The Archaeometallurgy of War Kabud, Western Iran

Microscopic study on some Iron Age bronze objects from Western Iran

“…The variability of tin content is commonplace in the study of the Iron Age bronze objects of Iran, especially in Luristan bronzes. Results of analysis of different bronze objects from Luristan show that there was no specified procedure to control the alloy composition in the manufactured bronzes in that time [8,10,12]. Nevertheless, each of the processes may have been used for the bronze production in these Iron Age bronze artefacts.…”

“…Despite the large scale of bronze objects related to Luristan, there exist a limited number of investigations about technology and metallurgy of bronze objects from this region [8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…For this purpose, some small metallic pieces were selected and examined by microscopic and microanalysis methods to characterize microstructural features of ancient bronze artefacts. The importance of this type of research is that only a few excavated bronze objects from Luristan are analyzed till now [10][11][12], and results of analysis such artefacts can be used as a baseline to compare many looted bronze objects available in different museums for authentication and provenance purposes.…”

Bronze in Archaeology: A Review of the Archaeometallurgy of Bronze in Ancient Iran

“…In fact, the composition of inclusions suggests they are residues of sulfidic ores (Singh & Chattopadhyay, 2003;Bachmann, 1982). Sulfidic inclusions have been observed in many copper alloy artefacts from other examined sites in prehistoric Iran such as Luristan Iron Age sites (Fleming et al, 2006;Fleming et al, 2005) and some Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites in southeastern Iran (Thornton & Lamberg-Karlovsky, 2004). To identify microstructure in detail and to make clear the manufacturing method of the artefacts, three mounted samples from each site were etched in ferric chloride solution and examined under metallographic (optical) microscope (Caron et al, 2004;Scott, 1991).…”

“…In the field of archaeometallurgical studies, there are many reports and papers about study of ancient ore mining, slags and other metallurgical remains, artefacts and so on between various archaeological investigations about Iran; such as works on Tappeh Yahya (Tepe Yahya) in southeast Iran (Heskel & Lamberg-Karlovsky, 1980;Heskel & Lamberg-Karlovsky 1986;Thornton & Ehler, 2003;Thornton & Lamberg-Karlovsky, 2004); Tappeh Hisar (Tepe Hissar), Northern Iran (Thornton 2009b); Godin Tappeh (Godin Tepe) (Frame, 2007) and Tel-i Iblis (Frame, 2004); Luristan Bronzes (e.g., Oudbashi et al, in Press;Fleming et al, 2005;Fleming et al, 2006;Moorey, 1964Moorey, , 1969Birmingham et al, 1964); Haft Tappeh (Haft Tepe), southwest Iran (Oudbashi et al, 2009); and ancient slags from Meymand, Kerman, southeast Iran (Emami & Oudbashi, 2008).…”