The Treasure of Guarrazar: Tracing the Gold Supplies in the Visigothic Iberian Peninsula*

Abstract

The treasure of Guarrazar, found in the 19th century in Spain, is the most important illustration of the high level of Visigothic jewellery in the Iberian Peninsula. The votive crowns and crosses of this treasure are an arrangement of pierced gold in a Byzantine-Germanic style, decorated with emeralds, garnets, sapphires and other materials. In order to establish the provenance of the gold, we analysed a group of 46 minute samples from the most important pieces kept in Spain for major and trace elements. The combination of PIXE and PIGE with an external 3 MeV proton µ -beam was used to analyse the samples. Considering the gold sources cited by Pliny the Elder and the composition of contemporary Visigothic coins, we suggest the exploitation of south Iberian mines. Using the same set-up, we complemented these results with the analysis of 11 emeralds inlaid in items from the Guarrazar jewellery that is kept in France. We suggest the use of European sources unknown to the Romans for these gemstones.

Analysis of trace elements in gold alloys by SR-XRF at high energy at the BAMline

“…In order to test the possibilities of our protocol we analysed in this work samples of different types, covering the possible experimental situations. They consist of samples from ancient gold objects (S1, S4-6) and coins (S2-3 and S7) of different origins (already measured at low energy [6]) considered as of infinite thickness; two thin foils (S8-9) from the Xiongnu imperial tomb of the necropolis of Gol Mod in Mongolia (3rd c BC to 1st c AD) [12]; and two small samplings inserted in resin (S10-11) from two votive crowns belonging to the Visigothic treasure of Guarrazar from the 7th c AD [13].…”

EDXRF analysis of gold jewelry from the Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy

“…Finally, it is important to observe that the large majority of the gold artifacts from MArTA are composed of a very high gold concentration, that is, Au = 95–99% wt, Ag = 0.2–2.5% wt, Cu = 0.1–0.4% wt. This is quite peculiar, because it was never observed in other ancient cultures jewelry such as Etruscan, Greek, Roman, and pre‐Columbian, where the silver content is generally between 15% and 35% wt, and the copper content is generally lower than 5% wt …”

Metallic encounters in Cuba: The technology, exchange and meaning of metals before and after Columbus

“…Guerra and Calligaro, 2003;Guerra et al, 2007). This uses a 3 MeV external proton beam of 30-50 lm diameter and two Si(Li) detectors to collect the X-rays emitted by the sample.…”