Aspects of the Metal Supply between Central Europe and the Carpathian Basin in the Early and Middle Bronze Age (original) (raw)
2020, J. Maran, R. Băjenaru, S.-C. Ailincăi, A.-D. Popescu and S. Hansen (eds.), Objects, Ideas and Travelers. Contacts between the Balkans, the Aegean and Western Anatolia during the Bronze and Early Iron Age. Universitätsforschungen zur Prähistorischen Archäologie 350 (Bonn 2020).
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This research investigates the metal supply dynamics between Central Europe and the Carpathian Basin during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, highlighting the significance of established local and long-distance networks. Analysis reveals a predominance of copper-based artifacts linked to various mineral sources, notably in the eastern Alps, Slovak Ore Mountains, and western Carpathians, suggesting intensive copper exchange and production. The study aims to delineate production and consumption regions and examines temporal changes in copper distribution.
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Dissertationes Archaeologicae, 2017
The origin of Neolithic and Copper Age copper finds could not be discussed independently from archaeological interpretation due to the lack of appropriate archaeometallurgical analyses from Hungary. The overall aim of our project is to provide new data about the sources of raw materials of copper finds. By the analysis of comparative geological samples, we are able to test the idea that considered the use of local sources as a basis of the wealth of metal in the Carpathian Basin during the Copper Age. We supplement the series of lead isotope analysis carried out on copper artefacts from secure find contexts by AMS dating in the frame of complex sampling strategy. This makes us possible to reconsider the typochronological system that classifies copper finds into the same time horizons from the Balkans via the Carpathian Basin to Central Europe. As results of the project, we can shed new light on social relations related to the spread of products and technology of metallurgy. We can find evidence for confirming, rejecting or refining some widely accepted topoi of the metallurgy in the Carpathian Basin.
Transformations of Metal Supply during the Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin
Hungarian Historical Review Volume 9 Issue 2 (2020): 315-330 , 2020
This paper presents recent research questions which have been raised and methods which have been used in the study of Bronze Age metallurgy in connection with available natural resources (ores) in and around the Carpathian Basin. This topic fits in the most current trends in the research on European prehistoric archaeology. Given the lack of written sources, copper and bronze artifacts discovered in settlement and cemetery excavations and prehistoric mining sites provide the primary sources on which the studies in question are based. The aim of compositional and isotope analysis of copper and tin ores, metal tools, ornaments, and weapons is to determine the provenience of the raw materials and further an understanding of the chaine operatiore of prehistoric metal production. The Momentum Mobility Research Group of the Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities studies these metal artifacts using archaeological and scientific methods. It has focused on the first thousand years of the Bronze Age (2500-1500 BC). Multidisciplinary research include non-destructive XRF, PGAA (promptgamma activation), TOF-ND (time-of-flight neutron diffraction) analyses and neutron radiography, as well as destructive methods, e.g. metal sampling for compositional and lead isotope testing, alongside archaeological analysis. Microstructure studies are also efficient methods for determining the raw material and production techniques. The results suggest the use of regional ore sources and interregional connections, as well as several transformations in the exchange network of the prehistoric communities living in the Carpathian Basin.
BRONZE AGE METALLURGY OF THE EASTERN CARPATHIAN BASIN: A HOLISTIC EXPLORATION
2008
By the beginnings of the Bronze Age (2500 B.C.), simple metallurgy was widely practiced in Hungary and Romania. Although Bronze Age societies in the region remain less hierarchical than their Mediterranean and Near Eastern contemporaries, they show greater social differentiation and a wider scale of social integration than their precedents. The key commodity in both intra and interregional interactions was metal. This study attempts to reconstruct the processes of early metallurgy and situate metal production in its broader social context. I approach the research holistically in a multidisciplinary format. First, slags ascribed to the Maros and Ottomány/Gyulavarsánd cultures of the Early to Middle Bronze Age were analyzed using x-ray diffractometry, particle induced x-ray emission, and optical and electron microscopy. They indicate a diverse and expedient technology with much variation in raw materials and a wide range of techniques. Some appear to be atypical metallurgical slags derived from smelting very pure copper oxides or casting native or smelted copper. Second, thirteen copper ore deposits of western Romania were sampled and analyzed using the same methods. A few local copper deposits in the area contain significant amounts of arsenic and tin, suggesting that alloying associated with the beginning of the Bronze Age was largely accidental. In addition, discriminant analysis is capable of distinguishing between these ore deposits using trace element concentrations, a prerequisite for sourcing artifacts with these methods. Finally, replicas of copper tools were manufactured using traditional methods in a series of experiments designed to assess their practical capabilities. This work indicates that pure copper is vastly superior to stone for economic tasks when work hardened. Copper tools gave obvious and important advantages to those who possessed them. Overall, the evidence presented here indicates a diverse set of metal production behaviors that nevertheless shows directionality through time. The impression is one of a two tiered metal production system, with many domestic level smiths and fewer fully specialized artisans. The difficulties associated with controlling such a dispersed production system may have countered tendencies toward greater hierarchy associated with broader social and economic changes.
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2023
Metal artefacts from Bronze Age hoards have routinely been used to study interregional contacts. Their stylistic and typological features helped distinguish local products and imports by appearance. In the last 40 years, combined lead isotope and chemical analyses of metals have been widely applied to verify hypotheses based on style and typology. This paper is a comprehensive typological and analytical study of a metal item hoard discovered in Paszowice, SW Poland. In the Bronze Age, the area was inhabited by the Lusatian Urnfield culture (ca. 1350/1300-800/750 BC) communities. We expected that at least some of the artefacts would be local products fashioned according to foreign stylistic patterns. The research aimed to determine whether a 'classical' stylistic analysis combined with provenance studies of metals would allow more decisive conclusions. This combination of methods could also show how the metal reached the Lusatian Urnfield culture settlement zone. We conducted a detailed typological and chronological analysis to map the distribution of similar artefact types. It demonstrated that stylistic matches for the artefacts from Paszowice occur mainly in NE Hungary, S Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. Selected metal artefacts (both tin bronze items and raw copper objects) from Paszowice were also analysed for their chemical (EPMA) and lead isotope (MC ICP MS) compositions. The study revealed many copper sources used for their production, ranging from the nearest copper mines in the Slovak Ore Mountains, through Eastern Alps and mines in Sardinia, to possibly the Iberian Peninsula. In this way, we identified the potential trade routes by which metal could get to SW Poland: the southwestern and southeastern routes and the Mediterranean-Danube route. The Iberian metal might have also reached the study area from the norththrough its redistribution by Scandinavian traders. Our results show that metal from many sources circulated in central Europe during the Late Bronze Age. The Lusatian Urnfield communities were part of a pan-European exchange network and maintained extensive long-distance contacts, allowing metal acquisition from various sources.
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