The First Miners of the Donbass

Abstract

Irregular distribution of mineral resources in space promoted economic specialization of certain areas and resulted in the emergence of exchange in the primitive society. The Donets Basin (Donbass) is a special geological structure in the south of the Dnieper-Don interfluve with plentiful deposits of flint raw materials of the Upper Cretaceous genesis. These mineral raw sources can be seen on many sites of modern outcrops, mainly in the Northwest and Southern Donbass. The rich mineral base predetermined the formation of the Donbas during the Neolithic era as a large European center for production and processing of mineral resources. It was during that period that local tribes gained their first experience in mining in the form of collecting and extraction of flint concretions from the mother rock, which were necessary for household needs. Simple pits for flint extraction in the Northwest Donbass date to the Neolithic. They were located on the banks of rivers and gullies, or on the slopes of cretaceous mountains. There were pits at the sites of outcrops of the most productive sites of flint veins (Andreyevka, Krasnoye, Balka Redkodub). Shafts for extraction of flint in the Southern Donbas are dated back to the Chalcolithic. These workings (Shirokino) were the system of wide and low horizontal cameras connected with each other. Probably, mining as the knowledge of a geological structure of the area and properties of minerals, techniques of production and processing of raw materials, skills necessary for such work, was shaped in the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic. The first skills of mining of the Stone Age and the Chalcolithic were a prelude to further progress of mining in the Donetsk region. The article examines the tradition of mining of Donbass in the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic. As a rule, next to the places of flint extraction, there were workshops for primary processing of this mineral. In Donbass, mine-like workings emerged only in the Late Bronze Age, in connection with the extraction of copper ore, and existed along with large pits.