The Production of Thin‐Walled Jointless Gold Beads from the Maykop Culture Megalithic Tomb of the Early Bronze Age at Tsarskaya in the North Caucasus: Results of Analytical and Experimental Research

Abstract

This study, the first of this kind, reconstructs the technical chaîne operatoire of thin‐walled jointless gold bead production in the Maykop culture on the basis of trace‐wear analysis, experimental research and comparative analysis, using gold beads from the Early Bronze Age dolmen (c. 3200–2900 bc) in kurgan 2 at Tsarskaya (discovered in 1898). The results of the study demonstrate that such beads were produced from a perforated disc‐shaped blank by pressure (with intermittent annealing) within a hemispherical depression in a shaping block (presumably made from stone or bone) and subsequent abrasive treatment of the surface. Most probably, this technique was a regional expression of Near Eastern jewellery traditions that emerged within the urbanized centres of Upper Mesopotamia in the early fourth millennium bc and spread out, through the Caucasus, into the southern boundaries of the Eurasian steppe.

Art historical and archaeometric analyses of the ‘animal style’ gold and silver ornaments (fourth–third centuries bce) found in north‐west China

“…In addition to the silver naturally occurring with gold, it is equally possible to increase its percentage by alloying. Both the existing literature and findings from experimental archaeology suggest that the colour, hardness, strength or ductility of the metal used to fashion the given object were controlled by alloying gold with silver and Copper (Bühner, 2005; Cretu & Linge, 1999; Ogden, 1993; Scott, 1992; Trifonov & Shishlina, 2018). Most excavation findings of early gold in ancient China prior to the second century bce were made of natural gold, containing both Au (64–99 wt%) and Ag (0–28 wt%), sometimes with a small amount of Cu < 3 wt% (Huang, 2019).…”

Tricky technology of making silver seed beads in the Early Bronze Age, NW Caucasus

“…The appearance of the Maikop culture (c. 3700–2900 bce ) drastically changed the North Caucasian cultural environment because, among other things, in the Maikop technical arsenal there were technologies and techniques previously unknown to the local population, such as alloying copper with arsenic, lost wax casting, tinplating for decorative purposes (already known at this time in Eastern Anatolia) and forging of bronze, gold and silver thin‐walled items of various size ranging from vessels to beads (Ryndina & Ravich, 2019, pp. 85–179; Trifonov et al, 2018; Yalçin & Yalçin, 2009).…”

Reconstruction of Metalworking Techniques for Copper and Bronze of the Tagar Culture on the Basis of Experimental Traceological Analysis

“…стрирует большой потенциал трасологии в изучении металлообработки (Fregni, 2014;Trifonov, Shishlina, 2018).…”