Industrial Archaeological Sites in the Middle Irtysh Region

Abstract

The author examines materials stored in the Historical Archive of the Omsk Region, collected between the 1930s and 1950s by researchers of the Omsk Museum of Local History, local historians, and their correspondents. The documents contain information about several industrial archaeological sites—a distillery, a copper smelter, and two glass factories—located on the right bank of the Irtysh River in the present-day Tarsky District of the Omsk Region. Unfortunately, these sites were not examined by archaeologists, and information about them was only preserved in the personal archive of A. F. Palashenkov (collection 2200). The author’s aim was to introduce this information into the scholarly circulation. The site locations are marked on a map. The description of their status as of the mid-20th century is provided. The importance of information about the factories for understanding the economic and industrial potential of the Middle Irtysh region in the 18th and 19th centuries is considered. Based on descriptions of the factories, the author hypothesized that their locations were linked to the availability of forests for charcoal burning, proximity to raw materials (for the glass factory), or proximity to high-quality water and forests (for the distillery). The author believes that since the factories were located in sparsely populated areas, the sites were not destroyed by humans and are promising for research.