Early Bronze Age Metal Trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. New Compositional and Lead Isotope Evidence From Cyprus

Abstract

This paper presents the results of chemical and lead isotope analyses of 17 Early and Middle Bronze Age artefacts from Cyprus. These suggest that a number of objects are of non-Cypriot copper and lead to the identification of several as imports, a new explanation for some artefact types as ingots and a discussion of the nature of deposits at the key Cypriot site of Vasilia. This in turn allows a reconsideration of the role of Cyprus in an Aegean/eastern Mediterranean metals trade in the early years of the second half of the third millennium BC and of the development of metalworking on the island. artefact description and provenance (jmw and df)

Bronze Age metal artefacts found on Cyprus - metal from Anatolia and the Western Mediterranean

“…On figure 2 the data for these 24 artefacts are plotted together with the data for the Cypriot and Turkish ores, showing a particularly good consistency with the data for Turkish ores on the lower part of the plot for the isotope ratios of 206 Pb/ 204 Pb. It is worth mentioning that a copper knife from the Philia Culture has a lead isotope composition consistent with the Ergani Maden mines, while a copper bracelet from the EC tombs in Vasilia and a tin bronze spearhead and a sword from a collection in Australia described by Webb et al (2006) show lead isotope ratios consistent with the minerals from the Bolkardag region in the Taurus Mountains. These artefacts belong to the earliest group of metals found on Cypriot sites.…”

Beyond Copper: Commodities and Values in Middle Bronze Cypro‐levantine Exchanges

“…Prior to Middle Cypriot III, imports are rare on Cyprus and primarily known from tombs. From the onset of the Early Cypriot Bronze Age, the Philia facies ( c .2400 BC), analyses of copper‐based objects have shown a mix of local, Cycladic and Anatolian raw materials and finished goods, including occasional examples of local copper alloyed with imported tin, indicating that Cyprus was a participant in wider interregional exchanges at this time (Webb et al. 2006, 276, 280–2).…”

A Non-Destructive Investigation of two Cypriot Bronze Age Knife Blades using Neutron Diffraction Residual Stress Analysis

“…Additionally, the deliberate damage to the knife blade by bending suggests that the functionality of the blade was destroyed or disabled prior to its deposition in the tomb. As deliberate damage is observed across a number of Early/Middle Bonze Age burial sites this suggests a consistent burial practice or ritual, see [1,7] for discussions on this matter.…”

“…Any insights into the fabrication route of the knives and determining the stage in the life of each knife blade at which bending occurred are highly desirable. There have been limited metallurgical studies of Vounous metallic artefacts and much of the work to date has provided elemental analyses [1,8], Pb isotope analysis [1] and metallography [9]. Through the metallographic analysis [9], there is a notion that the blades/weapons had been cold worked from original states, most likely cast blanks, annealed and then additionally cold worked to their final form.…”

“…Bronze Age sites (after [1,2]). provide insights into origins of raw material, use of the material, fabrication methods and treatment of the artefacts when used as burial items.…”