An Accidental Discovery of a Socketed Tool in the Orenburg Region
摘要
This paper characterizes a metal item accidentally discovered during the exploration in the steppes of the Southern Urals (the Orenburg Region, Russia). This is a special wedge-shaped tool with a cast sleeve for attaching a crank handle. According to the analogies from the neighboring territories, the tool was produced in the Late Bronze Age, when blind bushing manufacturing technology was widely spread. The functional purpose of the item is defined as a variant of a mining tool, a pick, or a type of armament—a war hammer. The item is manufactured from tin-bismuth-arsenic bronze with a high concentration of sulfur and other polymetallic impurities (Sb, Sb, Pb, Fe, Ni, Te, Se, and Au). The correlation of most of these elements with each other indicates the use of Bi-rich fahlore from the tennantite-tetrahedrite series without further refining, dilution, or remelting of the Cu alloy. Such an exotic composition is not typical for nonferrous metals found in the Southern Urals and Kazakhstan but is similar to the ores of some fahlore deposits found in Central Europe.