metallurgy

Issue 60 of Monographies Instrumentum, titled Studies in Experimental Archaeometallurgy, methodological Approaches from Non-ferrous Metallurgies, exhibits 10 papers presented at the first International Conference on Non-Ferrous Metal Metallurgy and Experimental Archaeology – Metallurgie des non-ferreux et archeologie experimentale ICA I. The conference was held at the Museum of Art and History...

Two metallurgical traditions coexisted in the Chalcolithic Southern Levant: the lost wax casting of polymetallic alloys and the pure copper technology. Details of their operational sequences are still unknown. To date, no production sites of lost wax casting technology have been found. Only the main steps of the pure copper technology can be reconstructed from the archaeological record...

Interpreting the cultural influences of Cyprus in antiquity has posed an issue, depending on one’s point of view or the different conclusions reached. Until the 1970s, in large part due to the extensive excavations along the northern coast of Cyprus, it seemed reasonable to recognise a plethora of Aegean traits in the island culture. Every element of the Cypriot Bronze Age was analysed and interpreted in...

The ICAII International Conference on Archaeometallurgy was held 25 September to 1 October 2019 at the Sorbonne University, Paris-Saclay University, and at Melle dans le Poitou where experiments were conducted. Papers were delivered in French and English and primarily focused on the metallurgy of the Bronze Age and New Kingdom periods in Egypt and the Middle East, using evidence from...

This paper relates to a study of experimental archaeology, executed by Ruben Cataldo, about the forging methods used to produce some replicas of two metal points found during the archaeological excavations carried out between 1992 and 1996 by the University of Salento in the medieval village Quattro Macine (translated Four Millstones), located in the municipality of Giuggianello, a small town in...

The ‘West Coast Cumbria’ hoard, discovered in 2014, is a late ninth/ early tenth-century Viking silver hoard, housed at the Beacon Museum, Whitehaven, UK. It is composed of 20 Viking silver objects: bar-shaped ingots and ornaments, in various stages of fragmentation (PAS ‘Find-ID’ LANCUM-FA14C8). One, complete ingot (museum no. 2016.162.5) bears coarse cloth-impressions on its upper surface...

10th EAC Leiden 2017
***Pyrgos-Mavroraki, an early 2nd millennium BC proto-industrial settlement, is an excellent case-study on which to apply experimental archaeometallurgy because it presents many different elements connected to the chaine-operatoire of copper metallurgy, typical of Early/Middle Bronze Age Cyprus...

10th EAC Leiden 2017
***This paper aims to present and discuss ongoing activities that combine Experimental Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology developed in the scope of a master's degree, a post-doctoral and other research projects at the University of Vigo (Galicia, Spain), in collaboration with regional open-air museums and educational centres...

10th EAC Leiden 2017
***Artificially patinated copper alloys are found archaeologically in polychrome artefacts from the 19th century BC Egypt to historical and contemporary Japan. The unusual colour variations observed in these patinas, ranging from black to blue to purple, is due to a minor amount of gold (Au) and silver (Ag) in their copper matrix, whereas...

It is accepted knowledge that when re-melting alloys, some of the metal with a lower melting temperature is lost through oxidation, and more metal must be added in order to maintain the desired alloy proportions. In order to understand the changes in alloy content when recycling using Bronze Age technology, experiments were undertaken by the author and others...