Vincent C Pigott | University of Pennsylvania (original) (raw)

Papers by Vincent C Pigott

The Adoption of Iron in Western Iran in the Early First Millennium B.C.: An Archaeometallurgical Study , 1981

Abstract The explicit intent of this research was to provide a detailed analysis of the developme... more Abstract
The explicit intent of this research was to provide a detailed analysis of the development of the use of iron in western Iran in the tenth through the seventh centuries B.C., and an evaluation of the circumstances under which this metal was adopted within this particular culture area. Of concern were the socio-cultural implications of this major technological development. Towards this purpose, an initial objective was to outline the technological background of the development of iron production. The goal was to explore the relationship of iron production to earlier copper production and to evaluate the importance of the metal both functionally and technologically. In addition, the constraints placed on the manufacturing process by the nature of the iron metal itself were discussed. Secondly, the evidence for iron and its associated metallurgy in Iron Age western Iran, were outlined by period, from both a technological and an archaeological perspective. This outline begins with the Iron I period and then reviews information pertinent to the Iron II and III periods. The study concludes that Bronze Age precedents exist for the development of iron production out of copper production. In the production of copper and its alloys, metalsmiths had ample opportunity to encounter iron in a variety of forms. The production processes of the two metals are basically similar up to the final stage where the time and effort required to forge iron into useable shapes exceeds that for copper. Due to this difficulty inherent in the production process, iron had to be produced on a large-scale to make its production worthwhile. Although the actual production of iron has not yet been documented in western Iran, the quantities of iron and the often standardized forms known to occur in the Iron II period and later, suggest large-scale production. Such production of iron necessitates organization of the activities of production (mining, dressing, smelting, etc.) and could have existed only under appropriate socio-cultural conditions. A review of the archaeological evidence which associates with the first significant use of iron suggests that such conditions were present in western Iran. From the site of Hasanlu, in particular, it is apparent that advanced social stratification with increased wealth and political centralization were present. It has been suggested that "an aesthetically sensitive environment" existed at Hasanlu in which iron was being experimented with along with other materials. However, the adoption of iron most probably was stimulated by the emulation by western Iranian peoples of the use of iron by the Assyrians. Iron occurs in bulk during Iron II in western Iran as the Assyrians were making their first significant incursions into this region. During the subsequent Iron III period, following a period of decline of Assyrian influence, a similar pattern of development appears to have occurred in Central Western Iran and Luristan. Metallographic analyses of artifacts from Hasanlu dating to ca. 800 B.C. show them to be products of a technology in transition in which the bronze smiths could be those working iron. Bimetallic objects are common and certain iron artifacts were worked as if they were bronze. The iron artifacts are generally a wrought iron or a low carbon, heterogenously carburized "steel". Technologically this iron was at best on par with the bronze of the period and appears to have been comparable to that from Assyria. At Hasanlu the vast majority of iron artifacts were weapons with smaller numbers in ornaments, tools and equipment.

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Science, 1998

Slabs and fragments of gray-black vesicular "rock," superficially resembling natural basalt but d... more Slabs and fragments of gray-black vesicular "rock," superficially resembling natural basalt but distinctive in chemistry and mineralogy, were excavated at the second-millennium B.C. Mesopotamian city of Mashkan-shapir, about 80 kilometers south of Baghdad, Iraq. Most of this material appears to have been deliberately manufactured by the melting and slow cooling of local alluvial silts. The high temperatures (about 12000C)
required and the large volume of material processed indicate an industry in which lithic materials were manufactured ("synthetic basalt") for grinding grain and construction.

BAN CHIANG, NORTHEAST THAILAND, VOLUME 2C: THE METAL REMAINS IN REGIONAL CONTEXT, 2019

Press permits its authors, after an embargo period, to mount copies of their work on their person... more Press permits its authors, after an embargo period, to mount copies of their work on their personal websites, on noncommercial discipline-specific servers of preprints or postprints, and within noncommercial digital repositories of nonprofit institutions with which they are currently affiliated. As ResearchGate and Academia.edu are commercial websites, Penn Press publications cannot be posted on those sites. Penn Press books and journals require that an embargo period of 12 months be observed before posting pdfs of the published work.

