Introduction Archaeozoology is of great importance for the reconstruction of life support systems and the paleoecological situation in ancient settlements, but it rarely plays a significant role in the study of the technological development of human society. There are many reasons for this situation, but they all boil down to the fact that the composition of the fauna, which usually coexists with humans, essentially remains unchanged over time. And the differences in faunal data, which can be used to study the impact of new technologies on a particular direction in food production, are not as clear as the information supported by other archaeological materials (Lyman, 1994; Antipina, 2004a). The life support system in the Bronze Age included three branches-agriculture, cattle breeding and metallurgy. The first two have hardly undergone any major technological improvements over the course of several millennia. Metallurgy, on the other hand, was the first example in human history of how a manufacturing industry that was not directly related to providing food to the population radically transformed the nature of not only things, but also phenomena [Hauptmann, 1991; Chernykh, 1992]. The emergence and development of metallurgy in Western Europe in time correspond, as experts noted, to the formation of a complex social structure in this territory. However, the chronological coincidence of these processes in the region was usually interpreted in terms of causal relationships, and over time, the assumption that metallurgy leads to increased (or even the appearance of) social stratification has become indisputable (see [The Origins..., 1995]). In this presentation, we can identify a number of important provisions for further discussion, which can be formulated as follows:: control over an important raw material resource is a source of power and the allocation of an elite group among the population; ore mining and metal production are related to trade and exchange relations; ... Read more