A Non-local Source of Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Gold

Abstract

Lead isotope analyses of 50 Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age gold artefacts favour a gold source in southern Ireland. However when combined with major element analysis, the artefacts are not consistent with any Irish gold deposit analysed to date. Understanding the lead isotope signatures of ore deposits within a study region allows informed inferences to be drawn regarding the likelihood that an unanalysed ore deposit was exploited in the past. If an Irish gold source is assumed, then the gold is most likely to have originated from deposits hosted by Old Red Sandstone in the Variscan ore field of south-west Ireland. However, based on our current understanding of mineralisation in the region, this scenario is considered unlikely. A non-Irish source for the gold is therefore preferred – a scenario that may favour cosmologically-driven acquisition, ie, the deliberate procurement of a material from distant or esoteric sources. Available geochemical data, combined with current archaeological evidence, favour the alluvial deposits of south-west Britain as the most likely source of the gold.

Tin ingots from a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe, Devon: Composition and microstructure

“…However, the mining of low grade tin ores containing higher levels of haematite, followed by through beneficiation by hand, could also have occurred with similar consequences for archaeological visibility (Yener and Vandiver, 1993). gold objects in Ireland demonstrating non-local sources (Standish et al, 2015). This does not mean that gold sources in Ireland were not exploited during this period -as has been argued for the Mourne Mountains, Ireland -and the prospecting for gold may also have been accompanied extraction of tin (Warner et al, 2010a(Warner et al, , 2010b.…”

“…The use of lead isotope analysis as well as trace element analysis in analysing the provenance of tin has suggested that the Uluburun tin ingots contain at least two groups, and tin ingots from Hishuley Carmel off the Israeli coast may have been from the same source as one of the Uluburun groups (Stos-Gale et al, 1998) and also that the Sardinian tin objects were not produced locally (Valera and Valera, 2003).The future use of lead and tin isotope analyses could well provide further insights into the provenance of the Salcombe ingots (cf. Haustein et al, 2010;Standish et al, 2014Standish et al, , 2015.…”

Biscay and Beyond? Prehistoric Voyaging between Two Finisterres

“…The source of the gold may again be Iberian, although Cornwall is also a possibility (Taylor , 235–6; O’Connor ; Fitzpatrick , 48; Standish et al . ). Early copper mining at Ross Island in Ireland can be linked to Iberia, depending as it did on fahlerz ores of arsenicated copper.…”

Estudio arqueométrico y contextual del brazalete de oro tipo Villena/Estremoz de la Cueva del Silo (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, España)

“…No se ha abordado el estudio sobre la procedencia del oro debido a las limitaciones, técnicas y económi-cas, además de la caracterización de las posibles áreas fuentes que todavía en la actualidad persisten (Pernicka 2014), si bien se han realizado notables avances en este campo mediante el análisis de isótopos del plomo (Standish et al 2015).…”