How Objects Tell Stories: Essays in Honor of Emma C. Bunker, 2018

INTRODUCTION It cannot be ignored that copper-base metallurgy was in place across much of Eurasia... more INTRODUCTION
It cannot be ignored that copper-base metallurgy was in
place across much of Eurasia well before the eastward
transmission of tin-bronze technology began ca. 3000
BCE and hence experienced metalworkers were on hand in
many culture areas to engage with newly arriving alloyed
objects, technological information and/or its practitioners
(Chernykh 1992; Linduff 2004; Linduff 2014; Linduff
and Mei 2014). Tin-bronze metallurgy, therefore, had
a cultural and technological substrate in place so that
it flourished among often metallurgically-experienced
human populations and then could be transmitted (Linduff
2014). It was, in the end, cultural ratcheting over time that
fostered this process. Cultural ratcheting is built on the
human ability to transmit information between individuals
over time or inter-generationally until such time that a
new idea comes to the fore (Pringle 2016, p. 93; Coward
and Grove 2011). “Modifications and improvements stay
in the population until further changes ratchet things
up again.” (Bentley and O’Brien 2012, p. 2). These
descriptions lie at the heart of the innovation process, the
result of accumulating knowledge/experience, which, in
turn, can give rise, for example, to a new technological
configuration. As Cyril Stanley Smith (1981, p. 351)
succinctly put it, “….discovery needs preparation.”
The discussion to follow is underpinned by the
premise that tin-bronze metallurgy was a technological
innovation that first appeared in greater Southwest Asia at
sites dating to the first half of the third millennium BCE
(Fig. 1) (Helwing 2009, pp. 211-12; Muhly 1973a, b, 1976,
1985; Nezafati et al. 2011, pp. 212-13; Penhallurick
(1986/2013); Pernicka 1998, pp. 139-40, abb.1a-b; Pigott
2012b; Rahmstorf 2011; Ruzanov 1999; Weeks 2003).
During this period, the technology was transmitted widely
by extended human contact in a non-linear, non-uniform
fashion across a broad geographical swath extending from
the eastern Aegean, and Anatolia through Mesopotamia
to sites in the southern Gulf, and including the Caucasus/
Transcaucasia and into southern Central Asia. By the
later third millennium BCE, it appeared well to the north
of this latter area in the eastern forest-forest/steppe and
in the neighboring Sayano-Altai Mountains region and
from there in the western borderlands of ancient China;
after ca. 2000 BCE it appeared in the Chinese Central
Plain (Chernykh 1992; Ciarla 2007; Higham et al. 2011;
Linduff 2014; Linduff and Mei 2014; Rispoli et al. 2013;
Roberts et al. 2009; Roberts 2011; Pigott 2012b; Pigott
and Ciarla 2007; Potts 2012; Sherratt 2006; Stöllner et
al. 2011; Weeks 2003; Wilkinson 2014)1 (Fig. 2a and b).
Ultimately, it appeared in northern Southeast Asia by ca.
1000 BCE (Ciarla 2007; Higham et al. 2011; Rispoli et
al. 2013; Pigott 2012b; Pigott and Ciarla 2007) though
the date of this technology’s arrival in the region remains
under debate (White and Hamilton 2014; see Chiou-
Peng, this volume). However, it is not my intention here
to review the entire scenario of tin-bronze’s Eurasian
transmission, but rather to explore one aspect of the
technology’s eastward transmission, namely the potential
role that may have been played in this process by the
Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology 1 · 191–221
192
socio-political entity known as the Bactria-Margiana
Archaeological Complex or BMAC (ca. 2300-1700
BCE) in southwestern Central Asia (Fig. 3). This includes
also the BMAC’s possible involvement in a trade in
tin (Frachetti and Rouse 2012, pp. 695, 697-98; Kohl
2007, pp. 219, 221; Lyonnet 2005; Wilkinson 2014).2 In
sum, my effort here is focused on testing an hypothesis
concerning the Eurasian transmission of the innovation of
tin-bronze metallurgy at a specific Inner Asian time and
location.

Les "sirenes" de chaudron: pieces en forme d'oiseau aux ailes deployees et a tete d... more Les "sirenes" de chaudron: pieces en forme d'oiseau aux ailes deployees et a tete de femme qu'on fixait par paire a l'aide de rivets sur le bord d'un chaudron, pour pouvoir le manipuler. On en connait environ 80, reparties de l'Urartu a l'Etrurie. Celles trouvees en Grece dateraient de la periode "orientalisante" (VIII-VII). Les AA. publient ici une "sirene" de chaudron conservee au Glencairn Museum de Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvanie. Provenance inconnue. Analyses metallurgiques, comparees avec celles d'autres "sirenes". Il semble que la majorite de ces objets en bronze proviennent d'un meme centre de fabrication, en Asie Mineure. Epoque du roi Midas, VII s. av. J.-C.

