The concept of weighing during the Bronze Age in the Aegean, the Near East and Europe

Rahmstorf, Lorenz

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511760822.012

Cited by 32 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…A study of their weights seems to suggest that there was a common weighing system in use in the areas of Romania and Hungary where oxhide‐like ingots have been found. The weight units that emerge appear to be consistent with the proposal of the existence of a European BA unit clustering around c .26 g and its submultiples, which would be exchangeable with eastern Mediterranean units (Malmer ; Peroni ; Pare ; see also Rahmstorf ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

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Late Bronze Age Oxhide and oxhide‐like ingots from areas other than the Mediterranean: problems and challenges

Sabatini¹

2016

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary Oxhide ingots are probably one of the most remarkable metal artefacts that ever circulated throughout the Mediterranean during the second millennium BC. From the Levantine coast to Sardinia, oxhide ingots were produced, exchanged, used and transformed for almost six centuries (c.1600–1100/1000 BC). They are generally regarded as a class of material that is found only in the Mediterranean area. However, there are a number of oxhide ingots that have been encountered far beyond the coasts of the Mediterranean. The aim of this paper is to throw some light on these items and their significance in order to increase our understanding of the complex and far‐reaching Bronze Age metal supply networks in Europe. The application of a commodity branding model also allows the possibility of achieving a deeper understanding of these items as tokens of the long‐lasting links between Continental Europe and the Mediterranean.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…A hemisphere from the Tătărăni hoard, which has been considered a weight (Turk , 253), measures 131.7 g which is almost exactly ten times the Cugir I higher value. The latter is also close (Rahmstorf , 99) to weight no. 1 (13.73 g) from Steinfurth (Hesse, Germany) dated to the BzD or to the thirteenth century BC.…”

supporting

confidence: 70%

Late Bronze Age Oxhide and oxhide‐like ingots from areas other than the Mediterranean: problems and challenges

Sabatini¹

2016

Oxford J Archaeology

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“…The weights of the tin ingots also do not correlate to Bronze Age weight units identified in continental Europe -such as the 48.8 g and 104 g for the Late Bronze Age in France and Switzerland (Pare, 2013) or 61.3 g for central Europe during the 13 th century BC (Pare, 1999). However, there can be little doubt that weights were being measured across Bronze Age Temperate and Mediterranean Europe and that these frequently related to metals (Pare, 1999;Pulak, 2000b;Lo Schiavo, 2006;Rahmstorf, 2010;Roscio et al, 2011). (Needham et al, 2013).…”

Section: Importance Of the Slacombe Tin Ingotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wang¹,

Strekopytov²,

Roberts³

et al. 2016

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…There are complexities in the evidence that go beyond the identification of weight systems (cf. Lo Schiavo 2006;Pare 1999Pare , 2013Rahmstorf 2010Rahmstorf , 2011 or the classification and distribution of ingot forms (e.g., Gomez-Ramos 1993;Le Carlier et al 2014) and defy simple explanations. For example, the role of ingots as a potential pre-monetary currency is complicated by the evidence for Early Bronze Age ingot metal such as the Ösenring copper, which has a distinctively different composition from other bronze objects, suggesting that the metal tied up in them was only exceptionally converted into items of everyday use.…”

Section: Metal Trade and Exchangementioning

confidence: 99%

The Provenance, Use, and Circulation of Metals in the European Bronze Age: The State of Debate

et al. 2018

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Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeometallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal stock have received much attention. Also, discussions of the value and perception of bronze, both as individual objects and as hoarded material, continue to be the focus of scholarly debate. Here, we bring together the sometimes-diverging views of several research groups on these topics in an attempt to find common ground and set out the major directions of the debate, for the benefit of future research. The paper discusses how to determine and interpret the geological provenance of new metal entering the system; the circulation of extant metal across time and space, and how this is seen in changing compositional signatures; and some economic aspects of metal production. These include the role of metal-producing communities within larger economic settings, quantifying the amount of metal present at any one time within a society, and aspects of hoarding, a distinctive European phenomenon that is less prevalent in the Middle Eastern and Asian Bronze Age societies.

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The concept of weighing during the Bronze Age in the Aegean, the Near East and Europe

Cited by 32 publications

References 13 publications

Late Bronze Age Oxhide and oxhide‐like ingots from areas other than the Mediterranean: problems and challenges

Late Bronze Age Oxhide and oxhide‐like ingots from areas other than the Mediterranean: problems and challenges

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

The Provenance, Use, and Circulation of Metals in the European Bronze Age: The State of Debate

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