The 2018–2019 excavation of the Xiwubi site in Jiangxian County, Shanxi

A series of excavations were conducted at the Xiwubi site during 2018–2019, yielding abundant copper metallurgy remains dating to the Erlitou and Erligang cultural periods. Archaeological features include remains of smelting furnaces, charcoal kilns, houses, and refuse pits. A variety of artifacts were retrieved, ranging from copper ores, fragments of smelting furnaces, crucibles, and slag to objects made of pottery, stone, and bone. It is the first copper metallurgy site found in the Zhongtiao Mountains in the vicinity of the heartland of the Xia and Shang dynasties. Characterized by early dates, large scale, and advanced specialization in copper metallurgy, the excavation of the Xiwubi site provides substantial materials for the study of mining and use of copper ore resources by the Xia and Shang dynasties, as well as interactions between copper metallurgy and the destiny of the royal courts.

Evolution of Furnaces

A new generation of industrial melting furnaces has been developed during the last 25 years. Present practices followed in Furnaces are discussed in this paper. Through a literature review account of various practices presently being followed in industries using Furnaces has been carried out with a view to gather principal of working. Apart from this a pilot study has also been carried out in few industries in India. We provide some recommendations for the productivity improvement. Due to lack of proper instruments the effect of the ill practices cannot be precisely judged. If this is properly measured, the percentage of productivity improvement in steel melting Furnace can be calculated. The review is carried out from the literature in the various journals and manuals. The first controlled use of fire in metallurgy dates from the eighth millennium ВС, when native copper was deliberately heated to form artifacts. Problems how to distinguish between native copper and smelted copper are addressed, especially what concerns the role of iron in copper. kilns. Metallurgy is an independent development. The decisive factor was the introduction of charcoal that was important to produce reducing conditions during firing. The earliest stages in metallurgy are represented by a non-slagging process. Reduction of ores was carried out in crucibles as exemplified by finds from Anatolia, Iran, Jordan, and the Iberian Peninsula. Special attention is paid to the putative early stages of metallurgy claimed to exist at that age. The is called Neolithic and Chalcolithic copper smelting there is critically prooved in the light of radio carbon data. Wind-powered furnaces played a major role in Early Bronze Age copper metallurgy, as exemplified by sites in the Feinan-area, in Wadi Dara, Egypt, and at numerous sites in the Aegean. Later, artificial air supply by bellows and tuyeres was introduced.

Soubor kovových předmětů z doby římské z Boršova na Moravskotřebovsku An Assemblage of Metal Roman Iron Age Artefacts from Boršov in the Moravská Třebová Region

An archaeological situation documented in 2016 in the cadastral territory of Boršov (Svitavy district, Pardubice Region, Czech Republic) contained more than 70 metal artefacts scattered mostly over an area of 5 x 2 m. The finds were made with the use of metal detectors in an otherwise unsettled space in close proximity to defunct roads crossing a sharp local terrain fault. The finds were concentrated on hilly terrain between two slight watercourses. The collection is composed mainly of fragments of intentionally broken artefacts made from a copper alloy, castings of the mouth of casting channels, ingots, as well as craft tools, coins, a fragment of a bronze mould, fibula parts, etc. The assemblage dates to the end of the Marcomannic Wars or the period immediately following them and documents a close relationship with the processing of non-ferrous metals. The assemblage also contains antiques, especially in the form of a La Tène belt hook. Roman Iron Age, Marcomannic Wars, copper metallurgy, imports, roads, ritual activities, Moravia

Anthropomorphic Stelae of the 4th and 3rd Millennia Between the Caucasus and the Atlantic Ocean

Anthropomorphic stone stelae of monumental dimensions dated to the 4th and 3rd millennia BC have been found in southern Europe between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caucasus. They are understood as symbolic human representations the size of which arises out of a new self-awareness of humankind in the world. Anthropomorphic stelae are one of many innovations appearing during this epoch. Other innovations are copper metallurgy and tools, in particular weapons and jewellery, as well as the wheel, the wagon, and the plough drawn by animals. These innovations are depicted on stelae; what is more, the stele itself is an innovation in which the other changes are bundled. Comparable stylistic features of stelae in different areas demonstrate far-reaching contacts. Often the origin of anthropomorphic stelae is seen in the Russian steppes, with the archaeogenetically proven migration from east to west being the cause for the building of stelae in central and western Europe. However, the oldest known stelae apparently originate in western Europe. The impulses behind the dissemination of innovations must have emanated from continuous exchange relations, but the migration in the 3rd millennium bce did not bring with it the idea itself of anthropomorphic stelae. Nowadays the question about the function of stelae is usually answered with the representation of ancestors. When anthropomorphic stones keep the memory of common roots alive, they serve the building of identity.

Mobility and Alterity in Iberian Late Prehistoric Archaeology: Current Research on the Neolithic–Early Bronze Age (6000–1500 BCE)

Archaeological investigations of late prehistoric Iberia between the Neolithic and Bronze Age (6000–1500 BCE) have long been a battleground between indigenist and exogenous models, and understandings of mobility and alterity have played an important role in these debates. Prior to the development of radiocarbon dating, key cultural transformations, such as megaliths, copper metallurgy, fortified hilltop settlements, and Beakers, were generally associated with nonlocal peoples, migrants, or colonizers. With the incorporation of radiocarbon dating to Iberian archaeological contexts in the 1980s and the determination of the antiquity of many of these cultural changes, the pendulum swung in the other direction, with a marked shift toward viewing autochthonous origins for these watershed transitions. In recent years, developments in strontium isotope analyses, genetics, and raw material characterization studies have provided new evidence for the mobility of peoples and things, and diffusionist models, sometimes without critical theorization, have once again reemerged.

First Metallurgy in Northern Europe: An Early Neolithic Crucible and a Possible Tuyère from Lønt, Denmark

In this article we present the fragments of a crucible and a possible tuyère that provide evidence of early copper metallurgy in Scandinavia at least 1500 years earlier than previously thought. The technical ceramics were found in a cultural layer containing Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker pottery dating to around 3800–3500 bc beneath a long barrow dating to 3300–3100 bc. The presence of a copper alloy in the crucible is confirmed by three independent X-ray fluorescence analyses using both a hand-held and a stationary instrument, SEM-EDS analysis of a cross-section, as well as a Bruker Tornado μ-X-Ray-fluorescence scanner (μ-XRF). The transmission of metallurgy to southern Scandinavia coincided with the introduction of long barrows, causewayed enclosures, two-aisled houses, and certain types of artefacts. Thus, metallurgy seems to be part of the new networks that enabled the establishment of a fully Neolithic society.

Criteria for forming groups professional carcinogenic risk for the creation of prevention programs

According to the results of the assessment of occupational carcinogenic risk at the enterprises of copper metallurgy, jobs with an unacceptable level of risk were identified. In 5.9% of the working group at risk revealed excess tumor markers of the lungs (Cyfra 21.1, CEA), and 1.25% - bladder (UBC II).