Blacksmiths and Dolmens
Field interview with the historian and archaeologist Mikhail Kudin on iron processing in the era of dolmen builders in the North-West Caucasus.
The story about blacksmiths and blacksmithing on the example of an archaeological monument in the valley of the river Ashe, Lazarevsky district of Sochi (Krasnodar territory, Russia).
Vladimir Mikhailovich Kondryakov and his son Nikita Vladimirovich Kondryakov were the first to notice the relationship between dolmen monuments and iron metallurgy monuments. Nikita wrote an article about monuments of iron-making, and he believed that many of our iron furnaces, there are very much of them in the area, here in particular in the Ashe river valley ten of them found just visually, without any archaeological research, may apply to the final stage of dolmen culture in the second half of the second millennium BC. Indeed, already at this time, in the Hittite written sources, mentioned widespread of iron. Research on iron furnaces in neighbouring Abkhazia also showed quite an early age, leaving the second millennium BC. But our iron furnaces, unfortunately, were not explored in such way from this point of view. And at the same time Nikita Kondryakov drew attention to the possible connection of some religious monuments of iron production here in Shapsug.
Forge has always been considered a sanctuary, a sacred place where not only forge iron, and made tools and weapons made of iron, but also performed various rituals, rites of healing from disease and so on. There are we found such original monuments, looking at which, we immediately recall the mythology of the Circassians, the epic of Narts. Here in such broken stones, and in several places next to the furnace that was once located here, you can see such fillings, that is, a large boulder, stone, and the space between it is filled with smaller stones. Now, if we start only clearing them, we will immediately see that there is the iron bloom under the stones. This is not even metallurgical slag, but a primary iron processing product. That is, from what then received steel and iron. The fact is that the temperature of even our dense Caucasian trees for iron smelting is obviously insufficient and therefore, when iron was smelted in furnaces, it did not melt completely, did not become liquid, but it turned out like clay melted in the sun. They tried to grind the ore as little as possible in order to facilitate this process of obtaining, and therefore on the Kalezhtam plateau, near the forge, you can see a huge millstone. This millstone is not for grinding flour, but just for grinding iron ore so that it is easier to smelt iron, because there is also a forge there, too. Here, under its own weight, such a semi-liquid iron, it, together with slags, under its own weight, fell down. It turned out that such a product was very heavy, saturated with more iron, but also containing porous slag. In hot form, it was immediately taken to the smithy, forged, while the slag crumbled, there was already pure iron left.
These are the ritual burials of the iron bloom in the split stone, we can observe. And immediately looking at this picture, who is familiar with the Narts epic, the myth of the hero’s birth is recalled, when the blacksmith Tlepsh split a stone and took out a burning baby, which he tempered in his water and Sosruko’s whole body became invulnerable, steel. Only under the knees, where the blacksmith was holding him, remained vulnerable places, which then led to the death of the hero. That is, such small Sosruko in the split stone can be seen in many forges, in many iron furnaces, which are located here in this valley. But this is not only a ritual, meanwhile it is a technology.
The fact is, that’s the way the buried bloom, it is naturally exposed to atmospheric precipitation over the years, rusting and corrosion primarily destroys most substandard, weak metal particles. Here, having got in several years and forging, it is possible to get, from what remains, better iron. So, here there is a practical point. Well and, interestingly, as I said, we have a whole tendency in so many places. I conducted research; a work has already been published on the connection of the oldest monuments of iron metallurgy here in the Western Caucasus with dolmens. Of course, given the fact that no written records come down to us, we cannot say what kind of this relationship. But, spatial, at least, is observed. In many dolmens here, and in the Tuapse district, we also find burials of the iron bloom, sometimes, for example, in the Vtoraya Kashtanovay Schel (Second Chestnut Gap), literally, a trough-shaped dolmen stuffed with metallurgical slags and iron bloom almost to the roof. Close to many dolmens as offerings founded iron bloom, primary processing of iron products.
Well, and the spatial location. Forges usually have a connection. The dolmens are always close to them. Well, if we, as we see, somewhere at a distance, if in a straight line, then maybe seventy meters from the dolmen, this forge is located. It is simply explained — water was needed for the production, here is a spring nearby. Therefore, the forge is a little bit away. Usually they are even closer. Another monument connected with dolmens and iron metallurgy is the grave of blacksmiths. It is rather easy to find them too without excavation, since there are also a lot of metallurgical slags in the backfill of these kurgans and often iron bloom that is rather easy to find them too without excavation, since there are also a lot of metallurgical slags in the backfill of these kurgans and often iron bloom. Tlepsh’s grave — sometimes these tombs are called so and here their spatial connection is even closer. And in the same Tatyanovka, in the valley of the Psezuapse river, for example, the iron furnace is located behind the stream as well, but the blacksmith’s grave is right next to the dolmen monument. That is, there is such an interrelationship of the cult, but it is difficult to say what it is connected with. Dolmens continued to honour in ancient times and in the Middle Ages. That is, this place remained sacred. The forge is also a sacred place, therefore, as a continuation of the preservation of this sacred space, it is possible that they were built closer, and then ritual connections appeared.
So the hero Sosruko is connected in some way with the dolmens and these stone circles on the Kalezhtam plateau say the same thing. As is known from the myth, Sosruko’s death was like this — with its hardened steel body, he beat off a huge stone or stone wheel that the Narts threw from the top of a mountain. Well, they asked him to beat it off by his legs, and his legs, hips or knees, or the same Achilles heel, which the Greeks borrowed from here from the mythology of the Caucasus, were not hardened, and this led to the death of the hero. And this sliding of the sun into the winter solstice, when the sun of the old year dies, is also possibly connected with the death of Sosruko, who is also a calendar hero. Every spring, as the myths about Narts say, Sosruko tries to break free from the underworld and then the grass begins to grow, to sprout out. Here is the relationship of more ancient monuments and more modern, this thread is stretched continuously.
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