Archaeometallurgy

Magnetic survey data presented as filled contour maps with a non-linear scale reveals the characteristic dipolar signal from iron smelting furnaces. High resolution data, from 10cm spaced surveys, can be modelled mathematically to recover the angles of inclination and declination, which can be used to estimate the last date of firing of a furnace.
The techniques are illustrated with maps of 4 furnaces from prehistoric and medieval sites in north Wales and the results are compared to conventional archaeomagnetic determinations. The potential use of these techniques to any burnt features, such as hearths or small ovens, is discussed.

Iron-production sites of the early historic period in Mainland Southeast Asia (fifth to fif-teenth centuries AD) are rare. Recent excavations at the Tonle Bak site in central Cambodia now provide the first evidence for furnace technology, metallurgical characteristics of slag concentrations and evidence for the organisation of local smelting communities and ritual practices during the peak of the Angkorian Khmer Empire. The results demonstrate that the smelters were directly integrated with Angkorian state-exchange networks. They also raise questions about the use of ethnohistorical records for understanding the identity and organisation of these early metalworkers.

The 18th century water-powered ironworks at Agoreggi, in the Basque country, was reconstructed based on contemporary historical records and archaeological investigations. In 1994-1999 three campaigns of experiments were carried out with the aim of reproducing the scale and technology of the iron production. This paper is a fully illustrated description of the experiments and, in particular, of the practical problems of the air delivery system and the use of the copper tobera (tuyere). In 1999 six agoas (blooms) were made of varying quality and size, the largest being a 30kg ferritic agoa smelted from 140kg of ore, but this is only about half the scale of the 18th century production.
It subsequently transpired that the mouth of the tobera used for the experiments should have been 170% larger, thus allowing more air to be blown into the furnace, and the making of agoas closer to the 18th century size. See Crew 2013, 'Twenty five years of bloomery experiments...', pages [46-48], for an overview of the experiments and a brief discussion of the tobera problem.

This paper describes our 17th experiment (XP17), which was the first occasion on which a reasonable bloom was made. The smelt was of 7.5kg of moderately rich bog iron ore, in a low shaft furnace, resulting in a low carbon bloom of 1600g. Half the bloom was refined to a billet (642g), then to a flat bar (350g), part of which was forged to a knife. If the whole bloom had been refined, the total losses would have been more than half the original weight, resulting in three smithing hearth slags from each stage of the process. The data is used to make a preliminary calculation of the production from the sites at Bryn y Castell and Crawcwellt, where considerable numbers of smithing hearth bottoms were found.

In 1987 to 1989 15 experiments were carried out, smelting bog-iron ores in a low shaft furnace. The data from XP13 to XP28 are presented, with quantifications of the smelting and of the refining to billets and bars. Analyses of the bog ores are given. Metallurgical analyses, micrographs and P maps of the blooms from XP22 and XP23 are given, and analyses of the billet from XP17 and the bar from XP16. Line traces for P, As, Co and Ni, across the XP16 bar show the segregation of the P and the surface enrichment of As and Ni.

This PPT was presented at the 2009 'World of Iron' conference. It is a comparative study of bloomery iron made from different ores, refined to bars and forged to knives, looking at the metallography and the slag inclusions. This conference presentation has a wider range of images than could be used in the 2013 published version. The second file has a descriptive text.

This book presents a new study of Greek large-scale bronze statuary of the late Archaic and Classical periods. It examines the discovery, origin, style, date, artistic attribution, identification, and interpretation of the surviving bronzes, and focuses in particular on their technical features and casting techniques. It contains over 170 plates of photographs and drawings to illustrate its discussion.

It also places the development of the casting techniques in connection with the stylistic evolution in Greek free-standing sculpture. During the Classical period, artists preferred bronze to marble when creating their contrapposto figures. Indisputably, bronze gave particular freedom to artists in creating three-dimensional figures. In addition, the evolution in style encouraged the development of the uses of bronze to serve the new needs and tendencies in sculpture during the late Archaic and especially the Classical period. Through the examination of how technical matters affect style, this book presents fresh interpretations of these important monuments of Greek art and offers a new approach in the field of Greek free-standing bronze sculpture.

