The metal composition of bronze alloys has been routinely examined as a means of inferring the source of the ore. But bronze is recycled, and the quantity of some components, such as arsenic, is depleted every time the alloy is melted down. Since the Early Bronze Age of the British Isles was largely supplied from a single mine on Ross Island, Co. Kerry, tracking arsenic content shows the number of re-melts and this gives the object a biography and a social context. Applying this ingenious new procedure to their large database, the authors also winkle out other sources of supply and new insights about the technology involved.

A new interpretative approach to the chesitry of copper-alloy objects: source, recycling adn technology

In the framework of the European Research Council–funded project, “Reconstructing Ancient (Biblical) Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective,” we carried out multiple analyses on iron and bronze objects from provenanced contexts in Israel, as well as on previously unidentified metallurgical remains from the production of both metals In addition, we counted anew iron and bronze objects from well-stratified contexts and studied metalworking sequences at major sites, which included those that had undergone the bronze/iron transition This enabled us to clarify some of the issues related to the bronze/iron transition in the southern Levant Using this evidence, we showed that iron was not used for utilitarian purposes before the Iron I (late 12th century BCE) and that iron only became dominant concurrently with the beginning of its systematic production during the Iron IIA (10th–9th centuries BCE) A strong correlation between iron and bronze production suggests that during the Iron I local independent bronzesmiths adopted the new iron technology Under local administrations that developed during the Iron IIA, workshops that previously produced bronze turned to iron production, although they continued to manufacture bronze items as a secondary venture Significantly, at some of the major urban centers iron production was an independent industry that included the entire operational sequence, including the on-site smelting of the ore This development appears to have been a major contributor to the transition to systematic production of iron DOI: 102458/azu_rc5718563

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The Transition from Bronze to Iron in Canaan: Chronology, Technology, and Context

This review synthesizes field research, textual analysis, and archaeometric data to evaluate different explanations for the spread of iron in the ancient Near East. Current evidence supports an Anatolian origin for extractive iron metallurgy on a limited scale sometime in the early 2nd millennium BC. However, the first major expansion of iron, both in Anatolia and across the wider Near East, occurred in the late second and early first millennium BC. Explanations that place iron adoption within its broader social context are favored over those that consider material or geological properties in isolation. A recurring theme is the importance of comparative analysis, both geographically and between the iron and bronze economies, to explore how social, political, and economic conditions affected adoption patterns.

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The Innovation and Adoption of Iron in the Ancient Near East

The Nature of Gold: An Environmental History of the Klondike Gold Rush. By Kathryn Morse. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003. xvii + 290 pp. Photographs, bibliography, notes, index. Cloth, $29.95. ISBN: 0-295-98329-9.

Crucible technologies in the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age South Caucasus: copper processing, tin bronze production, and the possibility of local tin ores

Late Bronze and Early Iron Age copper smelting technologies in the South Caucasus: the view from ancient Colchis c. 1500–600 BC

Copper production landscapes of the South Caucasus

The Eastern Black Sea region of the South Caucasus contains an extremely rich record of metallurgical remains that is poorly known outside of the former Soviet Union. Large numbers of relatively small smelting sites dot the foothill regions, forming a dispersed, yet large-scale metallurgical landscape. New fieldwork in the region has followed up on earlier Soviet period research, relocating and reanalyzing previously known sites and identifying new ones. This paper presents a series of 33 radiocarbon (14C) dates from copper and iron smelting sites in this region. Dates from copper smelting sites suggest that copper smelting occurred over a shorter and more intense period than previously thought, between about 1300 and 800 BC. Dates from newly discovered iron smelting sites place these activities in two episodes during the Classical-Hellenistic period (ca. 500–200 BC) and the High Medieval period (ca. AD 1050–1400). The dramatic expansion in bronze production immediately prior to the adoption of iron mirrors patterns in other regions of Europe and the Near East, and has implications for understanding the economic contexts in which iron emerged. While the new dates from iron smelting sites provide only an initial outline of the iron production chronology in the region, they represent an important step for resolving outstanding issues from previous investigations.

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The Ebb and Flow of Copper and Iron Smelting in the South Caucasus

The south-eastern Black Sea area is a key region for understanding the history of iron metallurgy. While Classical texts mention the people living in this area as producers, and perhaps even inventors, of iron, material evidence has been lacking. Recent archaeological survey and scientific analyses now make it possible to investigate iron technologies in the region during the mid to late first millennium BC and the medieval period, providing new insights into the metallurgical tradition that inspired such admiration in the Graeco-Roman world. These results have implications for the smelting of iron in liquid state, although it remains unclear where and when this technology first appeared in Western Eurasia.

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Nana Khakhutaishvili

Papers

Crucible technologies in the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age South Caucasus: copper processing, tin bronze production, and the possibility of local tin ores

Late Bronze and Early Iron Age copper smelting technologies in the South Caucasus: the view from ancient Colchis c. 1500–600 BC

Copper production landscapes of the South Caucasus

The Ebb and Flow of Copper and Iron Smelting in the South Caucasus

The metal behind the myths: iron metallurgy in the south-eastern Black Sea region