Ludmila V. Konkova
(Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples
of the Far East, FEB RAS Vladivostok)

Far Eastern Bronzes and Cultural Contacts in the Eastern Asia. Computer Data Processing Possibilities

Investigation of the ancient metallurgy of North-Eastern Asia is of extreme interest, because processes of formation and consequent change of traditions in processing of ancient and medieval bronzes of the eastern part of Eurasia are clearly seen in this part of the continent.

Big metal composition data amount including about 2,5 thousand things with considerable amount of quantitative and analytic information required the usage of statistic methods of data processing with the help of computer. The catalogue database was created. Primorie early material database was worked out with the financial help of Russian Humanitarian Scientific Fund, grant # 96-01-12039b.

The block of standard statistic programs was used with the Base. The meta-cultural character of the source allowed to analyze huge ethnical and historical processes, having a transcontinental character, which took place in steppe part of Asia during more than 2 thousand years from the 2nd millennium B.C. till the beginning of the 2nd millennium A.D. and to define the place of the Far East in these processes in the precise historical context.