scholarly journals To the issue of tin bronzes over the area of the Dnieper-Don region in the late bronze age

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-17
Author(s):  
Ю.М. Бровендер
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Pure Copper ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
Ancient Population ◽  
Geological Surveys ◽  
Tin Deposits

The paper is devoted to tin ores as an alloying impurity in the bronze production by the ancient population of the Dnieper-Don region in the Late Bronze Age. The eastern and western supply vectors providing the local population with both ore (cassiterite) and its products are considered. The author draws attention to the assumptions of some researchers not confirmed by geological surveys about the possibility of finding tin deposits in the Donbass and Krivoy Rog basin, which could probably have been developed in the Early Metal Age. An opinion was given regarding the production of bronze from copper ore with a high content of metals - impurities in the mineral phase and separately from polymetallic ore. In ancient times for the development of any mineral, its availability for development, as well as a great volume or high content of useful mineral in ore were indispensable conditions. Due to existing technologies, the requirements for minerals in antiquity were much higher than modern ones. On the issue of tin raw materials for bronze production of the ancient population of Ukraine, attention is drawn to the assumption, not yet confirmed by geological surveys of some researchers (S.I. Tatarinov,  D.P. Kravets, D.P. Nedopako) on the possibility of finding tin deposits in such ore-rich regions of Ukraine as the Donbass and Krivoy Rog. The experimental work carried out on the basis of ores of the Kartamysh ore occurrence have indeed confirmed the idea of chemical elements redistribution, when some metals decrease and others increase. This trend with reference to the results of spectral analyzes of Bakhmut ores, slags and products of the Donetsk Mining and Metallurgical Center, performed by E.N. Chernykh was noted by S.I. Tatarinov. However, to obtain bronze, a high percentage of bronze-forming impurities is required, including tin in the minerals. However, the copper and polymetallic ores of Donbass do not contain enough tin in the initial ore to produce tin bronze. A series of our experiments yielded just pure copper. Thus, the author reposes on the commune notion, according to which it is not possible to obtain bronze from copper ores of Donbass and bronze without on purpose input of the appropriate elements into the melt.

scholarly journals The Chaine Operatoire of Bronze Age Mining: Tools From the Novotemirsky Copper Mine (Southern Trans-Urals)

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-115
Author(s):  
Alaeva I. ◽  
◽  
Molchanov I. ◽  
Fomichev A. ◽  
Ankushev M. ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Diffraction Analysis ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Fluorescence Analysis ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Functional Identification ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Main Research

The paper is devoted to the problem of the development level and organization models of mining within the Eurasian metallurgical province of the Late Bronze Age in the 2nd millennium BC. The main research aim is to determine the chain of technological processes taking place at the Novotemirsky ancient mine in the Southern Trans-Urals. The sources of raw materials, traces of use, and functional identification of stone (n=58) and bone tools (n=1) were determined using traceological, petrographic, X-ray fluorescence, and X-ray diffraction analysis. All tools were divided into three groups depending on their use: mining (a casting mould for a pick), ore crushing (hammers, small hammers), supporting devices (“bases”, counterweights for lifting ore). The absence of mining and processing (grinding pestles, grinding stones) and metal-working (blacksmith hammers) tools at the Novotemirsky mine indicates a narrow range of technical operations associated only with direct mining of copper ore and ore-preparing (crushing large blocks). It is assumed that there is a partial specialization of mining, which consists in the formation of temporary miners’ collectives, who are seasonally involved in these operations. Keywords: stone tools, ancient mine, Late Bronze Age, Southern Trans-Urals, Alakul culture, traceological analysis, X-ray fluorescence analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis

Studies of the Late Bronze Age copper-based ingots found in Greece

2000 ◽  
Vol 95 ◽  
pp. 207-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Mangou ◽  
Panayiotis V. Ioannou
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy ◽  
Pure Copper ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Slow Cooling ◽  
Metallographic Examination ◽  
Aegean Region ◽  
Chemical Content ◽  
Different Origin

Seven bun type, one slab type, and 44 oxhide type Late Bronze Age ingots found in the Aegean region, Crete and Mainland Greece have been analysed for their chemical content (twelve elements) by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results show that the ingots contain variable amounts of oxygen as copper(I) oxide. The oxhide ingots are made of purer copper, the bun type are of relatively pure copper and bronze, while the slab type is bronze. The oxhide ingots from Crete may have a different origin from those found in the Aegean and in Mainland Greece because they have a different chemical composition. The metallographic examination of twenty ingots, three of bun and seventeen of oxhide type, revealed that they have been cast in open moulds, followed by slow cooling. Microanalyses of inclusions in fifteen ingots revealed the presence of copper(I) sulphide, copper(I) oxide, copper-iron and copper-iron-sulphur and their origin is discussed. Hardness measurements on fourteen ingots of various types revealed that they are somewhat harder for a cast object than control alloys and likely explanations are given.

