Metals and Metallurgy in the Chalcolithic Period

Abstract

The corpus of Chalcolithic metals excavated in Cyprus is discussed against the background of Chalcolithic metallurgy principally in the Levant, Anatolia, Bulgaria, and northern Greece. Metallurgy in Chalcolithic Cyprus seems rather primitive and provincial, surprisingly so in view of the large resources of copper ores in Cyprus. New trace element chemical analyses, and some metallographic evidence, are presented of Chalcolithic metal objects from Cyprus and of Cypriot native copper, together with a lead isotope analysis for the one object for which a sufficient sample was available. New analyses are also given for Early Cypriot objects from Vounous and Lapithos. The metallographic investigation of the Chalcolithic Cypriot artifacts indicates cold working and annealing. The known Chalcolithic copper objects probably are not made from Cypriot native copper, nor was the beginning of metallurgy in Cyprus connected with the increasing exploitation of picrolite. The one Chalcolithic Cypriot artifact for which a lead isotope analysis exists was not made of copper from Cyprus. The question arises whether any of the Chalcolithic metal objects from excavations on Cyprus were made of Cypriot copper.

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