Casting Doubt: Economic and Technological Considerations Regarding Metal Casting in the Ancient World (original) (raw)
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The article reports on the findings from the metallographic analysis of 13 th c. archaeological objects from Chełm (eastern Poland). The group submitted for analysis includes jeweller's dies used in the production of women's ceremonial ornaments, crucibles and bronze ornaments. The Mongol invasion of 13 th c. had caused craftsmen from central areas of East Europe to flee and seek shelter in the western parts of Rus. It may be safe to interpret the finds from Chełm as the remains of a jeweller's workshop, the site of casting and working copper alloys and silver. The analysis of the technology used in casting copper alloys and silver in the jeweller's workshop were made using optical microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray radiography.
Lead and bronze nds dominate the statuette assemblage at Thonis-Heracleion, an Egyptian port of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. In this article, I extrapolate the types of casting methods used for statuette production at Thonis-Heracleion based on detailed examinations of the gures in the eld. The bronze statuettes and amulets provide new insights on the topic of Egyptian bronze casting, as the methods are still debated. I evaluate the possible use of the indirect lost wax method and issues of quality and mass production for bronze gures. The lead statuettes and amulets, alternatively, open a new discussion about lead casting in Egypt, as the lead statuettes have few parallels outside of Thonis- Heracleion and lead casting has never been discussed in detail with respect to Egyptian statuettes. The lead statuettes include replicated gures across several different iconographic types, and these gures were cast using open and bivalve refractory moulds. The hollow lead gures were probably created with the lead slush technique. This discussion of casting techniques as a whole targets not only the methods used for lead and bronze casting in Egypt, but also the social implications behind these techniques, such as how and with whom specic technologies were exchanged. Replication of bronze and lead gures was common among other cultures in the Late Period and earlier, in Greece and in the Eastern Mediterranean, and contact with these cultures may have contributed to the development of replication methods in Egypt for bronze and lead casting.
Archives of Metallurgy and Materials
Investment casting technology that utilizes lost-wax casting is one of the most-important achievements of ancient society. In Lower Silesia, Poland (Grzybiany, Legnica county), a 7-6 BC casting workshop was discovered with numerous artifacts, confirming the existence of the manufacturing process of metal ornaments using ceramic molds. The paper presents the research of molds and casts from the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Microscopic analyses of the casting molds were performed, along with radiographic and chemical composition tests of the artifacts (the latter employing the use of the X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy method). The clustering method was used for alloy classification. The microstructure was analyzed by means of Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy. Conclusions from the research were utilized in further experiments.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies , 2019
Two-part stone jewelry molds were intended for casting of small and delicate precious metal jewelry and were common primarily during the Late Bronze Age in the ancient Near East. Published examples bear witness to the technological sophistication of the ancient craftsmen who used them as versatile tools for casting of a variety of solid rings, bezels, earrings, pendants, diadems, beads, pins, figurines, and amulets. As most stones crack when exposed to the extreme heat of molten metal, solid casting using stone molds may actually have been intended for fabrication of wax models using the “lost wax” technique which allows for their repeated use for production of wax anti-types. The largest number of these molds originates from coastal sites of the northern Levant, drawing attention to this region as a nexus of specialized metalworking during this period and probably also for the spread of this technology in the eastern Mediterranean.
The early history of lost-wax casting
Jianjun Mei & Thilo Rehren (eds), Metallurgy and Civilisation: Eurasia and Beyond, London: Archetype, 147-154, 2009
The different processes of lost-wax casting are described according to the technique used to form the wax model. The current assessments of the early history of the technique are discussed. The evidence from early literature, the moulds and metal artefacts are described and lead to the conclusion that lost-wax casting was a common process in much of the ancient world from the time that copper metallurgy was first developed. The development of the process begins with solid wax models in the late 5th millennium and ends with skin of wax models for life-size statuary formed by the ‘sloshing’ method in the classical period. Its origins are therefore much older than previously thought and its geographical spread is broader. The moulds show that lost-wax casting was often used for simple prosaic tools and ornaments and complexity of shape is not a determining feature of the process. In the ceramic cultures of the ancient world, lost-wax casting was not an exotic process used for complicated and prestigious items; in fact, the opposite seems to be the case. The construction of heterogeneous moulds with a gradation of clay coarseness aimed at preserving details on the wax model begins during the 3rd millennium BC and mould fragments displaying this variable fabric may be expected in the archaeological record.
