Catapotis, M. and Y. Bassiakos (2007) Copper smelting at the Early Minoan site of Chrysokamino on Crete, in P.M. Day and R.C.P. Doonan (eds.) Metallurgy in the Early Bronze Age Aegean, Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 7, Oxford: Oxbow Books, 68-83. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Catapotis, M., Y. Bassiakos and Y. Papadatos 2011. Reconstructing early cretan metallurgy: analytical results from the study of the metallurgical evidence from Kephala Petras, Siteia. In P.P. Betancourt & S.C. Ferrence (eds.) Metallurgy: Understanding How, Learning Why, Studies in Honour of J.D. Muhly, 69-78. INSTAP Academic Press, Philadelphia. The paper deals with the metallurgical evidence from Kephala Petras, near Siteia, east Crete. The evidence is dated to the FN/EM transition and, although limited in quantity, it allowed to reconstruct a copper-smelting technology that is compatible with what is known so far about early smelting techniques in the southern Aegean. The process involved the smelting of oxidized ores, possibly mixed with a flux, inside a small clay container where fairly high temperatures and moderate redox conditions were attained. This enabled the production of copper with low levels of iron that were probably removed in a final refining stage, not attested so far at Kephala.
2011
Kephala and Phournoi, on the island of Seriphos, add to a growing number of EBA metal production sites identified in the south-central Aegean. Analytical examination of samples from the two sites addressed the technological parameters of the copper smelting process, indicating the use of mixed oxidic and sulphidic copper-iron ores to produce unalloyed copper with minute copper sulphide inclusions. A preliminary geological reconnaissance of the island identified several small copper mineralizations, one of them close to the site of Kephala. Nevertheless, the ore sources used remain unclear. Comparisons are made with other contemporaneous neighbouring smelting sites.