American Journal of Archaeology, 2010

Presentation d'un programme de recherches archeometallurgiques portant sur le materiel de sit... more Presentation d'un programme de recherches archeometallurgiques portant sur le materiel de sites archeologiques de Thailande dates autour de 2 000 B.C. Prospection des gisements de minerais de base, fouilles du site de Phu Lon, recherche des ateliers de production du cuivre et du bronze

Archeomaterials, 1989

Direct Reduction to Copper Metal by Oxide--Sulfide Mineral Interaction. W. Rostoker, V.C. Pigott,... more Direct Reduction to Copper Metal by Oxide--Sulfide Mineral Interaction. W. Rostoker, V.C. Pigott, J.R. Dvorak, Archeomaterials 3: 69-87, 1989.
Experiments demonstrate that chalcopyrite ore can react with copper oxides
to produce copper metal in a single smelting step. This information is interpreted to suggest a logical sequence in the development of copper smelting from small to large scale production. The efficacy of the co-smelting process suggests conscious technological change was not necessary when ancient smelters first used sulfide ores of copper. The problem of distinguishing among the various possible smelting processes on the basis of types of smelting slags is addressed.

As an ore-rich metallogenic zone, the Iranian Plateau was, from the Neolithic period on, a major ... more As an ore-rich metallogenic zone, the Iranian Plateau was, from the Neolithic period on, a major center for the development of a variety of metallurgical technologies. This chapter comprises an overview of the archaeometallurgical (i.e., archaeological and analytical) data which form the foundation for the complex story of how the technologies of copper, its alloys, and iron evolved over the span of some six millennia from the Neolithic period through the Chalcolithic into the early Iron Age. In the Neolithic period, the only metal recognized and worked was native copper. With the advent of the Chalcolithic, the dependence on the massive native copper and copper arsenide deposits on the Plateau appears to have continued, but smelting technologies developed that enabled the reduction of rich oxides and arsenical ores of copper, perhaps in combination. Tin bronze made an initial appearence at the close of this period and occured with increasing regularity through the third millennium....

Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage de Donald B. WAGNER, Iron and steel in ancient China (Leiden, E. J.... more Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage de Donald B. WAGNER, Iron and steel in ancient China (Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1993), rapportant une recherche meticuleuse sur la metallurgie et l'utilisation du fer et de l'acier dans la Chine ancienne depuis les premieres manifestations de ces productions jusque vers le debut de la periode des Han

Iranica Antiqua, 2006

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Science, 1980

Two pages, dated 4 May 1798, from the journals of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Latrobe" directed ... more Two pages, dated 4 May 1798, from the journals of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Latrobe" directed the construction of the United States Capitol and the White House, built the first comprehensive steam-powered water system at Philadelphia, and participated in ...

Current anthropology, 1997

Introduction: AL Epstein's scholarship has helped to define key moments in social and cultur... more Introduction: AL Epstein's scholarship has helped to define key moments in social and cultural anthropol-ogyurban anthropology, qualitative research meth-ods, the study of ethnicity, and the anthropology of emotions. Born in 1924 in Liverpool, he trained in law at Queen's ...

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009

In this paper, analyses of some unusual slag samples from the prehistoric site of Tepe Hissar in ... more In this paper, analyses of some unusual slag samples from the prehistoric site of Tepe Hissar in northeastern Iran are presented. These slags are the remains of a five-thousand-year-old pyrotechnological process that produced speiss, a quasi-metallic material usually formed as an accidental by-product of copper or lead smelting. We argue that the “speiss slags” from Tepe Hissar suggest the intentional

