Bronze Age metalworks found in northern Oman.

Archaeologists from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw have unearthed evidence of Bronze Age metalworking during exploratory work in the Qumayrah Valley of northern Oman. The team, who have been working in Oman since 2016, spent five weeks in the area in November and December 2024, uncovering about 50 structures associated with the Bronze Age Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq cultures, as well as a smaller amount of Iron Age and later material, according to a press release issued on 12 February 2024.

The approximate location of the Qumayrah Valley in northern Oman. Google Maps.

The oldest structures found date to the Early Bronze Age Umm an-Nar Culture, which is thought to have lasted from about 2600 BC to about 2000 BC, and include round stone towers at the Ajran 1 and QB 6 localities, and a number of tower tombs at Ajran 4. This period appears to have seen a significant economic boom in the region, leading to a rise in population, and more archaeological remains being left behind than in subsequent periods.

Reconnaissance at site QB 6, where the remains of a round tower building made of white limestone were found. Agnieszka Szymczak/Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology.

This Umm an-Nar economic boom is thought to have been driven by long distance trade with India and Mesopotamia, with the main export from Oman being copper. Because of this, the Polish team have been searching for signs of copper working in the Qumayrah Valley. The discoveries made this season include a complex of sites around Wadi Salh, which include slag fields up to 220 m by 50 m and 25 cm to 50 cm thick, along with dozens of stone tools thought to have been used for crushing ore, and the remains of numerous furnaces. Several buildings thought to have been used as workshops have also been identified.

A slag field in Wadi Salh; flags mark stone tools for crushing ore. Agnieszka Szymczak/Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology.

Iron Age remains are much less common in the region, but the team did find a site, QA 20, where what appears to have been an Iron Age observation tower and accompanying settlement was located at the intersection of two valleys. The settlement, thought to have dated to between 1100 BC and 600 BC, comprised a dense arrangement of adjoining houses on either side of a narrow street. Thirty three rooms have been excavated so far at this site, covering an area of about 1400 m².

Representatives of the local community, teachers and students from schools in the village of Qumayrah with members of the Omani-Polish expedition at the QA 20 site. Olga Puszkarewicz/Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology.

See also...

Determining the origin of Iron Age copper ingots from Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Southern and South Central Africa are home to numerous rich copper deposits, including the sediment-hosted deposits in the Central African Copperbelt, which runs along the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, the similar deposits of the Magondi Belt of northern Zimbabwe, the early Precambrian metavolcanic 'greenstone belts' of southern Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana and northeastern South Africa, the Limpopo Mobile Belt (mostly gneisses) parallel to the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the Phalaborwa Igneous Complex (a carbonatite) in northeastern South Africa. All of these deposits were well known to local populations, and extensively worked for their ores, long before the arrival of Europeans in the area. These pre-colonial mines were the subject of a number of studies between 1920 and 1975, but subsequently have been largely overlooked, and many are now in danger of being lost due to large scale modern mining in the same areas.

The earliest known evidence of copper mining in the region is at Kansanshi in northwestern Zambia, which dates from the fourth century AD, about the same time as the first Iron Age farmers arrived in the region, and the ore appears to have been extracted using iron tools. Ore appears to have been processed at Kansanshi, and transported overland to Kipushi on the Kafue River for smelting; a distance of over 100 km. A variety of smelting techniques have been recorded from ancient sites in the Copperbelt, including tapping the metal directly into molds, allowing it to gather in the bottom of furnaces, and collecting it from prills (globules) trapped within the slag of melted ore. It was then typically worked with iron tools, including hammers and wire-drawing plates. The most common usage of copper in Southern Africa appears to have been to make jewelry, but stores of copper ingots have been found in a variety of locations, and it has been suggested that these may have been used as currency. These copper ingots have been the subject of a number of studies, which have focused on their age, distribution (there are several different forms, found in different areas), and possible uses, although the precise origin of the different forms of ingot have yet to be determined.

In a paper published in the journal PLoS One on 22 March 2023, Jay Stephens of the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and the ArchaeometryLaboratory at the University of Missouri, David Killick, also of the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and Shadreck Chirikure of the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town, present the results of a study of a selection of Southern African copper ingots, using isotopic and trace element data to try to connect them to specific mining areas.

Locations of prehistorically exploited mines in southern Africa. Stephanie Martin and Jay Stephens in Stephens et al. (2023).

