IRON IN ANCIENT COPPER

Paul Craddock · Nigel Meeks

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Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis

Abstract

Analysis of early copper‐base artifacts invariably reveals traces of iron. Iron enters the copper during the smelting process and the level of iron in the metalwork is an indication of the smelting technology. In areas such as Western Europe where prehistoric slag heaps are absent even in the proximity of undoubted ancient mines, the iron content is low reinforcing the link between smelting technology and iron content. Very occasionally the iron content was deliberately encouraged and alloys containing between 30% and 50% of iron in copper were made, mainly for use in currency. These alloys are without modern parallel and their metallography and method of production are considered in some detail here.

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References

1977Partitioning of trace elements between the ores, fluxes, slags and metal during the smelting of copper 1977The composition of the copper alloys used by the Greek, etruscan and Roman civilisations

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2014Provenance Determination of Archaeological Metal Objects 2002Smelter and Smith: Iron Age Metal Fabrication Technology in Southern Africa 2019The Innovation and Adoption of Iron in the Ancient Near East 2002On the Structure and Composition of Copper and Tin Ingots Excavated from the Shipwreck of Uluburun 2014A compositional study of Cypriot bronzes dating to the Early Iron Age using portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF)2010Smelting and recycling evidences from the Late Bronze Age habitat site of Baiões (Viseu, Portugal)2013Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia,c. 6500 years ago 2013Arsenical copper and bronze in Middle Bronze Age burial sites of southern Portugal: the first bronzes in Southwestern Iberia

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