Complexes of Late Bronze Age Molds from Tokivske

Abstract

This paper deals with the Late Bronze Age complexes (deposits) of molds made of stone which were found near Tokivske village, Apostolivskyi region, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, at the eastern bank of the Kamianka River, Dnipro basin. Complexes included, respectively, three and seven matrixes mainly made of shale. Molds were used for production of bronze sickles, daggers, flat adzes, sleeve chisels, celts, round disc (mirror), pins, round plaques-buttons. Most of types are typical for the Middle Dnipro region. However, some of those have analogies in wide territories of Eurasia, from the Carpathians to Central Asia. The complexes of finds are contemporaneous to each other. It is confirmed by their dating and the presence of similar matrixes for the production of daggers in both complexes. Metal finds produced in Tokivske forms have analogies in complexes of Loboikivka (Middle Dnipro region, Donets region) and mainly the Ingul — Krasnyi Maiak (Lower Dnipro region, North-Western Pontic region) centers of metal production. Tokivske itself was located in the contact area of two large cultural complexes dated by the Middle Bronze Age, i.e. Zrubna (Berezhnivsko-Maivska Zrubna culture — BMZC) and Sabatynivka–Noua, to which those centers of metal production related. Similarities to the metal tools can be also found among the materials typical for the Central European deposits of Opalyi-Uriu-Domǎnesti. To a certain extent, analogies to the described finds are known in Kardashynka center of metal production belonging to Bilozerka culture. Therefore, the time of functioning of the workshop at the Tokivske site can be dated to the transition from Late Sabatynivka (BMZC-II after V. V. Otroshchenko) to Early Bilozerka time, BzD — HaA1 period according to P. Reineke or 13th—12th century BC. This was a time of the beginning of the so-called “The Bronze Age collapse”. In South-Eastern Europe the latter is marked by the decline of Noua–Sabatynivka and Zrubna (also known as Timber-Grave) cultural complexes and the formation of new cultures of the Final Bronze Age, from which Bilozerka and Bilohrudivka cultures were developed in the eastern bank of the Dnipro.