stolen livestock in this hollow. In reality, this facility turned out to be an ancient quarry and a series of mines belonging to the Alakul culture of the Bronze-Age Ural region. This site had been discovered back in the 1990s, but it was being consistently examined only during the last five years. The works were being carried out by archaeologists from SUSU, jointly with their colleagues from the Federal Research Centre for Mineralogy and Geoecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the support from the Russian Science Foundation.
Near the mine (just 15-20 metres off its edge) there was a settlement of ancient miners. Their life had not been easy: the nearest river had been about two and a half kilometres away, but the ancient people had lived here, had mined ore, had built dwellings, and had even smelted metals. The archaeologists examined the settlement’s area and opened the mine to the depth of 8.5 metres, which is record-setting for the territory of the Northern Eurasia. Further work in the pit of 3 metres in diameter became dangerous since the walls were collapsing. According to the excavation data, there was no less than half a metre more of the fill left.
“Ancient archaeological mines at such depths have not been studied in Russia yet,” specified Professor of the SUSU Department of Russian and International History Andrey Epimakhov. “On top of that, we were lucky with the chronology. We were able to date the finds at this excavation to the exact period: the 17th-16th centuries BC, that is, the Alakul culture. We performed a series of radiocarbon analyses, and they yielded a 100% confirmation that those artefacts belong to that narrow period. Such precision is very rare for the Bronze Age, except perhaps for the Egyptian chronology.”
The scientists discovered that representatives of the Alakul culture are probably the ancestors of Iranians in terms of their language and genetics. The researchers presume that they are related to the Indo-European migration, which had generated such monuments as Arkaim and Sintashta. And as for the miners’ settlement itself, the scientists jokingly call it a “rotation camp of the Bronze Age”.
Thousands of artefacts were found in the mine and in the settlement. The majority of the finds included pottery fragments with an ornament of hatched triangles, typical of the Alakul culture. Also, the archaeologists found animal bones: the miner’s diet had been based on meat and milk from cows, sheep and goats. Studies of the dental tartar of the people from monuments of the same period show that ancient dwellers of these lands had been able to make products similar to cottage cheese or other types of cheese. Meanwhile, they had not practiced farming – they had been gathering wild plants for vegetable food.
The archaeologists discovered stone tools in the mine: pick axes for rock shattering, and balance weights for a hoisting mechanism similar to a shadoof. And also, about fifty ceramic disks from vessel walls. Those had been designedly ground and made of equal size, 6-7 centimetres in diameter. Most of them were found as a cluster, as if they had been stored in a bag. The settlement site features not only the remnants of furnaces, but even a casting mould for mining tools.
“It appears that the disks were designed for some game,” explained Andrey Epimakhov. “We see no other explanation. They have no holes or anything – they are just round ceramic pieces. They are not suitable for some practical purposes. So, the game theory is the most probable one.”
Studies of the strontium isotope in the teeth of the animals have shown that cattle had been herded here from various territories within a radius of up to 20-30 kilometres, from the west and from the east. The researchers assume that this settlement had been a “gathering point” for various collectives. The question remains open whether they had been working in parallel or alternately: the cultural layer is intermixed, and the archaeologists have not been able to single out short chronological segments from it as of yet.
Andrey Epimakhov noted that the comprehensive studying of this site makes its especially valuable. Over five years, more than a dozen methods have been used here: radiocarbon dating, isotope analysis, mineralogy, palynology, paleozoology, etc. This has allowed to reconstruct not only the technology of mining, but the climate, diet, and even the social organization of the ancient miners. It has been found that the climate back then had been slightly milder and more humid as compared to present day, and this had made cattle breeding possible, without the need for long-distance herding.
Now, the scientists are planning on publishing a summarizing paper on the “Vorovskaya Yama” (“Thieves’ Pit”), where all the facts and conclusions will be assembled to form a unified picture. Currently, the finds from the archaeological site in the Kizilsky District are being processed in laboratories. In the future, those will become part of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation.