Iron tools for leather production in the perm pre-Urals (medieval period)

Abstract

The article deals with a separate group of specialized tannery tools from materials of the Permian Urals in the Middle Ages. The chemical composition of the soils of the region does not provide preservation of organic materials including hides and leather. The main source for studying leather industry in Kama Urals are iron tools. Tools made of iron, in contrast to bone and wooden ones, had a special working part – a sharp blade. First of all, they were intended for scraping, cutting and piercing. The whole toolkit for tannery is represented by scrapers, specialized knives with an upward bent end, awls and needles. Scrapers were a special kind of tools, they are practically not represented in the collections of Eastern Europe and they have not been analyzed in local materials before. In this work, Prikamsky scrapers are first introduced into scientific turnover, analogies to them were found in Western Siberia. To estimate the level of tannery the metallographic analysis of several instruments from each category was performed. For all products, the raw material was mainly steel, less often crystalline iron. The quality of production of all forgings is at a high level, which indicates a conscious approach of the Kama blacksmiths to the manufacture of specialized tools for leather production.