Provenance studies of archaeological material

M. Numrich – E. Pernicka – Ch. Schwall – B. Horejs, Untersuchungen zur Herkunft bronzezeitlicher Goldobjekte mittels mobiler Laserablation und Massenspektrometrie, in: L. Glaser (Hrsg.), Archäometrie und Denkmalpflege 2018 (Hamburg 2018) 99–102.

The Balkan Peninsula played a crucial role for the introduction of metallurgy during the Copper Age and numerous archaeometallurgical examinations have delivered highly interesting insights on this topic. However, there is a lack of systematic analytical research on copper ore smelting and metal exchange for the later Bronze Age. In this paper we focus on the first archaeometallurgical results of slags from the sites Ružana, Trnjane and Čoka Njica, Eastern Serbia, complimented by the discussion of XRF and lead isotope analyses carried out on 28 copper-based artefacts. Importantly, radiocarbon dating from these sites points to copper production already being undertaken at the end of the Early Bronze Age (19th–18th centuries BC), more than 500 years earlier than previously assumed. This enables us to investigate the flow of metal during the 1st half of the 2nd millennium BC. The analyses of the metallurgical slags indicate a copper matte smelting process in small open pit furnaces and the use of local sulfidic copper ore sources. The fact that these intensive smelting activities in Eastern Serbia can be paralleled with the early production hotspots in central Europe e.g. on the Hochkönig (Mitterberg mining areas) sheds new light on the development of copper based metallurgy in Europe. At the same time, the evidence from Eastern Serbia shows that this area was a source of raw material for copper and bronze alloys providing a regional and supra-regional perspective. Furthermore, our analyses revealed the remarkable result, that by the start of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1700 BC) copper from the Northern Italian mining areas in the Trentino region also reached the western and central Balkans:
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................!!THE XRF and lead isotope data is added at the end of the article!!

Since the mid-1970s a Bronze Age assemblage of metal objects has been recovered from the seabed off the south Devon coast at Salcombe, southwest England. The assemblage spans two suspected shipwreck events and comprises nearly 400 pieces of raw materials and finished artefacts, primarily in copper, tin, bronze and gold. Among these are 280 copper and 40 tin ingots, by far the largest discovery of Bronze Age ingots in either metal from northwestern Europe. Research in recent years revealed the microstructural and chemical nature of the ingots and enabled some preliminary conclusions on the metals trade in Europe in the Later Bronze Age. The present study aims to extend this knowledge by determining the tin, copper and lead isotopic compositions of the ingots using HR-MC-ICP-MS. In addition, bronze artefacts (swords, rapiers, palstaves and weights) from the Salcombe site are included in the multi-proxy approach in order to investigate their history and the possible relationships between finished products and ingots. In combination with the available chemical data of previous studies, the current results of the tin metal show that most likely two tin sources in southwest Britain supplied the ore for their production. This also sheds light on Late Bronze Age tin ingots from Israel that share the same geochemical characteristics with one group of the finds from Salcombe. Although the tin in the bronzes is similar to the tin in the ingots, it is not certain that the latter were used to make the bronzes. Correlations of copper and tin isotopes and trace elements of the bronzes point to a mixing or even recycling of copper-tin alloys rather than the alloying of individual components of copper and tin. However, the copper ingots from the assemblage could have been an additional component in the mixing process given their impurity pattern and isotopic composition. At the same time, a close relationship between swords of the Rosnoën type and palstaves from the cargo is disclosed. Lead isotope ratios for their part suggest Sardinian and/or south Spanish copper ores as a source for both the copper ingots and the copper of the bronzes. This would mean long-distance metal trade in the Later Bronze Age in both cases and would provide new insights into the interpretation of the prehistoric networks in Europe.

