RESULTS OF ARCHAEOZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON KARTAMYSH

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the analysis of archaeozoological collections from the excavations of the Kartamysh archaeological microdistrict of Donetsk Mining Center of Late Bronze Age. The results of the carried out research to a certain extent may indicate the vectors of trade relations between miners and metallurgists, since, as it is known, livestock was the main element of their exchange. Among four main types of domestic animals, the quantitative ratio of three species as sheep or goat, pig and horse on the Kartamysh monuments of the Donetsk Mining Center (DMC) occupies a middle position relating to the same animals from the settlements of the Pokrovsko-Mosolovskaya Timber Culture (PMTC) of the Severskiy Donets Left Bank and Berezhnovsko-Mayevskaya Srubnaya culture (BMSC) of Donetsk ridge. On our opinion, data obtained can be considered as one of the manifestations of trade and exchange operations of DMC miners-metallurgists both with the inhabitants of the BMSC of the Donetsk ridge and with the inhabitants of the PMSC of the Severskiy Donets Left Bank. Comparing the Kartamysh to the Kargaly collections of osteological material indicates significant variations in both, which consist in the life support features of the two mining and metallurgical centers of the Timber Community — BMSC and PMSC. The above fact, as far as we could see, affected the animal they chose for ritual ceremonies. On Kargaly, the main sacrificial animal was cattle (a bull), and on Kartamysh — small cattle (a goat or a sheep).