First evidence for alloying practices in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant (4500–3800 BCE) as revealed by metallography

Abstract

Excavations at the Chalcolithic site Fazael in the central Jordan Valley uncovered a large number of metal items, many of them polymetallic copper alloys cast in the lost wax technique. Metallography and SEM–EDS analysis on a subset of the assemblage confirm previous notions of the lost wax metallurgy in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant but extend them significantly in three aspects: The Fazael metal assemblage is slightly depleted in its arsenic content compared to metal assemblages from other sites, silt-sized quartz inclusions in unalloyed and polymetallic copper items, and the presence of unalloyed copper inclusions. These latter provide the earliest direct evidence for mixing of different metal types in West Asia, potentially alloying or recycling.

Identification of Fazael 2 (4000–3900 BCE) as first lost wax casting workshop in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant

“…7b) link the crucibles to copper metallurgy in general, as does the vitrification and bloating of F219 and F228 but not necessarily the processing of polymetallic copper alloys. There is currently only one item that seems to provide direct evidence for such activities: F236, a casting prill made of As-Ni copper [43]. The large number of fragments from lost wax cast items might be seen as tentative evidence for the production of such items in Fazael 2, too.…”