There is a general consent that the cooperation of scientific disciplines offers the opportunity to generate new methods and insights. But the question of how to implement this so that the cooperation is more than just disciplines coexisting is only rarely addressed.
The research on “goods distribution and transport infrastructure in the context of monastic manorialism in the Early Middle Ages”, aims to present different approaches of History and Archaeology and the inherent information of their respective sources.
By analysing selected parts of the “Prümer Urbar” (manorial roll / urbarium of Prüm Abbey) and by presenting a broad spectrum of archaeological sources regarding production, consumption and distribution of goods, opportunities and risks of linking archaeological and historical evidence can be identified. Moreover, it is outlined how an advantageous interdisciplinary cooperation can be achieved.

This pilot study addresses the analytical characterisation of 26 well‐known bronze objects of the Early and Middle Bronze Age of Central and Northern Europe. Besides swords and axes of the hoards from Apa, Téglás and Hajdúsámson, the investigation includes the famous Sky Disc and its accompanying finds from the Nebra hoard and several full‐hilted swords from Period I in Denmark. In contrast to former publications, the isotopic systematics of lead, tin and copper are the focus of the present investigation. With a combined approach, we try to relate the either typologically closely linked or otherwise related artefacts with chemical and isotopic proxies by identifying mixing scenarios. The results demonstrate that artefacts from different locations are most likely not directly linked, but mixing lines across isotope systems suggest a production of the items from common sources by mixing of bronze batches (e.g. bronze ingots), which were probably disseminated between 1600 and 1500 BC. This helps to correlate objects of different locations with each other and to draw conclusions upon typological and cultural connections. Isotopic and chemical correlations of objects within the individual hoards on the other hand allow reconstructions of metallurgical practices in single workshops, which for example implies recycling of metal scrap.

Metal trade and access to raw materials during the Late Bronze Age—roughly covering the New Kingdom in Egypt—have received substantial attention from past and present scholarship. Despite copper and lead remaining essential commodities afterwards, our knowledge about their supply during the Iron Age and later periods, in contrast, remains limited, even if it has improved recently. This paper presents the results of a pilot project investigating the possible sources of lead and copper available to Egypt during the Late Period (664–332 BCE), a period of intense contact and exchange between Egypt and the Mediterranean world. In the context of this research, a wide range of artefacts from Naukratis, a major cosmopolitan trading hub in the Western Nile Delta founded in the late 7th century BC, were analysed to determine their chemical composition and lead isotope ratios. They mostly consist of metal finds—including a crucible slag—but also some locally produced faience objects which used lead and copper to colour the glaze. Additional samples include metal objects and lead ores from Tell Dafana, a Late Period settlement in the Eastern Delta, and contemporary Egyptian or Egyptianizing bronzes from Cyprus.
A total of 39 objects were analysed with a combination of lead isotope and elemental analysis, yielding surprising results for the likely origins of the copper. While Cyprus, an expected source for copper, is identified for one object, the copper deposits from Faynan or from northwestern Anatolia offer the best match for most finds, including those found in Cyprus. The lead analysed seems to originate from a variety of mines, particularly from Laurion in Attica, and mines in the northern Aegean and/or northwestern Anatolia, with one example possibly from a lead‑silver mine located in central Iran. The multiplicity of lead sources reflects the complexity of international trade in the Eastern Mediterranean at the time. The study offers a valuable insight into the trade networks of Egypt and, by extension, the whole of the ancient Mediterranean. A larger-scale project investigating objects from a wider range of sites in the Eastern Mediterranean world could revolutionize our understanding of metal trade and concomitant economic, political and social developments in the first millennium BC.

Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeo-metallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal stock have received much attention. Also, discussions of the value and perception of bronze, both as individual objects and as hoarded material, continue to be the focus of scholarly debate. Here, we bring together the sometimes-diverging views of several research groups on these topics in an attempt to find common ground and set out the major directions of the debate, for the benefit of future research. The paper discusses how to determine and interpret the geological provenance of new metal entering the system; the circulation of extant metal across time and space, and how this is seen in changing compositional signatures; and some economic aspects of metal production. These include the role of metal-producing communities within larger economic settings, quantifying the amount of metal present at any one time within a society, and aspects of hoarding, a distinctive European phenomenon that is less prevalent in the Middle Eastern and Asian Bronze Age societies.