The Provenance, Use and Circulation of Metals in the European Bronze Age: The state of debate

Authors
Radivojevic, Miljana  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7329-305X
Roberts, Benjamin 
Pernicka, Ernst 
Stos-Gale, Zofia 
Martinon-Torres, Marcos  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2124-2837

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Article
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Abstract

Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeometallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal stock have received much attention. Also, discussions of the value and perception of bronze, both as individual objects and as hoarded material, continue to be the focus of scholarly debate. Here, we bring together the sometimes diverging views of several research groups on these topics in an attempt to find common ground and set out the major directions of the debate, for the benefit of future research. The paper discusses in turn issues of: geological provenance of new metal entering the system and how to determine and interpret it; the circulation of extant metal across time and space, and how this is seen in changing compositional signatures; and some economic aspects of metal production. These include the role of metal-producing communities within larger economic settings, quantifying the amount of metal present at any one time within a society, and aspects of hoarding, a distinctive European phenomenon that is less prevalent in the Middle Eastern and Asian Bronze Age societies.

Publication Date
2019
Online Publication Date
2018-07-02
Acceptance Date
2018-01-18
Keywords
Bronze Age, metal, mining, tin, provenance, lead isotope, trace element, circulation, recycling, trade, hoarding
Journal Title
Journal of Archaeological Research
Journal ISSN
1573-7756
1573-7756
Volume Title
27
Publisher
Springer Nature
Sponsorship
Funded by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research