Catalon Furnaces of Lower Angara: preliminary study results

• Published in: Археология Евразийских степей
• Main Authors: Pavel V. Mandryka, Polina O. Senotrusova
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: State institution «Tatarstan Аcademy of Sciences» 2021
• Subjects: archaeology; lower angara region; the early iron age; the middle ages; metallurgy; catalon furnace; chronology; CC1-960; taiga
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2021.4.110.121; https://doaj.org/article/0f85f6e6aa524167958af49e60e5ef2a

The paper features new materials from the southern taiga zone of the Lower Angara region on thermal engineering objects of the early Iron Age, the Middle Ages and the New Age, which were used to produce metallic iron from ore. Sources for their archaeological study, state of preservation and radiocarbon dating are provided. Based on the design features, catalon furnaces for iron production are subdivided into the following three types: with a cylindrical chamber made of clay; with catalon furnaces had foundations arranged in pits. The shape of chambers, their structure, the presence of flat stones at the bottom of the smelting chambers, the methods of erecting ground superstructures, the use of organic materials in their construction, and the presence or absence of furnace pits are considered as the individual and chronological features of the furnaces. Furnaces with a cylindrical chamber made of clay were used in the study area throughout the Metal Age, and their change over time is associated with the structure of the chamber bottom. Furnaces with a cubic chamber had changed over time in terms of the use of the construction material: the early ones are made of clay soils, the later ones – of stones and clay. The identified types of Lower Angara furnaces are similar to each other and reflect the development of a single technological tradition which emerged in the Tesino period along with the spread of the monuments of Shilka culture forming a part of the Hunnic world cultures.