The oldest metallurgy in western Europe

Taboada, Arturo Ruíz; Montero‐Ruiz, Ignacio

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00065650

Cited by 37 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…More recent work has proposed that metallurgy could have been developed independently in more than one location (e.g. Renfrew 1969;Ruiz-Taboada and Montero-Ruiz 1999;Höppner et al, 2005;Radivojević et al 2010); it has questioned its purported impact in social structures (e.g. Montero Ruiz, 1994;Bartelheim 2007;Kienlin, 2010;2016), and it has emphasised that aesthetic rather than functional adaptations may have been major factors shaping metallurgical traditions (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early metallurgy in SE Iberia. The workshop of Las Pilas (Mojácar, Almería, Spain)

Murillo-Barroso

Martinón‐Torres

Massieu

et al. 2017

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Big narratives on the role of metallurgy in social change and technological innovations are common in archaeology. However, informed discussion of these issues requires a contextualised characterisation of metallurgical technology at the local level in its specific social and technological context. This paper approaches early metallurgy in Iberia from a technological perspective. We focus on the site of Las Pilas in the Vera Basin (Mojácar, Almería, Spain), where the whole metallurgical chaîne opératoire has been documented in situ through archaeological excavation of a 3 rd Millennium BC context. The study includes microstructural, mineralogical and chemical analyses of ores, slag, technical ceramics and finished artefacts, as well as domestic pottery used for comparative purposes. These results are discussed with reference to the archaeological context and evidence for other domestic activities and crafts. Our aim is to contribute to better characterise the early metallurgical tradition of Southeast Iberia, paying particular attention to specific technological tools, knowledge and recipes that may allow future comparative approaches to knowledge transmission or independent innovation debates. For this particular case, we demonstrate the direct production of arsenical copper in a low-scale, low-specialisation, low-efficiency set up that involved the crucible smelting of complex oxidic ores in a context that suggests associations with cereal roasting and, indirectly, with basket and pottery making.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early metallurgy in SE Iberia. The workshop of Las Pilas (Mojácar, Almería, Spain)

Murillo-Barroso

Martinón‐Torres

Massieu

et al. 2017

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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“…Anyway, despite their wide age range, all the metal objects investigated in the current study can be considered as belonging to the early metallurgy of southwest Iberia that was characterized by the production of metal artifacts with simple morphologies (flat axes, arrowheads, spearheads, saws, awls, knifes, etc.) made either in pure Cu and/or in Cu/As alloys, generally with low concentration of other elements as impurities (Soares et al 1996;Ruíz Taboada and Montero-Ruiz 1999;Hunt-Ortiz 2003;Rovira 2004). During this stage, ranging from the end of IV/ beginning of the III millennium BC (Soares et al 1996) up to the half of the II millennium BC, the production of Cu-based objects in the region appears to be a small-scale activity, not experiencing significant changes from a typological, compositional, or technological point of view, until the first appearance of objects made with a Sn-containing alloy (Valério et al 2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-destructive characterization of archeological Cu-based artifacts from the early metallurgy of southern Portugal

Bottaini

Brunetti

Bordalo

et al. 2017

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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In this study, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations combined with energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectroscopy have been used to characterize nondestructively a collection of Cu-based artifacts recovered from two archeological sites in southern Portugal: (a) the Chalcolithic E.T.A.R. site of Vila Nova de Mil Fontes and (b) the Middle Bronze Age site of Quinta do Estácio 6. The metal artifacts show a multilayered structure made up of three distinct layers: (a) brownish carbonate soil-derived crust, (b) green oxidized corrosion patina, and (c) bulk metal. In order to assess the reliability of the EDXRF-based Monte Carlo simulations to reproduce the composition of the alloy substrate in archeological bronze artifacts without the need to previously remove the superficial corrosion and soil derived patinas, EDXRF analysis together with scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) was also performed on cleaned and patina-/crust-coated areas of the artifacts. Characterization of the mineralogical composition of the corrosion products in the surface patinas was further determined by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results suggest that the adopted EDXRF/Monte Carlo protocol may represent a safe and fast analytical approach in the quantitative characterization of the bulk chemical composition of Cubased metal artifacts even in the presence of fairly thick corrosion patinas and/or soil-derived encrustations at the surface of the archeological objects.

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“…1999). The site has also yielded evidence for copper metallurgy at a similarly early date (Ruíz Taboada and Montero Ruíz 1999).…”

Section: Human Remainsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Radiocarbon Dates from the Oxford Ams System: Archaeometry Datelist 31

et al. 2002

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The oldest metallurgy in western Europe

Cited by 37 publications

References 11 publications

Early metallurgy in SE Iberia. The workshop of Las Pilas (Mojácar, Almería, Spain)

Early metallurgy in SE Iberia. The workshop of Las Pilas (Mojácar, Almería, Spain)

Non-destructive characterization of archeological Cu-based artifacts from the early metallurgy of southern Portugal

Radiocarbon Dates from the Oxford Ams System: Archaeometry Datelist 31

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