Introduction and Background

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna K. Hodgkinson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
High Status ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
New Kingdom ◽  
The Status ◽  
Status Goods ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
And Control

This book aims to establish knowledge of the infrastructure and organization of the excavated cities in Late Bronze Age (LBA), or New Kingdom Egypt (c.1550–1069 BC), and provide an understanding of the accessibility and control of the high-status products and the raw materials and tools used for their manufacture. This is done by analysing the distribution of the artefactual and structural evidence of the manufacture of high-status goods from three sites used as case-studies, namely Amarna, in Middle Egypt, Gurob, in the Faiyum region, and Malqata, in ancient Thebes (Chapters 2–5). It attempts to achieve some knowledge of the control and distribution of the finished goods, highlighting buildings and areas in the settlements that were involved in the production, and others that would be the consumers of high-status goods. By detecting some mutual patterns between the sites analysed, it has been possible to achieve an understanding of urban high-status manufacture throughout the New Kingdom and its influence on the internal organization and status of settlements. Moving inwards, the study then focuses on workshops, their layouts and functionality (Chapters 6 and 7). A number of research questions will be answered, which address the issues of settlement status, craft production and its social context, the character of workshops as well as their influence on LBA settlements. These questions are presented in Sections 1.1–1.6 together with the data and methods used to address them. In the discussion of the status of a larger settlement we have to take into account the work and opinions of previous scholars. Trigger, for instance, differentiates between two approaches to settlement archaeology as a whole: (a) one focusing on the location, size, spacing, material culture, and activities, as opposed to another (b) focusing on the interactions of their environmental, economic, and technological determinants. While much information concerning the first approach existed by this date, he states that at the time of publication (in the early 1970s) there was still a lack of understanding concerning the economic and technological interactions within the settlements.

The basin of Ioannina in central Epirus, northwestern Greece, from the Early Iron Age to the Roman period

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
Georgia Pliakou
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Northwestern Greece

This article offers an overview of the habitation history of the basin of Ioannina Epirus, from the Early Iron Age to the Roman period. The numerous settlements in this region experienced continuous, often uninterrupted, habitation from the Late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic or even Roman Imperial period. The foundation of fortified settlements/acropoleis in the late fourth to early third century BC should no longer be interpreted as a result of a synoecism, since unfortified villages continued to flourish. From the Augustan period onwards, Romans seem to have settled in the area, although it is also possible that the local population adopted Roman habits.

scholarly journals Local provenance of raw materials for prehistoric pottery production at the Spasovine tin placer site (Western Serbia)

Starinar ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Wayne Powell ◽  
Lina Pacifico ◽  
Terrence Mitchell ◽  
Steffanie Cruse ◽  
Arthur Bankoff
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Group Mineral ◽  
Prehistoric Pottery ◽  
Pottery Sherds ◽  
The Town ◽  
Local Materials ◽  
Ore Grade

Archaeological finds at Spasovine, on the south flank of Mt Cer, near the town of Milina, indicate that it was settled in the Eneolithic and seasonally inhabited for tin placer mining in the Late Bronze Age. The site is highly disturbed and abraded domestic pottery is the most common material found. An analysis of the mineralogical assemblages that comprise the temper sand in a subset of the prehistoric pottery sherds from the site indicate that the sand was obtained from the adjacent Milinska River. Key minerals that link the pottery to on-site production from local materials include almandine-spessartine series garnets, the tin-bearing mineral cassiterite (SnO2) and a microlite group mineral ([Ca,Sn,U]2[Ta,Nb]2O6(OH,F]). The unusually common occurrence of cassiterite within the pottery sherds relative to the abundance in the Milinska today suggests that the tin ore grade in the Milinska River may have been significantly higher in prehistory.

scholarly journals The Origins and Development of Textile Culture in the Late Bronze Age in the Southern Urals

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-57
Author(s):  
Ankusheva P.
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Southern Urals ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Cattle Breeding ◽  
Textile Technology ◽  
Comparison Criteria

At the turn of the 3rd / 2nd millennium BC textile artifacts (fabric impressions on ceramics and organic samples) were widespread in the Southern Urals. The paper is devoted to identifying the possible origins of the Sintashta and Alakul textile technologies by comparing them with the data about the products from adjacent territorial and chronological frames. The comparison criteria are the components of the textile culture (raw materials, technology, decoration and application), according to which the sources of the Trans-Ural Eneolithic, Yamnaya, Catacomb, Andronovo communities are systematized. Such innovative technologies as weaving, woolen threads, madder dyeing were first noted in the South Trans-Urals in the Sintashta materials and find their closest parallels in the catacomb materials. The Sintashta, Petrovka and Alakul antiquities demonstrate a single textile technology, organically integrated into the Srubno-Andronovo “world” of steppe and forest-steppe cattle-breeding cultures of Northern Eurasia.