The destruction level of Hasanlu Period IVB has provided archaeologists with a rare glimpse of a ... more The destruction level of Hasanlu Period IVB has provided archaeologists with a rare glimpse of a specific
moment in time—a Pompeian horizon from which
surrounding chronological and spatial contexts can
be deduced. !e thousands of artifacts that have been
extracted from this layer provide many possibilities
for understanding the behavioral and socio-political
history of northwestern Iran in the late 9th century
BC. Given the violent nature of the sacking of Hasanlu
at the hands of a still-unidentified foe or foes, it is
not surprising that weaponry makes up a large part
of the archaeological assemblage. Previous studies of
this category of artifact (Dyson 1964; de Schauensee
1988:54–55; Muscarella 1989; Pigott 1989) have provided useful information on both the chronology of
the site and the possible identification of the groups
involved in the tragic battle captured so gruesomely
by the buildings’ collapse. As the artifact class most
likely to have been developed quickly by competing
polities who then used their armaments as visual symbols of their own elite status, weaponry offers one of
the best potential avenues for exploring questions of
intercultural relations, technological innovation, and
group identities.
Hasanlu provides one of the largest stratigraphically
controlled corpuses of proto-historic weaponry
from the Iron Age of Southwest Asia. Thus, this corpus
has the potential to shed new light on the various
studies of weapons from clandestine excavations
in northern and western Iran published by Godard
(1931), Moorey (1974), DeWaele (1982), Haerinck
(1988), Khorasani (2006), and others. Despite some
early attention paid to the weapons and armaments
found at Hasanlu (e.g., Dyson 1964), a catalogue of
the Iron Age II (1100–ca. 800 BC) blade-type weaponry
(swords, daggers, spearheads, and arrowheads)
has not previously been published. This chapter presents
the corpus of copper/bronze, iron, bone, and lithic
blade-type weapons from all proto-historic periods
at Hasanlu in order to help facilitate future discussions
on the development of armaments in this region, the
evidence for long-distance contact in Period IVB and
preceding periods, and the potential characters at play
in the sacking and defense of Hasanlu.

Social Approaches to An Industrial Past: The Archaeology and Anthropology of Mining, 1998

Early in the second millennium BC the production of copper and bronze began in Southeast Asia. Ex... more Early in the second millennium BC the production of copper and bronze began in Southeast Asia. Excavations conducted by the Thailand Archaeometallurgy Project (TAP) revealed a major prehistoric copper mining complex located at Phu Lon on the Mekong River in northeast Thailand. The first portion of the discussion treats resource procurement and copper/bronze production at the site. It is proposed that by means of 'mining expeditions'-possibly akin to the model of recent stone procurement strategies for ax manufacturing by the Tungei of highland New Guinea-prehistoric peoples extracted sufficient amounts of copper ore and/or smelted ore to ingots and transported these products downstream or overland to consumer villages located in the Sakon Nakhon Basin on the Khorat Plateau. Next, a series of questions are posed to ascertain whether the considerable effort expended to extract such a resource reflected the presence of a central authority which controlled access to and distribution of mined resources. The discussion concludes with the application to the Phu Lon-Sakon Nakhon Basin interaction sphere of Andrew Sherratt's multizoned model for the structure of material production and distribution channels.
Edited by A. Bernard Knapp, Vincent C. Pigott and Eugenia W. Herbert

Antiquity, 2020

The Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand is one of four known prehistoric loci of copper ... more The Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand is one of four known prehistoric loci of copper mining, smelting and casting in Southeast Asia. Many radiocarbon determinations from bronze-consumption sites in north-east Thailand date the earliest copper-base metallurgy there in the late second millennium BC. By applying kernel density estimation analysis to approximately 100 new AMS radiocarbon dates, the authors conclude that the valley’s first Neolithic millet farmers had settled there by c. 2000 BC, and initial copper mining and rudimentary smelting began in the late second millennium BC. This overlaps with the established dates for Southeast Asian metal-consumption sites, and provides an important new insight into the development of metallurgy in central Thailand and beyond.

The Adoption of Iron in Western Iran in the Early First Millennium B.C.: An Archaeometallurgical Study , 1981

Science, 1998

BAN CHIANG, NORTHEAST THAILAND, VOLUME 2C: THE METAL REMAINS IN REGIONAL CONTEXT, 2019

How Objects Tell Stories: Essays in Honor of Emma C. Bunker, 2018

American Journal of Archaeology, 2010

Archeomaterials, 1989

Iranica Antiqua, 2006

browse categories : ... ...

Science, 1980

Current anthropology, 1997

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009

Social Approaches to An Industrial Past: The Archaeology and Anthropology of Mining, 1998

Antiquity, 2020

"In the October 2009 issue of the AJA, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread... more "In the October 2009 issue of the AJA, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread of furnace-based metallurgy in the Old World (“From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory,” AJA [2009] 497–519). Amzallag’s paper is rife with misunderstandings of both an archaeological and a technical nature, leading to a skewed vision of early metallurgical development. In this rebuttal, we seek to correct some of the more egregious errors in his article and provide a counterargument for the origins of copper-based metallurgy in the Old World.
"