Primtech Thoughts
Health and safety
The 7 Ancient Metals
Copper
Lead
Tin
Silver
Gold
Iron
Mercury
Antimony
Metallic form may have been mistaken for Pb or Sn due to appearance, but often used for cosmetics as powder from Stibnite, Antimony sulphide mineral, in ancient societies, for example Egypt, as kohl
Liquid at room temperature, therefore special experiential properties. Can be used for amalgams for refining.
Early discovery at Varna graves, Bulgarian Chalcolithic second half 5th millenium BC
Key alloy, tin shriek, melting point 230 degrees
Often used in ancient tombs; Mesoamerica (Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan, Mexico) early ADs, but used more widely as cinnabar, a mercury bearing mineral.
Also traces found in tomb of first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi, 3rd Cen BC. Cross-culturally linked with rivers - whether underworld or modelling actual rivers and their essence
cassiterite and co-smelting
Precious metal, melting point 1064 degrees C, occurs native (placer) or as mineral ore
Soft and doesn't tarnish as noble metal, therefore all about appearances
Recent paper sourcing ingots from shipwreck from Israel to Cornwall/Devon 12-13th century BC; Berger et al 2019
Nature of archaeology: research is full of holes and assumptions and bias integrated in researcher's own worldview, even before hidden agendas are added. Therefore no research can be absolute and always assess methods used to reach conclusions, not just the findings themselves. Go away and research!
First metal used for tools, occurs native or as oxide or sulphide ores
Melting temp. 1085 degrees C. Versatile, key basis for wide range of alloys with range of technical, audio or visual properties, e.g. hardness for bronze, sonorous for high tin bell bronzes, goldy for brass
Documented copper trade from ancient mediterranean - Egypt, Assyria, Cyprus, Aegean, Palestine etc.
Complaint tablet cuneiform to Ea-Nasir from Nanni. Wrong grade copper ore, c.1750 BC
Complex debates over earliest use. Long thought to be at Catal Hoyuk, but evidence reevaluated and found to be accident from pyre burning. Often very few very small fragments so difficult to interpret
Tal-I-Iblis and Tepe Ghabristan in Iran have early slagged crucible fragments; 5th millenium BC, Iranian Plateau
Belovode and Plocnik in eastern Serbia shown to have early copper smelting, building on established malachite exploitation and use for beads; Miljana Radivojevic - very start of 5th millenium BC
Dense, cheap and nasty. Melting temp. 327 degrees C, good for alloying for certain properties
Archaeological evidence left behind
A 100% efficient metal recycling economy would look the same as a society that doesn't use metals in the archaeological record
Another precious metal, but not as noble as gold, tarnishes, melting point 961 degrees C
Appears suddenly across Levant and Mesopotamia, Iran etc. in 4th millennium BC with cupellation evidence
Often naturally alloyed with gold in electrum; relevance to Iron Age torcs of Britain, as well as Tumbago alloys of South America
The Democratic Metal
Tough, high temperature and more difficult to reduce, melting point 1538 degrees C, implying semi-molten state of reduction and bloom furnaces for much of antiquity
Exception is perhaps Chinese furnaces capable of casting pig iron during the Eastern Han dynasty, c. first half of first millennium AD, if not even before in the Qin or Warring States periods, e.g. late Iron Age
Ref: Yunio Li et al 2019, Xuxiebian, Sichuan Province, China
Widespread Deposits vs copper and tin ores
Discuss steel
Likely very early first smelting date too as such low temperature involved, less than 800 degrees
A handful of Pb artefacts, for example bracelets and beads, thought to be of smelted lead from pre 5th mill. BC contexts in Anatolia and Mesopotamia, but first analysed example is lead bead on shaft (spindle whorl?) from a cave in Negev desert, Israel, c. late 5th mill. BC: ref Yahalom-Mack et al 2015.
Used widely across ancient world, and South America (Colombia) particularly known for range of gold alloys of different colours
This was AD tradition, maintained until arrival of Spanish conquestadors. Shows cultural values entirely for metal, colours, properties and appearances
Lost wax casting used for elaborate model, where casting flaws, feeds and flash on figures were not repaired, implying value on production and wax masters rather than final perfection of each component; ref Uribe-Villages 2012
Implies inherent contemporary Eurocentric bias in the way we consider metal artefacts
Gussage All Saints deposits and difficulty judging itinerancy vs established metalworking traditions, and difficulties integrating metallurgists into understandings of past prehistoric societies
Smith burials and identities in Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods
Mythologies and ritual; purification, metaphors for birth and transformation
Dangerous, fiery and can fail
Kobolds and Nickel ores causing sickness and death in German medieval mining and smelting operations
Highlight alternate pathways of metal adoption; Eurocentric (Mesopotamian/Anatolian centric?) copper-bronze-iron models
West/Central African, e.g. Nigeria in the first mill AD, metallurgical industries skipped copper and went straight to Iron, apparently independently invented
Racist ideologies penetrating science and archaeology and way evidence of early smelting in Africa was considered, although there remains more recent and healthy scepticism over the evidence, rather than race
Late 1st millennium AD
Debates
Multiple independent invention vs transfer of knowledge or specialists
'Order' of metals being smelted
Focus on first metallurgy enhanced through funding and competition; is it as well integrated within the societal contexts as it could be?
Ex Oriente Lux
History of metallurgy studies in archaeology also subject to the wider theoretical developments outside!
Naming of ages after metals; is it appropriate when in all periods metals were expensive and a fraction of total material culture? Consider Late Bronze Age Must Farm wood assemblage versus 8 or so metal implements
Were metals adopted for technical properties or for experiential aspects?
Context is so important for understanding ancient metallurgy, yet the aims often seem to be forced by the questions rather than the other way around
North American copper finds from 5th Mill BC, but only worked native copper, no smelting
African ethnography of iron smelts has furnaces decorated with brests and pregnant bellies, symbolising process as birth - also has extensive taboos on who can come into contact with the furnace in case they endager the success of the smelt
Smelting process itself: CuCO3 + CO -> Cu + 2CO2 in highly reducing atmosphere