SUMMARY: Chapter 8, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers what typically survives, what constitutes an "artifact", interpreting usage, obtaining materials (e.g., quarrying; mining), transporting materials, installing materials, manufacturing items, identifying function, experimental archaeology, etc., regarding stone, bone, antler, shell, leather, wood, plant, metal, faience, glass, and other materials and diverse artifacts.  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record.  UPDATED May 2023.

This paper aims at highlighting a methodological flaw in current biblical archaeology, which became apparent as a result of recent research in the Aravah's Iron Age copper production centers. In essence, this flaw, which cuts across all schools of biblical archaeology, is the prevailing, overly simplistic approach applied to the identification and interpretation of nomadic elements in biblical-era societies. These elements have typically been described as representing only one form of social organization, which is simple and almost negligible in historical reconstructions. However, the unique case of the Aravah demonstrates that the role of nomads in shaping the history of the southern Levant has been underestimated and downplayed in the research of the region, and that the total reliance on stone-built archaeological features in the identification of social complexity in the vast majority of recent studies has resulted in skewed historical reconstructions. Recognizing this "architectural bias" and understanding its sources have important implications on core issues in biblical archaeology today, as both "minimalists" and "maximalists" have been using stone-built architectural remains as the key to solving debated issues related to the geneses of Ancient Israel and neighboring polities (e.g., "high" vs. "low" Iron Age chronologies), in which-according to both biblical accounts and external sources-nomadic elements played a major role.

This paper discusses the Neolithic beginnings of metal-using and metal-working in the central Mediterranean region. In particular, a basic yet surprisingly long-standing question is addressed: when did metallurgy appear in this region? In the middle Neolithic, as Lawrence Barfield controversially proposed, or in the late Neolithic, as most scholars seem now keen to believe? And if the latter proves true, when exactly can we date its inception considering that the Italian late Neolithic lasted for about 700 years? The first section of the paper will examine whether some of the most archaic copper axes from this region can be dated to the middle Neolithic (c.5000-4500 cal. BC). The second section will discuss whether large copper implements including axes circulated south of the Alps in the late/final Neolithic (c.4500-3600 cal. BC), and if these were made locally or were all imported from neighbouring regions where extractive technology was already practised in this time period. The final section will briefly present Copper Age developments of the metallurgical practices established in Neolithic along with concluding remarks concerning the social and technological transformation, which occurred in the Central Mediterranean region in the 4th millennium BC.

The article’s aim is to foster an interdisciplinary debate regarding the direction that archaeometallurgical studies in the central Mediterranean region, from the late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (c4500-1650 BC), ought to take in the next decade. It is argued that early metallurgical studies in the area have followed an idiosyncratic course due to the sway held on the discipline by Idealism, an influential philosophical movement that greatly hindered the development of science-based archaeology until the late 20th century. The last fifteen years, however, have witnessed an unprecedented if rather tumultuous expansion of metallurgical research, and important advances have been made in the chronology and chaîne opératoire of early metal technology and artefacts. Yet it is the author’s contention that, in order to reap full benefits from the recent disciplinary growth, an explicit research agenda must be set. Above all, it is argued that the new agenda must be grounded in the cross-disciplinary examination of the materiality of metalwork, hitherto poorly explored in this region.

A diachronic view of the metallurgy in the Portuguese territory during the first three millennia after its appearance in the Iberian Peninsula is presented based on the current state of the art. Results of micro-energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (micro-EDXRF) analyses made on metal artefacts to determine their composition and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive analysis (SEM-EDS) analyses to study microstructural features as inclusions are shown to illustrate trends and specificities of each chronological period. Generally, in early periods, namely during the Copper Age and first stages of the Bronze Age, unalloyed copper and arsenical copper were at use, and only by the Late Bronze Age (LBA) did tin bronze substitute almost completely the previous role of copper. In the Early Iron Age, during the Orientalising period, a general decrease in the average tin content in bronzes seems to happen. Regarding the inclusions observed in the metal matrix, these seem to suffer a diversification with the appearance of tin bronzes. By the Copper Age, only Cu-O and Cu-As-O inclusions are observed, while by the LBA Cu-S inclusions become regular, besides others less frequent, as Sn-O, Cu-S-Fe and Pb globules. Overall, with the present analytical study, the complementary character of micro-EDXRF and SEM-EDS in the study of ancient metals is demonstrated, providing a first general overview of the ancient metallurgy at the Portuguese territory which is of key importance to specific investigations of the future.

