ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025 19 Archaeology studies the history and development of past cultures, especially in prehistory. It includes excavations of artifacts and other material remains, and determinations of their provenances and contexts. Archaeometallurgical provenances were first considered in 1842 by Friedemann Göbel[1]. Evidence was obtained from chemical analyses mainly of copper alloys containing tin, lead, and/or zinc. The reported accuracies were often less than 0.1 wt%, which now seems optimistic. However, by the 1860s it was already known that the minor elements in smelted copper alloys depended on the ores being primarily oxides or sulfides. Further advances awaited instrumental analytical techniques, which became available in the late 1920s and allowed trace element measurements[2]. These possibilities led to analyses of artifacts and ores that revealed much about ancient copper alloy production but doubts about detailed chronologies and relating artifacts to specific ores, i.e., metal provenances[2]. In the 1960s it became possible to chemically analyze isotope differences in metals and ores. The principles of isotope analysis and the initial choice of lead as an isotopic marker in provenance studies are discussed by Ernst Pernicka[2]. Lead isotope analyses (LIAs) were used firstly for lead objects and later for silver and copper alloys and their ores. Although LIAs continue to be the most used, copper and tin ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL PROVENANCES AND CONTEXTS Archaeometallurgical provenances and contexts are fundamental to understanding technological developments and cultural relationships of ancient metal-using societies. Russell Wanhill,* Caligula University Emmeloord, the Netherlands Omid Oudbashi,* University of Gothenburg, Sweden *Member of ASM International (ICP-MS) analyses have enabled accurate non-isotopic trace element analyses[7]. These can provide additional information about provenances[3]. isotope analyses are also sometimes performed[3-6]. Since the early 1980s, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry Fig. 1 — LIA data revealing differing European copper sources (Eastern Alps and Slovakian Ores): (a) Early Bronze Age (EBA) bronze artifacts from the Austrian burial sites Hainburg and Mannersdorf; (b) Middle Bronze Age (MBA) bronze artifacts from Mannersdorf, and bronze hoards in Hajdusamson (Hungary) and Apa (Romania). Note the general preference for Eastern Alps ores during the MBA. (Images are redrawn from Ref. 9 and cropped from the right-hand side, omitting Eastern Alp outlying data points. Used with permission from M. Radivojević, Institute of Archaeology, University College London.) (a) (b)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTYyMzk3NQ==