The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages
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This book presents the first full length study in English of monumental bronzes in the Middle Ages. Taking as its point of departure the common medieval reception of bronze sculpture as living or animated, the study closely analyzes the practice of lost wax casting (cire perdue) in western Europe and explores the cultural responses to large scale bronzes in the Middle Ages. Starting with mining, smelting, and the production of alloys, and ending with automata, water clocks and fountains, the book uncovers networks of meaning around which bronze sculptures were produced and consumed. The book is a path-breaking contribution to the study of metalwork in the Middle Ages and to the re-evaluation of medieval art more broadly, presenting an understudied body of work to reconsider what the materials and techniques embodied in public monuments meant to the medieval spectator.
This chapter illustrates the main fields of craft production in the area characterized by the Villanovan culture (Etruria and adjacent areas) from the points of view of typological and technological developments. The sociopolitical and economic framework is that of incipient or embryonic urbanization, the “proto-urban phenomenon,” that occurred between the late tenth and late eighth centuries BCE. Ceramics include handmade vessels (chiefly biconical funerary urns and their lids) ornamented with geometric patterns in the Villanovan style, as well as more specialized vessels decorated with metal stripes. Only in the advanced Early Iron Age 2 (eighth century) were wheel-made ceramics introduced under the influence of immigrant Greek potters. The best-known handicraft in Iron Age Etruria is bronze working, a productive field that encompasses a broad range of artifact classes and shapes. Indirect evidence from the study of artifacts attests to specific stages in the metalworking process, demonstrating a high level of specialization and complexity in the organization of labor. The great variability of formal features and techniques, and the different levels of elaboration in Villanovan bronze production are exemplified by cast objects, such as fibulae and weapons (swords), and by hammered items such as sheet bronze armor and vessels. Sheet bronze production is considered particularly representative of the high level of Villanovan craftsmanship and of the close connection between metalwork and the display expressions of new elites within the proto-urban communities. It is also pointed out how iron production, though giving the name to the period, did not become especially important in local economies before the mid eighth century. Other minor materials, especially amber, gained great importance in the framework of elite consumption and trade, which led to a highly sophisticated production of ornaments and symbolic items in the latest stages of this period.
Experiencing visible and invisible metal casting techniques in the Bronze Age Italy
Experiencing visible and invisible metal casting techniques in the Bronze Age Italy, in Proceeding of the OpenArch Meeting Working with stones in European Pre- and Protohistory in theory and in practice", Albersdorf, 23-27 september 2013.
What we know about bronze age metalworking basically relies on finished artifacts and on stone, clay or bronze implements involved in the process of manufacturing (tuyères, crucibles, moulds, hammers, chisels, etc.). Moreover, evidences of structures for casting are extremely poor, at least in Italy, likely because of a lack of extensive excavations and the difficulty to clearly distinguish them from other kinds of firing structures, in absence of metalworking residuals. The reconstruction of the whole technology of production therefore requires a strong effort of making and testing hypothesis, referring not only on autoptic observations on archaeological finds, but also on archaeometrical analysis and study of landscape, in order to identify possible sources of supply of raw materials. In this work our aim is to deepen some aspects concerning archaeologically “visible” (stone mould production and casting), and “invisible” techniques (sword production) of metalworking in bronze age Italy, focussing on terramare area.
Characterization of eleven copper alloy artifacts, dated between the 4th and 6th (or early 7th) centuries AD, retrieved from archeological excavations of remains associated with Samaritan sites along the central Coastal Plain of Israel, was performed. The assemblage includes three inscribed polygonal finger rings, four finger rings with decorated bezel (of which one bears a legend in the Samaritan script), two inscribed amulet pendants, and two thin cylindrical foils (containers of phylacteries, designated for the safekeeping of a magical or religious text written on papyri or parchment). The aim of this research is to use archeometallurgical non-destructive and destructive methods in order to determine manufacturing processes of the objects, and if possible their production place, their origin of ore and their use.