A novel approach to lead isotope provenance studies of tin and bronze: applications to South African, Botswanan and Romanian artifacts

Copper Production and Trade in the Niari Basin (Republic of Congo) During the 13th to 19th Centuries ce: Chemical and Lead Isotope Characterization

“…Analysis of several bronzes from South Africa revealed relatively low lead contents: Molofsky et al . () convincingly showed their highly radiogenic LI composition to be dominated by the lead isotopic signature of the bronze's tin (smelted from Rooiberg cassiterite), rather than that of the copper alloyed with it. As such, these bronzes offer no insight into the LI composition of copper used in that region: an important issue that may affect future provenance studies of African bronze and copper artefacts.…”

“…; Willet and Sayre ) and South Africa (Molofsky et al . ). The first data set covers West African copper alloys (e.g., the famous Igbo Ukwu and Ife castings) and a selection of African ores (from Nigeria, Tunisia and Morocco).…”

Eiland crucibles and the earliest relative dating for tin and bronze working in southern Africa

“…However, recent trace element and lead isotope analyses of tin and bronze objects from southern African sites such as Bosutswe, Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and others show that some were made with Rooiberg tin (Grant, 1999;Molofsky et al, 2014). The fact that these tin bronzes date between AD1000 and 1300 and that Rooiberg tin was used, clearly implicates tin production at Rooiberg earlier than the chronological boundaries established so far.…”

Tin isotope characterization of bronze artifacts of the central Balkans

“…This is primarily due to the fact that significant amounts of lead may be introduced to the alloy from copper ores. Attempts have been made to use Pb isotopic signatures to match tin artifacts to tin ore sources (Molofsky et al, 2014). However, given that any Pb that might have been associated with the tin ore would be overwhelmed by the contribution from the copper ore, Pb isotope analysis cannot be applied to tin provenancing in bronze artifacts (Begemann et al, 1999).…”