scholarly journals To the question of raw material sources of mining and smelting centers of the Paleometal Epoch in Central Kazakhstan

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Darkhan Aitzhanuly Baitileu ◽  
Maksim Nikolaevich Ankushev
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Smelting Process ◽  
Maximum Effect ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
Copper Deposits ◽  
Mineral Raw Materials ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Mining And Smelting

The subject of this research is the copper deposits, copper-ore resource, and sources of alloying raw materials for mining and smelting production of the Paleometal Epoch in Central Kazakhstan, namely within the Kazakhstan mining and smelting region and Zhezkazgan-Ulytau mining and smelting center. The article provides the interim results of comprehensive research of geoarchaeological production facilities in the territory of copper deposits within the Zhezkazgan-Ulytau mining and smelting center, which allow determining the peculiarities of metallogenic complexes that used to be potential objects of the development of copper-ore reserves during the establishment of copper metallurgy, as well as making a predictive assessment of mineral raw materials potential of the region. The initial premise of this research lies in the authors' pursuit to integrate natural scientific methods of research into the field of humanities to the maximum effect via studying smelting slags and ore relics from the ancient settlements of the region for the purpose of reconstructing the mining and smelting process of the Bronze Age in Central Kazakhstan. The authors offer the variants of localization of the mineral raw materials complex of Zhezkazgan-Ulytau mining and smelting center within the Kazakhstan mining and smelting region. Based on examination of the ores and smelting slags of Bronze Age settlements in Central Kazakhstan, the authors believe that the main copper raw materials in the Zhezkazgan-Ulytau region were the oxidized malachite-azurite and rich sulfide ores, as well as the zones of secondary sulfide enrichment of copper sandstones of the Zhezkazgan ore region. The conducted research allow to get closer to establishing patterns of localization of various types of copper deposits and development of copper-ore resources for mining and smelting production of Zhezkazgan-Ulytau region during the Paleometal Epoch.

Kohl kit

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacke Philips
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Technical Expertise ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
Specialized Production

Although rather distant from the Western Indian Ocean basin, Southern Levant can be considered fairly included into trading dynamics regulating the movement and use of exotic goods, especially luxury raw materials, frequently representing the final destination for this kind of items. During the Late Bronze Age, Southern Levantine jewelry enumerates a wide eclectic group of differentiated artifacts, witnessing a remarkable level of artistic talent and technical expertise. The most part of the products is manufactured in gold and silver, using the decorative shares of precious and semiprecious stones originating from eastern Africa and the Indus Valley. The wealth of jewelry’s arts, and in particular the large use of stones, has given rise to a number of hypothesis that will be briefly discussed in the paper, analyzing raw materials’ origins, finished products’ archaeological contexts, and specialized production of personal ornaments, with particular attention to the actors and the ultimate goal of their production.

scholarly journals Archaeometrical Characterization of Romanian Late Bronze Age Ceramic Fragments

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Fierascu ◽  
Anda Maria Baroi ◽  
Roxana Ioana Brazdis ◽  
Toma Fistos ◽  
Cristian Andi Nicolae ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Relative Concentration ◽  
Mineralogical Composition ◽  
Analytical Investigation ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Quartz Content ◽  
Analytical Methodology ◽  
X Ray

Knowledge of the past can provide information to protect the future and the potential of the technological development in the analytical sciences can be successfully applied for the study and conservation of cultural objects. In this context, in the present paper we propose an analytical methodology to characterize seven samples of ancient ceramic objects (dating to the Late Bronze Age). The samples were analyzed using optical microscopy, and all the samples presented a strong inhomogeneity on the surface, as suggested by the different colors of the ceramics. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) results reveal a relatively heterogenous composition of the samples, as well as strong differences between the different surfaces of each sample. By comparative analysis of the diffractograms recorded for both sides of the same samples were observed some differences, especially in terms of relative concentration of the component minerals, and, in lesser content, in terms of new phases present in the samples. Corroborated results obtained by XRF and X-ray diffraction (XRD) offered information regarding mineralogical composition of the samples: for some of them illite/muscovite and plagioclase phases are present in higher quantities or a lower quartz content. The presence of these components was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The thermal analysis completes the analytical investigation of the ceramic samples. The thermal behavior of the sample conducted to some explanation regarding the observed differences, due to the raw materials (that the major clay mineral in the samples is represented by illite) or to environmental factors during their burial in the soil.

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