Die Entdeckung einer fast lebensgrossen Bronzehand und eines Dolches im Oktober 2017 bei Prêles (Plateau de Diesse) im Berner Jura überraschte die Fachwelt und löste ein grosses Medienecho aus. Die Nachgrabung vor Ort und die Untersuchungen an der Bronzehand durch den Archäologischen Dienst des Kantons Bern führten zu weiteren Erkenntnissen. Die Publikation versammelt die Beiträge des Kolloquiums vom 30. Oktober 2019 und ergänzt sie mit weiteren Texten zum Kontext dieses bedeutenden Fundes.

Description of the metallurgical remains of the site of Le Landeron, Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Medieval smithing workshop and slags.
Extract from : Hofmann Rognon, P. : Le Landeron-Les Carougets, vestiges protohistorique, villa romaine, tombes et habitat médiévaux.

Full excavation of this small hillfort produced remarkable evidence for ironworking, both smelting and refining, in the late Iron Age, with a second phase of activity in the 2nd/3rd century AD. At the time the 1200kg of slag was the largest quantity recovered from any early site in Britain. The chronology is based on radio-carbon dates and a suite of archaeomagnetic determinations

The Terracotta Army that protected the tomb of the Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang offers an evocative image of the power and organisation of the Qin armies who unified China through conquest in the third century BC. It also provides evidence for the craft production and administrative control that underpinned the Qin state. Bronze trigger mechanisms are all that remain of crossbows that once equipped certain kinds of warrior in the Terracotta Army. A metrical and spatial analysis of these triggers reveals that they were produced in batches and that these separate batches were thereafter possibly stored in an arsenal, but eventually were transported to the mausoleum to equip groups of terracotta crossbowmen in individual sectors of Pit 1. The trigger evidence for large-scale and highly organised production parallels that also documented for the manufacture of the bronze-tipped arrows and proposed for the terracotta figures themselves.

After several decades of archaeologists interpreting Thailand's metal age development using top-down approaches drawn from 1980s archaeological theory, it has become evident they do not work for this region. When the metal assemblages from Ban Chiang and related sites in northeast Thailand were studied with a systematic methodology, alternative perspectives emerged for how to better interpret the resilient, peaceful prehistoric societies dating from approximately 2100 BCE-300 CE. A testable model is proposed applying "Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage" that focuses on "regional exchange systems." Exchange networks existed in the middle Mekong and Chao Phraya basins from the pre-metal period through the metal age and underpinned heterarchical political and economic systems whereby goods and valuables were exchanged among decentralized networks of communities.

The gold deposits of Verespatak belong to the famous 'Golden Quadrangle' (Romania). They have probably been exploited since ancient times. In order to obtain more detailed compositional information, native gold samples were analysed by WDS and NAA. The results show that the gold from Verespatak has typically very high silver contents in the order of 20-25% and also contains tellurium and other trace elements in the matrix and bound to mineral inclusions. Melting experiments under oxidizing and reducing conditions showed that copper and tellurium contained in the gold were hardly affected. Thus copper contents of up to 0.4% and tellurium contents of up to 0.2% can occur in this gold type. Such high tellurium contents have so far not been found in prehistoric gold objects from the region.

Raně středověký meč, který je uložen ve sbírkách Středočeského muzea v Roztokách u Prahy, je spojován s hradištěm na Levém Hradci, byť jeho nálezové okolnosti nejsou známy. Zbraň má jílec Petersenova typu Y, a již předchozí rentgenový průzkum prokázal damaskovaní čepele a přítomnost tzv. železné tauzie. Nově provedený rtg. tomografický průzkum umožnil bližší specifikaci plošného damasku a především tauzie; odhalil, že čepel nese damaskovaný nápis „(ABO)FECIT“ na jedné straně, a složený geometrický znak na straně druhé. Všechny nově získané informace jsou v článku podrobně popsány a diskutovány.

