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. (19th June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Trifonov, V. A.; Shishlina, N. I.; Loboda, A. Yu.; Kolobylina, N. N.; Tereschenko, E. Yu.; Yatsishina, E. B.
• Is Part Of: Archaeometry. Volume 61:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 117
• Page End: 130
• Publication Date: 2018-06-19
• Subjects: thin‐walled jointless gold bead production -- Early Bronze Age -- Caucasus -- Maykop culture -- megaliths; Archaeometry -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- Expertising -- Periodicals; 930.1
• DOI: 10.1111/arcm.12393
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-813X

Abstract

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. 3200–2900bc ) 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 millenniumbc and spread out, through the Caucasus, into the southern boundaries of the Eurasian steppe.