Bronze Sickles With a Hook from the Kulundinskaya Steppe: Complex Characterization and X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis

Abstract

A series of entire bronze sickles and fragments from such tools has been found in the Kulunda steppe and in the territory closest to it. These items are important markers for the reconstruction of the life support system during the late Bronze Age. New publications of such products expand the source base for objective interpretations of finds. The article presents two metal sickles found in the Altai territory (Russia). One of them was found at the settlement of Burla-III in the Khabarsky district, and the second is stored in the Romanovsky Museum of Local Lore and is an accidental find. The large and massive objects with a curved butt, a straight blade and a hook on the heel, belong to the Derbedenev type of bronze sickles. Well-known artifacts of this kind come from the steppe part of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve and are associated with the sites of the Sargarinsko-Alexeyevskaya culture and the Burlinskaya cultural tradition. They could be used for reaping crops and/or for forage (hay) for livestock. New data on the presence of millet in the diet of late bronze age societies of the Upper Ob region make it possible to provide additional arguments in favor of confirming the agricultural orientation of the use of Derbedenev type sickles.

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