Raw material sources for iron metallurgy in Prehistory and Middle Ages in the Volga-Sviyaga interfluve area

The article is dedicated to the study of raw material resources for iron metallurgy in Volga Bulgaria. The results of archaeological and geological surveys in the Volga-Sviyaga interfluve area are represented. The surveys have identified numerous medieval period sites with definitive remains of iron metallurgy based on local iron ore deposits. Our investigations have established concrete deposits of iron ores (siderite, wetland, meadow ones). The places of these ores extraction in the Early Iron Age and the Middle Ages have been identified. The micro-region of the Volga-Sviyaga interfluve had been the center of iron ore extraction since ancient times. An exclusive density of settlements dating in the time span from the early 1st millennium A.D. to the late pre-Mongol period is observed. The most intensive development of the ore reserves in this territory was started in the Early Middle Ages by groups of alien Bulgarian population.