Ancient Metal Technology

Gold parting enabled the production of very pure gold for various purposes from the sixth century BC onwards, but analytical proof of this pyrotechnical process is difficult. We describe a new analytical approach for the identification of purified gold combining silver and copper isotopic with trace element analyses. Parting experiments were performed with gold-silver-copper alloys using the classical salt cementation process to investigate potential silver and copper isotope fractionation and changes in trace element concentrations. In addition, we provide the first comprehensive dataset of silver isotope ratios of archaeological gold objects from the Mediterranean and Central Europe to test whether or not gold refining can be identified on the basis of isotope systematics. The results show that very heavy silver and copper isotopic compositions are clear evidence for parted gold, but that the application of copper isotopes might be limited.

Radomír Pleiner’s death in January 2015 marked the end of an era. For sixty years he was one of the key figures in the study of early iron working, as demonstrated by his remarkable publication record of 12 books and over 250 papers. He was the founder member of the CPSA and remained its secretary for over forty years. An obituary was printed in the Spring 2015 issue of The Crucible, outlining his career and achievements, but it was decided that a longer, and less formal, celebration of his life and work should also be prepared. The tributes which follow include a number of personal reminiscences from the golden years of Radomír’s career, which are in a roughly chronological order, as well as a few thematic items. They are all a clear demonstration of the affection in which Radomír was held, of how widely his inspiration and influence were felt by his friends and colleagues and how they are still felt by succeeding generations. His lasting legacy will undoubtedly be his two magisterial books, Iron in Archaeology: The European Bloomery Smelters (2000) and Iron in Archaeology: Early European Blacksmiths (2006) which formed a fitting conclusion to his long and uniquely successful career. However, for those who had the privilege of knowing and working with Radomír it will be for his human qualities that he will be long remembered.

Compiled by Peter Crew and Jiří Hošek. Contributions by Szymon Orzechowski, Elzbieta Nosek, Vladimir Zavyalov, Henry Cleere, Thilo Rehren, Henriette Lyngstrøm, Brian G. Scott, Věra Souchopová, János Gömöri, Lars F. Stenvik, Michel Mangin,  Philippe Fluzin, Eva Hjärthner-Holdar, Christina Risberg, Peter and Susan Crew, Philippe Andrieux, Jiří Hošek, Vincent Serneels, Brian Gilmour, Janet Lang.

The unplaced Fragment D of the Antikythera Mechanism with an unknown operation was a mystery since the beginning of its discovery. The gear-r1, which was detected on the Fragment radiographies by C. Karakalos, is preserved in excellent condition, but this was not enough to correlate it to the existing gear trainings of the Mechanism. The suggestion that this gear could be a part of the hypothetical planet indication gearing is still a hypothesis since no mechanical evidence has been preserved. After the analysis of AMRP tomographies of Fragment D and its mechanical characteristics revealed that it could be part of the Draconic gearing. Although the Draconic cycle was well known during the Mechanism’s era as represents the fourth Lunar cycle, it seems that it is missing from the Antikythera Mechanism. The study of Fragment D was supported by the bronze reconstruction of the Draconic gearing by the authors. The adaptation of the Draconic gearing on the Antikythera Mechanism improves its functionality and gives answers on several questions.

(co-authored with Eleni Konstantinidi-Syvridi, Anna Philippa-Touchais and Akis Goumas), in H. Meller, R. Risch and E. Pernicka (eds.) Metalle der Macht. Fruhes Gold und Silber/Metals of power-Early Gold and Silver, Halle (Saale) 2014, 335-348.

In this study, we analyse and discuss some aspects of the production technology, function, and circulation of the metal pins dated to the Middle and Recent Bronze Age (c. 1700/1650-1150 BC) in the territory comprised between western Emilia, Romagna, Verona lowlands and Lombardy plains. The remarkable number of pins (more than 1600), found in settlements and cemeteries since the 19th century, have been collected in a database, which allowed us to draw the distribution maps of 68 types. Through various experiments we investigated in detail the production process and identified which phases required more advanced knowledge/skills. Thanks to this approach, we were able to distinguish three degrees of complexity in the manufacturing process of pins, and to connect typological variability to technology. We therefore observed that some territorial districts, such as Verona lowlands, are characterized by a more significant presence of complex productions. By examining some of the 68 types, selected among those best documented and with a distribution that does not appear random, we advanced hypothesis on the areas of production and use of certain models, thus linking the aspects of technology to those of custom and mobility at the regional level.

