Technological aspects of the earliest metallurgy in France: 'furnaces' and slags from La Capitelle du Broum (Péret, France)

Abstract

In the mining and metallurgical district of Cabrières-Péret in SE France the earliest evidence of metallurgical activities has been discovered, with calibrated radiocarbon dates spanning the 3rd millennium BC. La Capitelle du Broum is the most important Chalcolithic smelting site, located less than one kilometre away from some mines. Systematic excavations have uncovered numerous open fire structures used in metallurgical processing of the local copper ores. The hearths are roughly circular hollow pits from which numerous pieces of ore, slag and metal drops have been collected. A representative selection of such materials have been systematically studied using SEM, XRF and metallography. From this we can define a metallurgy of primitive features consisting of the direct smelting of oxidic-fahlore-type complex minerals, which produced pyroxene slag retaining much copper. The metal obtained is copper containing substantial quantities of antimony, silver and other substances, characteristic of this region.

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