We would call the attention of students of the history of chemistry to these early 16th century attempts at analytical chemistry; for in them lie the foundations of that science. (Hoover and Hoover 1912, 220)
This paper tries to do that, with a study of some (random...) crucible fragments and their contents. For the much further developed variant of this, see the later papers by Marcos Martinon-Torres  (see https://ucl.academia.edu/MarcosMartinonTorres  )

Combinando las fuentes arqueológicas, literarias y epigráficas, se revisan los elementos metálicos empleados en las obras hidráulicas y la maquinaria de achique. Según la frecuencia de su uso, hemos de mencionar el plomo, seguido del bronce y en tercer lugar, el hierro. Los metales nobles, plata y oro, aparecen en proporciones casi testimoniales. La mayor cantidad de los metales romanos relacionados con el agua se emplearon en los acueductos, en las tuberías (fistulae) y en los elementos reguladores: calices, válvulas, grifos o llaves de paso (epitonia). Las máquinas para achicar agua eran esencialmente de madera, aunque para los ejes y los reluerzos se recurrió tanto al bronce como al hierro. Además, podemos mencionar la vertiente decorativa que ofrece el bronce como ornamento de las fuentes, en especial los caños por los que brota el agua, sin olvidar las vasijas y los instrumentos musicales.


Combining archaeological, literary, and epigraphic sources, this paper deals with the metallic elements used in hydraulic projects and water-lifting machinery. Following an order in direct proportion to their frequency of use we first mention lead, then bronze, and in third place, iron. Precious metals also played a role, but only in practically token amounts. Most of the Roman metalwork related to water was used in aqueducts - pipes (fistulae) and regulating devices such as villves (calices), taps, and stopcocks (epitonia). Wood was the main raw material for building large water-lifting machines, although bronze and iron were used on the axles and reinforcements. In addition to this authentic exhibition of technological power, presented to us by the metallic elements related lo hydraulic architecture and engineering, we should also point out that beyond its merely functilonal aspect brome had a decorative role as ornamentation on fountains, especially as water spouts.

Danebury is one of the more extensively excavated hillforts in Britain and the nearly 500 iron objects found are one of the largest assemblages from a single Iron Age site in Britain. Both currency bars and pieces of bulk iron, in the form of billets, were imported to the site. Fragments of cut currency bars show that they were being worked at Danebury. The possible sources of the different types of iron, and the objects made from them, are discussed in detail.

This paper examines the evidence for ironworking in the town of Kilkenny during the late medieval period. It takes into account both the written and archaeological sources for ironworking and is based on recently completed doctoral research into iron production in Ireland in the period from c. AD 1200 to 1600 (Rondelez 2014a). Other aspects, such as the ethnicity of the smiths, the fuel used for ironworking and the iron trade, are also discussed. inTRODucTiOn From steel blades for cutting timber, stone, textile and food to weapons for waging warfare, from humble nails to horseshoes, anchors and chains, iron played a vital part in late medieval life. As such, the blacksmith's forge, where the manufacturing and repair of these objects took place, played a central role in the medieval economy. Kilkenny is exceptional because its main forge, which for at least a century, and possibly more, had a monopoly on ironworking inside the town, is well documented, both through archival sources and excavations. The same sources suggest the introduction of coal in Kilkenny around 1400 and give insights into the connections between smithing technology and ethnicity.

