Metal for Zambujal: experimentally reconstructing a 5000-year-old technology

Hanning, Erica; Gauß, Roland; Goldenberg, Gert

doi:10.3989/tp.2010.10040

Cited by 33 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…Temperature gradients within the crucible fabric from a hotter inner surface to a cooler outer surface (Hanning et al . ) would prevent the crucible from collapsing. Besides, such thick walls would not transfer enough heat to its inner surface to melt metal, if the crucible was only heated from the outside in an open hearth at 1200–1300°C (Gowland ).…”

Section: Analytical Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rediscovering famous assemblages: A rare Bronze Age crucible from El Argar, Spain

Mongiatti

Montero‐Ruiz

2019

Archaeometry

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A rare open shallow crucible from the British Museum collection, excavated at the Bronze Age site of El Argar in south‐east Spain by Louis and Henri Siret, was studied using X‐radiography and scanning electron microscopy. The crucible has relatively thick walls, a spout and a non‐refractory fabric. It was used for melting copper alloys for various possible purposes, such as alloying, refining, recycling or before casting, at around 1100°C. Both arsenic and tin were detected in various places and concentrations in the analysed specimens. This crucible could have been used during the period of transition from arsenic‐rich copper to tin bronzes in the El Argar culture, or used for the recycling of arsenic‐rich copper artefacts being alloyed with tin to produce tin bronzes. This melting crucible is a rare example of its kind to have been investigated scientifically, as most crucibles from contemporary sites on the Iberian Peninsula are generally associated with smelting. This study has also crucially shed more light on the types of alloys and variety of activities undertaken during that transitional period between the use of arsenical copper and tin bronzes in this region.

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Section: Analytical Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rediscovering famous assemblages: A rare Bronze Age crucible from El Argar, Spain

Mongiatti

Montero‐Ruiz

2019

Archaeometry

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“…Hardy (2013) found archaeological pendants of prehistoric Caribbean societies made of malachite and pseudomalachite. Hanning et al (2010) identified pseudomalachite associated with malachite in ores in Zambujal (Lisbon). All these reports showed that pseudomalachite associated with malachite may be found.…”

Section: Copper Artifactsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Characterization of corrosion products on metals excavated from seal hunters' occupation in Antarctica in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Figueiredo

Oliveira

Souza

et al. 2014

Studies in Conservation

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2015)Characterization of corrosion products on metals excavated from seal hunters' occupation in Antarctica in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Studies in Conservation, 60:3, 211-216To link to this article: http://dx.The Project 'White Landscapes: Archaeology and Anthropology in Antarctica' studies human occupation in Antarctica. Many archaeological artifacts were found in the Livingston Islands, which are valuable in understanding the seal hunters' occupation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the characterization of corrosion products on excavated iron, lead, and copper metallic artifact alloys. The characterizations were carried out by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, spectroscopy of absorption in infrared, and scanning electron microscopy. Goethite, hydroxypyromorphite, malachite, and pseudomalachite were the major products found in iron, lead, and copper artifacts, respectively. The origin of phosphate corrosion products was attributed to phosphorus in the soil, due to sealers' activities.

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“…In fact, due to its volatility during the smelting process, As boils and sublimes at 613°C, and arsenic gaseous can be incorporated within the final Cu metal objects. This process leads to an enrichment of As in the copper, resulting in the arsenic amounts in the metal to be higher than the ones originally present in the ore (Pollard et al 1991;Hanning et al 2010). Therefore, the use of polymetallic Cu ores with unpredictable As impurities could lead to the production of final alloys whose As content could hardly be controlled by the ancient metalworkers, thus explaining the high variability and the erratic nature of this element in the finished artifacts.…”

Section: Ortiz 2003)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even if this kind of composition is quite rare in Portuguese territory, metals with low content of both Sn and As have been detected, for example, in copper-based metals from Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age within the SAM project (Junghans et al 1968;see, for instance, analysis with numbers 1438, 1474, 1539, 1699, 1776. Cu-based objects with low tin amount and absence or low As content are known from the Chalcolithic sites of Cerro do Castelo de Santa Justa and Cerro do Castelo de Corte João Marques, both in southern Portugal (Gonçalves et al 1989). Also, in Spanish territory, three awls with low tin percentages (<3.0 wt.%) and As content not exceeding 0.5 wt.% were recovered from contexts attributed to the III/II millennium BC at the site of Cueva Sagrada (Murcia) (Montero-Ruiz 1991).…”

Section: Ortiz 2003)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-destructive characterization of archeological Cu-based artifacts from the early metallurgy of southern Portugal

Bottaini

Brunetti

Bordalo

et al. 2017

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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In this study, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations combined with energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectroscopy have been used to characterize nondestructively a collection of Cu-based artifacts recovered from two archeological sites in southern Portugal: (a) the Chalcolithic E.T.A.R. site of Vila Nova de Mil Fontes and (b) the Middle Bronze Age site of Quinta do Estácio 6. The metal artifacts show a multilayered structure made up of three distinct layers: (a) brownish carbonate soil-derived crust, (b) green oxidized corrosion patina, and (c) bulk metal. In order to assess the reliability of the EDXRF-based Monte Carlo simulations to reproduce the composition of the alloy substrate in archeological bronze artifacts without the need to previously remove the superficial corrosion and soil derived patinas, EDXRF analysis together with scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) was also performed on cleaned and patina-/crust-coated areas of the artifacts. Characterization of the mineralogical composition of the corrosion products in the surface patinas was further determined by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results suggest that the adopted EDXRF/Monte Carlo protocol may represent a safe and fast analytical approach in the quantitative characterization of the bulk chemical composition of Cubased metal artifacts even in the presence of fairly thick corrosion patinas and/or soil-derived encrustations at the surface of the archeological objects.

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Metal for Zambujal: experimentally reconstructing a 5000-year-old technology

Cited by 33 publications

References 14 publications

Rediscovering famous assemblages: A rare Bronze Age crucible from El Argar, Spain

Rediscovering famous assemblages: A rare Bronze Age crucible from El Argar, Spain

Characterization of corrosion products on metals excavated from seal hunters' occupation in Antarctica in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Non-destructive characterization of archeological Cu-based artifacts from the early metallurgy of southern Portugal

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