Raw material sources for iron metallurgy in Prehistory and Middle Ages in the Volga-Sviyaga interfluve area
The article is dedicated to investigation of raw material resources of iron metallurgy in Volga Bulgaria. The successful development of metallurgy is the most important sector of the craft industry of the country, was dependent on the availability of its raw materials, primarily from access to sources of iron ore. In the article are represented the results of archaeological and geological investigations in the Volga-Sviyazhsk interfluves area where numerous sites of the Middle Ages with strong remnants of the metallurgy of iron and iron ore were identified. Our research has established specific deposits of iron ores (sideritic, wetland, meadow). The micro-region of Volga-Sviyazhsk interfluves area had been the center of mining and metallurgical ores for the recovery of iron since the ancient times. Especially the intensive development of the ore reserves in this territory began in the early Middle Ages by the groups of alien Bulgarian population. The place of production of these ores in antiquity and the middle ages is marked.