In Eldagsen, Stadt Springe, wurden im Sommer
2013 Erdarbeiten fUr die grof)flachige
Umgestaltung des Markt- und Kirchplatzes
St. Alexandri vorgenommen. Dabei wurden
archaologische Ausgrabungen durchgefuhrt.
Neben knapp 60 Bau- und Siedlungsstrukturen
wurden 356 regelmaf)ig West-Ost-ausgerichtete
Bestattungen des um 1826 geschlossenen
Friedhofs untersucht, die in bis zu funf Lagen
ubereinander angelegt waren. Nur in wenigen
Fallen fanden sich in den Grabfullungen Reste
von Totenkronen, ein bronzener Fingerring oder
eine Schnalle. Zudem wurde eine grMere Anzahl
von metallenen Kleinfunden entdeckt, darunter
Ringe, Gurtel- und Schuhschnallen, Munzen
sowie Fragmente von Buchschlief)en. Hervorzuheben
sind zwei Kreuzemailscheibenfibeln des
9. /10. Jahrhunderts, die auf die fruhe Nutzung
des Friedhofes hinweisen. Zur Ermittlung der Materialherkunft wurder
beim Goldring mittels Laserablation-Massenspe -
trometrie (fs-LA-ICP-MCMS) die Bleiisotopenverhaltnisse
bestimmt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, das.
die Goldlegierung aufgrund ihrer Zusammense:zung
dem Rheinischen Schiefergebirge, genaue·
der Region um Koln, zugeordnet werden kann E.
ist sehr wahrscheinlich, dass der Ring dort auchergestellt
worden ist.

Die Tang-Dynastie (618-907) – auch das goldene Zeitalter Chinas genannt – war eine blühende Epoche voller faszinierender Kulturphänomene. Das Zentrum des kosmopolitisch ausgerichteten Kaiserreichs bildete die vom heutigen Xi’an überlagerte Millionenstadt Chang’an – eine der größten Metropolen ihrer Zeit. Als Protagonisten des höfischen Lebens prägten Adelige das Stadtbild, deren luxuriöser Lebensstil sich auch in den pompös ausgestatteten Grabanlagen widerspiegelt. Diese findet man heute meist beraubt vor. Nur die herrlichen Wandmalereien und die zahlreichen, von den Grabräubern unbeachteten Tonfiguren konnten bisher eine vage Vorstellung vom ursprünglichen Umfang der Grabbeigaben und der ehemaligen Pracht der unterirdischen Kammern vermitteln. Im Jahr 2001 wurde in Xi’an das unversehrte Grab der 736 verstorbenen Li Chui ausgegraben, einer Urenkelin des Kaisers Gaozu. Sechs Jahre dauerte die Restaurierung des umfangreichen Grabinventars durch ein deutsch-chinesisches Team. Erstmalig gelang es, das opulente Schmuckensemble einer Tang-zeitlichen Dame zu rekonstruieren. Mit den Ergebnissen der wissenschaftlichen Auswertung durch ein Team von Spezialisten unterschiedlicher Disziplinen bieten sich neue Erkenntnisse zur damaligen Bestattungskultur. Diese werden hier erstmals einem breiten Publikum vorgestellt. Reich bebilderte Exkurse zu Themen wie z.B. Weinkultur, Daoismus oder Alchemie gewähren darüber hinaus einen Einblick in den Tang-zeitlichen Alltag.

Copper alloys from an early-historic period site Kausambi, Uttar Pradesh, India were studied to understand the manufacturing technology and alloying practices through elemental analysis and microstructural examination. Most of the analysed samples were tin bronzes, and microstructure examination demonstrated casting, forging and annealing procedures adopted in manufacturing. Arsenic was absent in most of the samples, which may be due to recycling of the metal and awareness regarding the health hazards of this element among artisans. It is suggested that arsenic was not intentionally mixed in archaeological copper. On the other hand, tin was added in different quantities to meet the desired physical properties of the end-products. It is reported that copper metallurgy was developed in due course of time as a specialized craft in the Central Gangetic Valley, India and artisans of this region had mastered the copper-alloy technology since the early historic period.

