Years of lead: metrology and isotopic composition of lead sling bullets from the Second Punic War in the Upper Guadalquivir valley (southern Spain)

Abstract

Three conflict scenarios from the Second Punic War in the south of the Iberian Peninsula have been subject to an archaeological research: the Battle of Baecula (208 BCE), the Roman assault of the oppidum of Iliturgi (206 BCE) and a coercive action against the oppidum of Puente Tablas at the end of the 3rd century BCE. Our research in these three scenarios has allowed us to document more than fifty projectiles and their metrological analysis defines a similar pattern of weight and morphology in the three contexts, but also detects an anomalous typology with a much higher average weight and an inferred specific functionality in the siege of Iliturgi. Lead isotope analysis of a representative selection of projectiles and data treatment with the AMALIA logical algorithm have enabled the reliable determination of potential ore sources for the metal. This has helped define, for the first time, the probable lead procurement by the Roman and Carthaginian armies during the Second Punic War in southern Iberia.

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