Crossborder Zone of Srubnaya and Alakul Сultures in the Steppe Pre-Urals: Physical-Geographical and Mining-Metallurgical Aspects

The paper deals with some aspects of the functioning of the crossborder zone between the Srubnaya and Alakul cultures in the steppe Pre-Urals in the Late Bronze Age. It is established that the areas of the Srubnaya culture and the West Alakul cultural group in the region demonstrate adherence to separate physical and geographical structures and cover various landscape. The crossborder territory, within which the most active cultural interactions are recorded, covers the upper course of the Uil river, the Utva river basin and the middle course of the Ural river. Localization of the contact zone of the Srubnaya and Alakul cultures in the steppe Pre-Urals was caused by the peculiarities of mobile cattle breeding economy based on seasonal alternation of pastures and water sources. In the Late Bronze Age, the integration in the sphere of mining and metallurgical production was another incentive for intensification of cultural contacts in the Srubnaya-Alakul frontier. Metalworking centers of the Srubnaya culture of the Northern Caspian, probably, to a large extent provided with raw materials through the supply of copper and alloying components from the area of the West Alakul cultural group, covering the southern areas of the Pre-Urals mining and metallurgical center.