The relation between currency management and mint towns is closely related. One of the most interesting features of the Bengal Sultanate is the presence of various mint towns within its boundaries in time and space. Recent research has mentioned about 40 mint names inscribed on the sultanate coins of Bengal (M.R. Karim 2013: 322). More recently a researcher has listed 47 mint names on coins of the Bengal Sultanate (S.M.I. Alam 2015). Finding such a large number of mint names does not necessarily mean this number of mints actually existed. Bengal was not geographically large enough to justify such a large number of mint towns. The actual number has been estimated to be between 16 (Jahan 1953: 225) and 26 mints (Shahnawaz 1999: 37). In the sultanate period of Bengal, the day-today local need for silver or gold coins was very limited. Local people were comfortable with cowries to purchase their daily commodities (M. Alam 2014: 70). Silver or gold coins were used only for large transactions, internal and external trade, and for religious offering purposes. Although the demand for metal coins by the general inhabitants of Bengal during the sultanate period was limited, the volume of coins of that period, especially silver coins, found till today is immense. Hundreds and thousands of silver coins of the Bengal sultans are preserved in various museums around the world and in private collections, and still more continue to be unearthed from various locations in Bangladesh, West Bengal, Assam, and the Tripura region. The existence of various mint towns within Bengal appears to indicate the decentralised monetary policies of the Bengal sultans. In order to gain a clearer view of this, it is necessary to study the metallic composition of the coins issued by a single mint, from its first appearance to its last known issue. Without studying the coins of a mint thoroughly, it will not be possible to explore the metallic and technological characteristics of that mint. A thorough archaeo-metallurgical analysis of the coins of a mint that is geographically identified can also create an opportunity to judge the interrelations of metal flow, trade and political relations between the mint towns within the sultanate and with other kingdoms. An attempt has been made here to analyse the silver coins of Sunargaon mint as part of a series of metallurgical analyses of the silver coins of all the mints of the Bengal Sultanate. Silver coins were selected from their first appearance to the end of their production (on the basis of availability and date). In total, 22 coins of Sunargaon mint from a private collection have been analysed by WDXRF. On the basis of the silver percentages of the coins of each year, an attempt has been made to relate the reason for such percentages with contemporary political history, to find out possible sources of silver of that period, and also to make observations on the other elements found in our metallurgical analysis.

A Roman copper ingot recovered from a wreck
located in the border region of the provinces of
Málaga and Cádiz is presented in the following
contribution. With a diameter of 45 to 53 cm and a
weight of 75.4 kg it is one of the heavier specimens.
Presumably the abbreviation of a name and the
indication of its weight were incised near the rim
of the bottom. Lead isotope and trace element
analysis suggest a provenance not from mines in
southern Hispania, but from the polymetallic ores
of the Catalunya region in northeastern Spain.

El yacimiento fenicio de La Fonteta (Guardamar del Segura, Alicante), gracias sobre todo al descubrimiento de numerosos vertederos metalúrgicos, ha proporcionado abundantes materiales relacionados con la producción de hierro, cobre, cobre/plomo y bronces binarios y ternarios, y probablemente también con la obtención de plomo y de plata. Entre estos restos arqueometalúrgicos hay que destacar por cantidad y variedad un significativo conjunto de toberas, constituido por más de 400 fragmentos. Las piezas documentadas hasta ahora se enmarcan en un arco cronológico que va desde los comienzos del siglo VIII a.C. hasta finales del siglo VII a.C.

Alongside the thousands of terracotta warriors discovered in the tomb complex of the first emperor of China, were tens of thousands of bronze weapons, including arrowheads and crossbow triggers, lances, spears, halberds (and the ferrules associated with them), swords and a few other special types. This quantity and quality of bronze weaponry provides an extremely rare opportunity to investigate patterns of standardisation and labour organisation within a single, very large and intentional assemblage as well as to consider the role of bronze production during the Qin period (325-206 BC) which marks perhaps the most crucial early stage in Chinese political unification.

This book draws upon extensive measurements, typological analysis and related statistical treatment, as well as a study of the spatial distribution of those bronze weapons found in the most extensively excavated part of the tomb complex (the five easternmost trenches in Pit 1). Metric data and statistical assessment of inter- and intra-group variation (e.g. coefficients of variation) suggest interesting patterns with regard to relative degrees of standardisation. A combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and point pattern analysis are used to assess formally any spatial patterning in the weapons and their analytical attributes, which then also provides further information about the labour organisation behind the production, transportation and placement of weapons as they were moved from the workshop and/or arsenal to the funeral pits. Combining these insights with those obtained from inscriptions found on some of the weapons and from ancient documents, this project investigates what technologies and crafting behaviour affected weapons production and labour organisation in a centralised imperial system.

This research project fills a gap in the study of mass production, the behaviour of craftspeople, and related logistical organisation in ancient China and, first time, to provide empirical data by analysing systematically on the types, dimensions and spatial patterns of Qin bronze weapons for the Terracotta Army in the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s tomb complex.