Iron in the Altai began to be smelted 3 centuries earlier
TSU archaeologists have obtained radiocarbon dating of Kosh-Agach type iron-smelting furnaces found in the Altai Mountains. It used to be thought that these furnaces appeared in the ancient Turkic era in the 6th–10th centuries. However, radiocarbon analysis showed that they appeared 300–400 years earlier, in the 3rd–4th centuries AD, that is, before the Turkic Khanate was formed. The research results were presented at the international conference Archaeometallurgy in Europe, in Miskolc (Hungary).
A total of 15 Kosh-Agach type furnaces were opened there - these are the largest furnaces of that time in all of Central Asia. The research was conducted in the 1970s–80s, and then their appearance was associated with the first Turkic Khanate. After that, studies on the archeological metallurgy of iron were not conducted in the area of the Gorny Altai for more than 40 years.
Read more: http://en.tsu.ru/news/iron-in-the-altai-began-to-be-smelted-3-centuries-earlier/
