Bronze casting workshops at the Linevo-1 settlement

The article discusses bronze casting workshops at the Linevo-1 settlement of the transitional period from the Bronze Age to Iron Age. Their location at the site is described. The production areas were both inside dwellings and in open air in lightweight ground structures. This division probably resulted from seasonal moving of production process. In the summer, the works were done outside the dugouts in specially built structures of booths or canopies, and in the winter the works would return to dwellings. The description of heating structures and production implements is provided. At bronze casting areas of the settlement, hearths with additional structural elements of clay sides andfloor coating were used. After analyzing clay molds, general pattern of their production was established. All casting molds were made according to models on a model plate. In some cases, an imprint of a wooden plank which was used as a model plate has survived on the joint surface of the halves. The molding compound was placed on the model in large patches, after which it was compacted and cut in order to give specific shape to the product. The manufacturing technology and fabrics of technical ceramics demonstrate continuation of production traditions which developed in the Ob-Irtysh forest-steppe during the Early Bronze Age. An innovation in fabrics of technical ceramics from the Linevo-1 settlement was addition of crushed rock to casting molds and coating of furnaces, which could result from imported northern casting traditions into the Ob-Irtysh forest-steppe.