Identifying stone tools used in mining, smelting, and casting in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus

Cultural objects are thought to have a lifespan. From selection, through construction, use, destruction, and discard, materials do not normally last forever, transforming through stages of life, eventually leading to their death. The materiality of stone objects, however, can defy the inevitable demise of an object, especially durable ground stone tools that can outlive generations of human lifespans. How groups of people deal with the relative permanence of stone tools depends on their own relationship with the past, and whether they venerate it or reject its influence on the present. A case study from the long-lived site of Prasteio-Mesorotsos in Cyprus demonstrates a shifting attitude toward ground stone objects, from the socially conservative habit of ritually killing of objects and burying them, to one of more casual re-use and reinterpretation of ground stone. This shift in attitude coincides with a socio-political change that eventually led to the ultimate rejection of the past: complete abandonment of the settlement.

Download Full-text

Prehistoric Copper Extraction in Britain: Ecton Hill, Staffordshire

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society ◽

10.1017/ppr.2013.17 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 80 ◽

pp. 159-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Simon Timberlake

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Mining Activity ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Copper Extraction ◽

Mine Shaft ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

Prehistoric Mining ◽

The Hill

Major investigations were undertaken of the Ecton Copper Mines, Staffordshire, following the discovery of hammerstones and a red deer antler tool dating to the Early Bronze Age during surface and underground exploration in the 1990s. Ecton Hill was surveyed, the distribution of hammerstone tools examined, and two identified sites of potential prehistoric mining close to the summit of the hill excavated in 2008 & 2009. Excavations at Stone Quarry Mine revealed noin situprehistoric mining activity, but hammerstones and Early Bronze Age bone mining tools from upcast suggest that an historic mine shaft had intersected Bronze Age workings at around 10–25 m depth. On The Lumb one trench revealed evidence for medieval lead mining, while another examined the lowest of four primitive mines associated with cave-like mine entrances along the base of a small cliff. Evidence for prehistoric mining was recorded within a shallow opencut formed by during extraction of malachite from a layer of mineralised dolomite. Traces of the imprint of at least 18 bone and stone tools could be seen and seven different types of working were identified. Most prehistoric mining debris appears to have been cleared out during the course of later, medieval–post-medieval prospection; some bone and stone tools were recovered from this spoil. The tip of a worn and worked (cut) antler tine point was the only such mining tool foundin situat this site but nine tools were radiocarbon dated toc.1880–1640 calbc. Bayesian modelling of the dates from both sites probably indicates mining over a much briefer period (perhaps 20–50 years) at 1800–1700 calbc, with mining at Stone Quarry possibly beginning earlier and lasting longer than on The Lumb. A single date from The Lumb suggests possible renewed mining activity (or prospection?) during the Middle Bronze Age. The dating of this mining activity is consistent with the idea that mining and prospection moved eastwards from Ireland to Wales, then to central England, at the beginning of the 2nd millenniumbc. At Ecton the extraction of secondary ores may have produced only a very small tonnage of copper metal. The mine workers may have been Early Bronze Age farmers who occupied this part of the Peak District seasonally in a transhumant or sustained way

Download Full-text

Prehistoric copper tools from the territory of Serbia

Journal of Mining and Metallurgy Section B Metallurgy ◽

10.2298/jmmb0902165a ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 165-174 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

D. Antonovic

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Metallurgical Process ◽

Copper Ore ◽

Long Period ◽

Ore Processing ◽

Metal Composition ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

In The Beginning

Around four hundreds prehistoric copper tools and weapons have been recorded in the territory of Serbia so far. They had been in use for a rather long period of time - from the end of the early phase of the Vinca culture until the Middle Bronze Age and some types of these objects even until the very beginning of the Iron Age. The copper alloyed with small quantities of arsenic, lead and tin started to appear already by the end of the Eneolithic indicating the attempts of prehistoric metallurgist to improve technical characteristics of the copper. On the copper tools from the territory of Serbia could be followed the evolution of shapes starting from the specimens, which completely imitated stone tools and which appeared in the beginning of the Early Eneolithic to the completely developed Bronze Age shapes, which confirm that prehistoric metallurgist entirely understood and accepted the advantages offered by metalworking. The analyses of metal composition have been performed on around 50% of prehistoric copper tools. Nevertheless, in spite of all relatively numerous analyses there is still no answer to the question concerning the primitive technology of copper ore processing and the metallurgical process of obtaining copper for the production of copper and sometime later the bronze artifacts.

Download Full-text