Les céramiques à réduire le minerai de cuivre : une technique métallurgique utilisée en Ibérie, son extension en France méridionale

Abstract

Pots used in reducing copper minerals: a metallurgical technological used particularly in Iberia: its extension in southern France. Identified in Spain at the end of the 1980s, the use of common earthenware vessels as containers for prehistoric copper metallurgy has also now been observed in France. The authors propose a synthesis of present knowledge concerning the use of this technology in Spain, its chronological and geographical framework, and the more relevant mineralogical and metallurgical features. This allows the effectiveness and simplicity of the resources brought into play in this early metallurgy to be demonstrated. The finds in France are more modest and have rarely been properly analysed in the laboratory. Notwithstanding this, the review of the archaeological record suggests that specific research, in the light of the results presented in this article, should provide evidence in France - as has been the case in Spain in recent years - of the impact of this technology through the Copper and Bronze Ages.

Copper Ornaments in the Iberian Chalcolithic

“…An independent origin of metallurgy in Iberia, however, has been called into question in recent years (Roberts 2008;Roberts etal 2009) on the basis of two main points: (1) the impossibility of an independent discovery of metallurgy in western Europe emerging from the existing technology,^ and (2) the alleged unreliability of the early dates for Cerro Virtud. As already discussed (Dehbes etal 1996; Rovira 2002;2004), the first metallurgy in southeast Iberia is quite simple and does not require major technological advances. Roberts (2008;Roberts et al 2009) argues that smelting could not be an evolution from pottery technology as the latter developed in bonfires, while metallurgy has different pyrotechnical requirements, namely reducing conditions and the presence of charcoal to achieve them.…”

“…Archaeo-metallurgical studies in Iberia, Europe and the Near East, however, have shown that the early production of copper was developed under open-fire, low temperature and incompletely reducing conditions, as indicated by the formation of delafossite, magnetite or cuprite in the slags (e.g. Craddock 2000; Rovira 2002;Rovira and Axnbert 2002;Hauptmann 2007). Eurthermore, analytical studies of Neolithic ceramic production in southeast Iberia show that there was enough pyrotechnical control to smelt copper under the low temperatures and reducing conditions that characterize the earliest metallurgical stages (Capel et al 2006).…”

“…To begin with, although crucible smelting is held in common with other early metallurgy in the Old World, the ceramics used in metallurgical processes were manufactured differently. In Iberia, the pottery used to smelt copper was of a common type (Delibes et al 1996;Rovira 2002;2004). Iberian ceramic crucibles (so-called 'oven-plates') differ from smelting crucibles elsewhere because of their shape, paste and size: they are large ceramic plates up to 30 or 40 cm in diameter, while elsewhere in Europe the earliest crucibles are smaller and shallow (Bayley and Rehren 2007: 53).…”

“…Furthermore, almost all ores smelted in Iberia are oxide ones, which are fairly common and accessible (Rovira 2002), while sulphide or mixed (oxidic and sulphidic) ore smelting are broadly documented in the earliest metallurgy in western Europe and the Near East (Bourgarit 2007). Additionally, lead is not present in Iberian metallurgy even if lead ores are abundant, especially in the southeast, where lead usually occurs alongside copper minerals.…”

Plus ça change: pots, crucibles and the development of metallurgy in Chalcolithic Las Pilas (Mojácar, Spain)

“…Of course, a key feature of this period is the use of ceramics in ore processing and metalworking, in the form of crucibles, blowpipe nozzles and, perhaps, other objects (for a detailed discussion, see Rovira and Ambert 2002). The analysis of these technical implements and their comparison with domestic wares helps assess any relationship between their production processes and those used in making domestic pottery.…”