For many years, archaeologists and archaeometallurgists have suggested that recycled copper might have constituted a significant component of the metal in circulation in Britain during the first millennium AD. They have generally failed, however, to suggest a way of observing and quantifying this phenomenon. Here the authors propose a new methodology to rectify this. A large new database of chemical analyses of British copper alloys dating from the late Iron Age to the early medieval period demonstrates the potential of their approach; it shows that significant and measureable changes occur in metal circulation at the beginning of the first century AD and in the early Saxon period.

A large corpus of metal objects comes from the Early Minoan [EM] I–Middle Minoan [MM] IIA cemetery
of a Rock Shelter and house tombs. ey have been analyzed with X-ray €uorescence in order to determine
their composition and give insight into the local metallurgical tradition, which showed signicant activity in
the area from the Final Neolithic. e artifacts mostly comprise jewellery pieces and small tools and weapons.
A range of alloys and techniques was used by the local artisans. e production methods and nishing
processes of the artifacts allow us to clarify the steps in the fabrication of the pieces. e various classes of
objects are representative of diverse techniques and include a range of weapons, tools and objects of personal
use.
Several copper-, gold- and silver-based alloys have been identied. e gold pieces consist of small delicate
bosses, sheets and strips that probably once surrounded wooden buttons and were attached to other organic
materials. Cast pieces are also present. e silver alloys‚– which were used for decorative rivets on several
copper-based objects, but also for pendants and bracelets‚– are particularly interesting, and show a distinctive
and unusual composition. Several of the copper-based objects are miniature tools such as cosmetic scrapers
that were equipped with holes so that they could be worn as pendants. Other copper/bronze objects include:
a chisel, awls, tweezers, knife blades, shhooks, pendants, bracelets, rivets, beads and strips.
ese metal pieces provide important information about the people who were buried in the Rock Shelter
and the house tombs. e jewellery and other items of personal adornment, together with the other tools,
display a relative level of aƒuence that was enjoyed by the local population, a level of prosperity that is
further supported by the quality of the other categories of objects that came from the tombs. Furthermore,
the special alloys employed for certain types of objects reveal the sophisticated technical knowledge of the
metal workshop that was employed by the inhabitants of Petras in the Early and Middle Bronze Age.

The richly inlaid bronze torso of Pedubaste (ca. 818-793 BC) is one of the great monuments of the Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, a politically decentralized and obscure era marked, nonetheless, by a high level of inventiveness and artistry.

Close visual and technical examination laid the groundwork for this study, in which several points of historical, technical and artistic interest have been pursued in depth. Investigation of the modern history of the object is suggestive with regard to its origin, which in turn has further implications for the much-discussed power base of the historical King Pedubaste. Technical description of the figure, incorporating insights from elemental, radiographic, metallographic and petrographic analyses contributes to a growing body of scientific studies of ancient Egyptian metal statuary. It also provides evidence regarding casting technology and finishing processes, as well as sophisticated alloying practices and artificial patinations. The combined results of the technical and art historical investigations permit at least partial reconstruction of the original and its figural decoration, along with an appraisal of the remarkable visual impact of the statue, both confirming and extending the findings of other recent studies of large Third Intermediate Period bronze statuary.

Meno con il sostegno della Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Gruppi selezionati di grandi bronzi romani dall'Italia settentrionale, rinvenuti a Brescia (Brixia), Cividate Camuno (Civitas Camunnorum) e Verona (Verona), vengono esaminati in maniera sistematica con l'apporto di studiosi dalle diverse competenze scientifi che e con l'impiego di metodi innovativi, che combinano indagini archeologiche, tecnologiche e archeometriche. L'analisi delle opere riguarda sia la documentazione dello stato di conservazione e la ricostruzione della tecnica di fabbricazione, sia l'inquadramento formale e iconografi co dei bronzi e l'interpretazione del loro signifi cato e della loro funzione alla luce degli specifi ci contesti di collocazione originaria. La somma dei risultati ha consentito una valutazione complessiva delle peculiarità tecniche e artistiche della statuaria romana in bronzo nei centri presi in considerazione, anche in raffronto alle testimonianze dell'Italia centrale e meridionale.

