LIA of Prehistoric Metals in the Central Mediterranean Area: A Review

Abstract

Following animated discussions in the 1990–2010 period concerning the validity and potential application of Pb isotope data to yield information on ancient metallurgy, recently lead isotope analysis has been extensively applied with alternate success and difficulty to the early stages of copper/lead/silver/tin metal flow in the Central Mediterranean area, arbitrarily defined as including Italy, the Mediterranean Islands, and the surrounding regions for comparison purposes. A wealth of data are now available in the literature, many of them interpreted within local contexts and limited geographical extension, and often within a shifting conceptual modeling frame. A brief review of the recently published data indicate that the metal flow in prehistory and protohistory is far more dynamic than presumed on the basis of the traditionally assumed archaeological models. It is suggested that the isotopic tracers, if correctly applied and interpreted, may substantially help in decoding the metal exploitation and trade patterns at different scales, from the local links between mines and smelting sites to wider regional or long‐distance trades. The abundant dataset available are however in need of thorough interpretation in terms of wider archaeological and archaeo‐metallurgical questions, possibly by the use of advanced statistical methods and unconventional data mining protocols.

Shifting networks and mixing metals: Changing metal trade routes to Scandinavia correlate with Neolithic and Bronze Age transformations

“…This article presents part two of its large dataset as an overall evaluation; part one was published in 2019 [1]. Secondly, plenty of geochemical analyses of major copper deposits in central and south-east Europe have now been published [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], in addition to key datasets of metal analyses of artefacts [8,40,41]. Thirdly, we build on the outline provided by the initial results of the project [1] to broaden and advance insight and knowledge in light of the much-enlarged dataset and recently recognised mobility patterns [42,43].…”

“…Italian AATV metal 1600-1300 BC. Artioli and colleagues [34,75] have recently pointed out the clear importance of the copper deposits in the Italian Alps for the international Bronze Age trade. The arrival of copper to Scandinavia from the AATV region has so far been dated to NBA II [7,50].…”

“…For the Alpine region more generally, the situation is optimal, because the many adjacent Bronze Age slag sites [73,[106][107][108] reveal, for example, that the technology of copper production in the Italian AATV and the Austrian Alps was quite similar [74,[109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117]. Besides, the large volume of lead isotope data from these two Alpine regions [29,30,32,34,[73][74][75] allows for distinctions to be made between them despite their similarity in trace element composition. A well-illustrated example of this new potential concerns the metal objects of the burial of a wealthy woman at Ølby on Zealand, dating to 1400-1300 BC in NBA II.…”

Lead Isotope Analysis of Geological Native Copper: Implications for Archaeological Provenance Research in the North American Arctic and Subarctic

“…Consequently, there is very little work to reference with respect to LIA of native copper. Additionally, though the most up-to-date provenance research involves the combined use of LIA with trace element data for both geological samples and artifacts [19], our study focuses solely on LIA of geological native copper. This pilot study analyzed 25 native copper samples from Alaska, Yukon, Nunavut, and Michigan (Table 1, Figure 1) by SM-MC-ICP-MS in an effort to test the efficacy of LIA for differentiating between native copper from different regions and geological formations.…”

Shining Like Gold and New: The Emergence of Brass North of the Alps Around the Turn of the Era.

“…8) [69]. The authors interpreted lead from Pompeii as a mixture of Sardinian, Iberian and Laurion ores; however, as recently pointed out [71], the possibility of the involvement of the Massif Central ores was initially omitted from the discussion. Considering the original 'mixing scenario', a more satisfying explanation for Pb in the Pompeiian pipes would favour the Cartago Nova deposits with a minor in uence from Sardinian ores [71].…”