Early Bronze Age Copper Smelting on Seriphos (Cyclades, Greece)

Seriphos Surfaces: A Study of Copper Slag Heaps and Copper Sources in the Context of Early Bronze Age Aegean Metal Production

“…The sites of Kephala and Phournoi host large concentrations of slags and other metallurgical remains, estimated to a few thousand tons (Philaniotou et al . in press).…”

“…In order to examine the homogeneity of these heaps, an appropriate sampling strategy needed to be devised, governed by both spatial and morphological criteria. Sampling at Kephala and Phournoi was restricted to surface collection, as excavation has not been possible so far, and was largely based on the inherent division of the material into separate deposits in each case (for a description, see Philaniotou et al . in press).…”

“…Although two undated copper slag heaps were long known at Kephala and Avessalos (Gale et al . 1985), Seriphos remained almost a blank both in terms of archaeological and archaeometallurgical research (Philaniotou et al . in press).…”

“…Through this project, the slag heap of Kephala was dated to the EBA, together with a newly identified smaller slag scatter on Phournoi at the north of the island (Zacharias et al . 2006; Philaniotou et al . in press).…”

“…A few prehistoric sherds recovered from the impressive slag heap of Avessalos raise the possibility that at least part of this much larger deposit may also be contemporary. A detailed description of these sites has been given elsewhere (Philaniotou et al . in press).…”