The ISLAMETAL project (2013-2017) was jointly conducted by the Département des Arts de l'Islam (DAI), Musée du Louvre, and the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF) and kindly supported by the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute (RCHI). The project deals with the detailed technological investigation of copper-based metal wares (10th to late 15th centuries CE) from the Iranian world at the Louvre Islamic Art collection, comprising mostly household and domestic objects such as candlesticks, lamps, ewers, plates, and bowls. Amongst the collection characteristic qualities of production and decoration can be discerned. High status objects were decorated with sophisticated patterns including exquisite chasing, engraving, champlevé, and especially copper, silver and gold inlays. Results of the technological investigation of some 169 objects (particle induced X-ray emission, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, digital microscopy, X-radiography) showed a range of distinct alloy types employed and a correlation between artefact typology, fabrication technique, status and alloys. Decoration techniques showed a clear change spanning the 10th and 15th centuries with the notable introduction of precious metal inlays during the 12th century and new inlaying techniques before the mid-13th century. Lost-wax casting was the preferred manufacturing method even for mass produced objects where sand casting would seem a more suitable choice. Specific production centres in the region of Khorasan, such as that of Herat and Ghazna, were possible to be technologically identified. Detailed investigation of this comprehensive corpus provided for the first time key technical references for further comparison, particularly with neighbouring Near Eastern workshops.

This communication aims to present the information concerning the identification of furniture and know-how originally from eastern Mediterranean in Corsica through Middle Bronze Age (1600-1200 b.C.) and Late Bronze Age (1200-800 b.C.).
In this island, the question of the presence of Aegean elements was, for a long time, associated to a theory involving a foreign-born population, the Sherden, a group mentioned within the famous Sea Peoples. After the abandonment of these historic-factual constructions, the insular archaeological research attached itself to the analysis of the sociocultural character of insular groups from the Bronze Age, without trying to connect them to the cultural dynamics from eastern Mediterranean.
After three decades of scientific introspection, it seems important to propose a postponed inventory on this specific issue. The issue of relations between the Aegean and Near-Eastern areas is documented today by several discoveries, revisions on objects and specific analysis made for fifteen years. In the early 2000s, the first formal testimony of the eastern importation recognized in Corsica is a copper ingot of ox-hide typology and Cypriot origin, found out of context in Sant’Anastasia, in the northeast area of the island. This object, published by F. Lo Schiavo, illustrates the integration at least marginal of Corsica into the Mediterranean networks of metal distribution in the late second millennium. This discovery thereby came to partially fulfill an important gap in research, particularly illustrated by the strong contrast expressed by the number of remains of this type between Corsica and Sardinia. At the same time, the realization of analysis (laser ablation coupled to mass spectrometry) on vitreous furniture unearthed during ancient excavations of the sites of Foce, Tiresa and Filitosa permitted to set the context of production, revealing the near-eastern origin of the materials. 
More recently, the discovery of a set of ornaments in connection in a sepulchral context of the late Middle Bronze at the site of Campu Stefanu (southwest) allowed obtaining of one of the largest repositories for this type of production throughout the western Mediterranean. This necklace is composed by 25 blue-glass beads of Near-Eastern origin, even Egyptian, and of 29 Baltic amber beads of Aegean typology, which show, in addition, a perfect physical, chemical and morphological superposition with isolated beads from contemporary sepulchral contexts of Sardinia. In this context, the formal non-recognition of Helladic crockery in Corsica, while several cases are known and published in Nuragic area, seems to be explained by a delay in research.
Besides these direct testimonies betraying the importation of exotic prestige goods in Corsica between the fourteenth and the twelfth centuries, recent achievements illustrate the existence of technical transfers between the island and the Mycenaean world around the middle and late second millennium. These phenomena are notably materialized by the strong technical and iconographic analogies observed during repoussé work in metal foils. The matrices recognized in Corsica present indeed profound occurrences with those individualized in Greece, as well as the finished objects to which they are attached. Unlike importing exotica and bullion, repoussé metalwork is not known in Sardinia and peninsular Italy during those times, thereby introducing a direct transfer of know-how between these two territories.
Through these few examples, of which we sense a short-term enrichment, we’ll try to measure and explain the integration of different types of remains within the native society, in order to draw the position of the island amongst the networks between the two basins of the Mediterranean.