The Stone Age had terminated. The period when the survival of the whole commune depended on the collection of wild roots, fruits as well as on the successful hunting had gone away.
Extremely slow advanced evolution of human society of the Stone Age when each progressive step took dozens and even hundreds of thousands years of persistent search and labor had given place to more rapid development of economy and culture.
In social and economic aspect this period was characterized by the final victory of producing economy and the start of break-up of clan relations. In ethnic and cultural regard this era was the era of formation of huge historical and ethnographical region of related tribes, which was called Andronov, in accordance with the place of first excavation in the Southern Siberia.
The 2d millennium B.C. was marked by several features which defined completely new stage of human society’s evolution.
The first feature of this period (the Bronze Age) was industrial development of polymetals and gold. In the Central, Western and other regions of Kazakhstan geologists and archaeologists discovered the great number of ancient manufactories. They reconstructed the whole process of mining industry. In general we know which methods were used for the extraction of copper, tin, gold and what was the technique of fusion.
Ancient miner had a lot of different tools such as stone hammer, mortar, pestle, wooden hammer, grater, bronze hack, wooden and bone spade, wedge.
It should be noted that the abundance of copper and tin raw material was one of the main preconditions of flowering of the powerful center of bronze metallurgy on the territory of Kazakhstan. The scale of mining allowed both to satisfy domestic needs and to use the part of the metal for the exchange with neighboring tribes.
The second feature in the economy of the ancient tribes was the major achievement in the development of stock-breeding and its transformation into the leading sphere of ancient industry. These achievements led to the growth of number of livestock and gradual improvement of useful qualities of cattle.
In the second part of the 2d millennium and the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C. could be considered as the period of the development and further perfection of stock-raising area of economy. Step by step the conditions for the transition to a new system — nomadic animal farming.
Primitive agriculture also developed. However, it should be noted that in general economic balance it remained on the second place. Having limited set of tools, including stone mattocks and wooden diggers, farmer could cultivate only soft land.
Reference:
Agapov P., Kadyrbayev M. (1979) Treasure of ancient Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata: Zhalyn. 252 p. (in Russian)
