Lead Isotope and Trace Element Analysis in the Study of Over a Hundred South Indian Metal Icons*

Abstract

Technical investigations were made on 130 South Indian statuary images and a few miscellaneous artefacts mostly sampled from the Government Museum, Madras, India, and from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, UK. Lead isotope investigations were attempted on 60 of these, and compositional analysis for 18 elements on 115, using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy; thus, for 40 objects both lead isotope and trace element analysis was done. From the isotopic and elemental framework, insights are obtained into some art‐historical problems of images and artefacts of the Pre‐Pallava, Pallava, Chola (i.e., Vijayalaya Chola), Later Chola (i.e., Chalukya‐Chola and Later Pandya), Vijayanagara (and Early Nayaka) and Later Nayaka (and Maratha) dynasties, spanning the Early Christian era to the nineteenth century, along with a few other regional styles. Inferences are also made regarding provenance of the lead and the early use of zinc and brass in the early historic period (c. fourth century BC—fourth century AD).

An Archaeo-Metallurgical Study of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in Luristan, Iran

“…Based on the presently available data the most plausible source region seems, to us, to be southern Rajasthan/northem Gujarat from where isotopically matching ores have been reported by Ericson & Shirahata (1985) and by Srinivasan (1999). Moreover, it is a region where "copper and tin ores occur in proximity" (Hedge 1978: 42;Chakrabarti 1979;63) so that the necessary ingredients for making bronze with the right lead isotope fingerprint are available.…”

Khao Sam Kaeo – an archaeometallurgical crossroads for trans-asiatic technological traditions

“…However, strikingly similar ceramics have recently been reported along with a high-tin bronze ingot from the broadly contemporary site of Tilpi in West Bengal (Datta et al, 2007). Given that high-tin bronzes probably date from at least the early 1st millennium BCE in South Asia (Srinivasan, 1997(Srinivasan, , 1998(Srinivasan, , 1999Srinivasan and Glover, 1995), it is conceivable that KSK high-tin bronze production technologies were transmitted by some means across the Bay of Bengal. Such a possibility is in accordance with Bellina's original (2001) model of South Asian artisans settling at KSK and using South Asian techniques to produce 'Southeast Asian' material culture (Bellina, 2003(Bellina, , 2007.…”

National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)

“…A program in the area of ancient mining and history of metallurgical extraction; drawing from studies of ore and geological formations; evidence for old working, slag and other archaeometallurgical debris; use of ore geochemistry and geosciences applications in the understanding of metal extraction and metal technology and characterization of artifacts has been undertaken. Original preliminary studies have been made in terms of identifying old working and slag heaps, from archaeometallurgical investigations and studies on ore and slag geochemistry in various parts of south India for copper smelting, bronze making iron smelting, and old gold mines covering Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (Haricharan et al, 2016, Srinivasan, 1997, 1999a, 2016a. Significant studies have also been made in identifying production sites for making crucible steel and related ore sources such as banded iron ores (Srinivasan, 2016b;Srinivasan and Ranganathan, 2013).…”