Natural Resources of the Kyrgyz in the Bronze Age

The main landscape of Kyrgyzstan consists of mountains. Enclosed mountain valleys are surrounded by vast pasture lands, and since the Bronze Age, livestock farming has been the leading sector of economic activity for the ancient population of Kyrgyzstan. In mountainous conditions, the breeding of small cattle became particularly significant. By the Bronze Age, high-altitude pastures accessible by breast were developed, which were used during seasonal migrations.

In the territory of Kyrgyzstan, alongside mountain meadows and pastures, there have been dense fruit-bearing and coniferous forests since ancient times. The nut-bearing forests in southern Kyrgyzstan, covering an area of approximately 700,000 hectares, are relics. They played an important role in the lives of primitive people.

It is presumed that the widespread use of copper in Central Asia dates back to the fifth millennium BC. However, copper tools were ineffective in many respects. It was only after people learned to produce bronze that radical progressive changes occurred in production. The Bronze Age in Central Asia, including Kyrgyzstan, spanned the period from the third millennium to the 10th-8th centuries BC. Numerous finds of bronze artifacts and tools in the vicinity of the settlements of Sadovoe and Sokuluk in the Chui Valley, as well as in the Shamshy Gorge (Kochkor Valley), testify to the flourishing of the Bronze Age in the territory of Kyrgyzstan in the 12th-8th centuries BC.

In Kyrgyzstan, copper ore deposits were developed near the city of Osh, in the vicinity of Nookat, Chatkal, Ketmen-Tyube, while tin mines were located along the Sary-Jaz riverbed at Issyk-Kul.

In the 1st-5th centuries, Fergana experienced an economic and cultural upsurge, with many new cities and settlements emerging, and the extraction of mercury, turquoise, and other minerals expanding. In Kyrgyzstan, methods for developing gold, iron, and mercury deposits (the Ken-Gut cave, Kasan-Say) and other minerals were mastered, which, in turn, contributed to the growing demand for more advanced weapons and tools.