A Glimpse into Raw Material Management in the Early Iron Age: Bronze Ingots from a Production Settlement in Wicina (Western Poland) in Archaeometallurgical Research

Aldona Garbacz‐Klempka · Karol Dzięgielewski · Marta Wardas‐Lasoń

4 citations0/0 files storedArchives of Metallurgy and Materials

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

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

Abstract

Assessing the level of metallurgical and foundry technology in prehistoric times requires the examination of raw material finds, including elongated ingots, which served as semi-finished products ready for further processing. It is rare to find such raw material directly at production settlements, but Wicina in western Poland is an exception. During the Hallstatt period (800-450 BC), this area, situated along the middle Oder River, benefited from its favorable location in the heart of the Central European Urnfield cultures and developed networks for raw material exchange and bronze foundry production. Numerous remnants of casting activities, such as clay casting molds, casting systems, and raw materials, have been discovered at the Wicina settlement. This article aims to provide an archaeometallurgical interpretation of raw material management and utilization by prehistoric communities during the Early Iron Age. To achieve this, a collection of 31 ingots from the defensive settlement in Wicina, along with two contemporary deposits from Bieszków and Kumiałtowice, both found within a 20 km radius of the stronghold, were studied. Investigations were conducted using a range of methods, including optical microscopy(OM), scanning electron microscopy (SE M), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SE M-EDS), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (ED-XRF), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), AAS and ICP-OES spectrometer. The significance of ingots is examined in the context of increasing social complexity and the rising popularity of bronze products, which necessitated diversified production and a demand for raw materials with different properties and, consequently, different chemical compositions.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 4 citations exist upstream.

References

2014Provenance Determination of Archaeological Metal Objects 2018The Provenance, Use, and Circulation of Metals in the European Bronze Age: The State of Debate 1977Partitioning of trace elements between the ores, fluxes, slags and metal during the smelting of copper 2015Form and flow: the ‘karmic cycle’ of copper 2012A new interpretative approach to the chemistry of copper-alloy objects: source, recycling and technology 2016Bronze Age Copper Produced at Mitterberg, Austria, and its Distribution 2019Isotope systematics and chemical composition of tin ingots from Mochlos (Crete) and other Late Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: An ultimate key to tin provenance?1996ENERGY DISPERSIVE X‐RAY FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT COPPER ALLOYS: EMPIRICAL VALUES FOR PRECISION AND ACCURACY

Cited by

2023Bronze Age Raw Material Hoard from Greater Poland: Archaeometallurgical Study Based on Material Research, Thermodynamic Analysis, and Experiments 2025‘You Load Sixteen Tons, What Do You Get?’. The Jodłowno Hoard (Pomerania, Poland) as Evidence of Long‐Distance Contacts in the Early Iron Age 2025Contents of deposits from the archaeological site of Sobolów in Bochnia—A contribution to prehistoric foundry activity

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.