The exact age of the ores of the Copperbelt is uncertain. The copper is thought to have accumulated in a sedimentary basin between the Zimbabwean and Congo cratons (proto-continents), which came together to form part of the super continent of Gondwana between 650 and 500 million years ago. As this basin closed, the sediments were compressed and folded, before undergoing a series of faulting events, forming the Damaran-Lufilian Arc, which runs along the coast from western South Africa, through Namibia, and up into Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo. The formation of the copper minerals may have happened during, or prior to, the Lufilian (or Pan-African) Orogeny, though they were certainly remobilised and redistributed during this orogeny. The ore bodies appear to have received two influxes of uranium, one about 650 million years ago, and one about 530 million years ago, This has resulted in the presence of the isotopes lead²⁰⁶ and lead²⁰⁷, the decay products of uranium²³⁸ and uranium²³⁵, within the Copperbelt ore bodies.

The Kipushi Mine lies within the Copperbelt, but access deposits geologically distinct from other Copperbelt ore bodies, being younger, at about 450 million years old, higher within the stratigraphic column, and geochemically distinct. Kipushi is the largest of three zinc-lead-copper deposits within the Copperbelt area, with the others being Kabwe, also in Zambia, and Tsumeb, in Namibia. The isotopic signal of these deposits is quite different from that of the other Copperbelt ores, lacking in the radiogenic lead component. It is also possible to distinguish Kipushi ores from Kabwe and Tsumeb ores chemically, with the Kipushi ores highly enriched in copper, zinc, arsenic, silver, antimony, and lead, both within the sulphide ores themselves, and within the supergene zone (area at the top of or above the ore that becomes enriched in metal elements as water peculates through the ore body, dissolving metal ions then redepositing them), which is typically of a malachite colour and enriched in copper arsenate, carbonate, oxide, phosphate, sulfate, vanadate, and chloride minerals.

The Magondi Belt originally formed as a back-arc basin between 2.2 and 2.0 billion years ago, and was deformed and metamorphosed by the Magondi Orogeny between 2.0 and 1.9 billion years ago. These deposits were further deformed and re-deposited during the Pan-African Orogeny, about 550 million years ago. The ores of the Magondi Belt contain radiogenic lead isotopes, with a lead²⁰⁷/lead²⁰⁴ to lead²⁰⁶/lead²⁰⁴ ratio distinct from that of the Copperbelt.

Within the Magondi Belt, ores are generally stratiform, concentrated within the Deweras and Lomagundi group rocks on the eastern margin of the belt. Most of these deposits host only copper, or copper and silver with smaller amounts of gold, lead, platinum, and uranium, although the Copper Queen and Copper King deposits on the western margin of the belt contain zinc-lead-copper-iron-silver ores. 

Copper ingots from Southern Africa have been known since the 1960s, when the first such ingots were discovered in a burial at Sanga in the Upemba Depression of the southern Democratic Republic of Congo, and at Ingombe Ilede in the Zambezi Valley in Zambia. The oldest known ingots are of a type known as 'Ia'. These are small, rectangular ingots, dating from the 5th to 7th centuries AD, known from sites in the Copperbelt and at Kumadzulo. Two 'fishtail' ingots from Kamusongolwa Kopje, in Northwestern Province, Zambia, and Luano Main Site, in Central Province, also Zambia, dated to between the 9th and 12th centuries AD, are also considered to belong to the 'Ia' type. 

A second type of ingot, named HIH, appears at sites dating from the ninth century onwards, and is considered to be linked to a significant increase in the production and use of copper. These ingots tend to be 7-20 cm in length, and are 'H' shaped, with two short arms at each end of a longer central bar. These ingots are known from 9th to 14th century sites from the Upemba Depression in the Southern Democratic Republic of Congo to Great Zimbabwe, with a number of molds being known as well as the ingots themselves. HIH ingots appear to have been mainly trade items until the 13th century, but in the 14th century they became prestige goods in their own right, and are often found within Kambabian-period burials. All the known HIH ingots from Great Zimbabwe date from the 14th century.

In the 14th century two, apparently separate, spheres of ingot circulation developed. In the western Copperbelt and Upemba Depression, small HX and HH type croisette (cross-shaped) ingots, between 0.5 and 7 cm across, are found, with molds for these ingots found across this range. At the same time, in the eastern Copperbelt, at Ingombe Ilede in the Zambezi Valley, in northern Zimbabwe, and in the Dedza area of Malawi, much larger HXR type ingots appear. These are X-shaped, with a flange around their outer edge, 20-30 cm in length and weigh 3.0-5.5 kg. Molds for these ingots are only known from the eastern Copperbelt, although this includes Kipushi. 

'Ia' (rectangular and fishtail) and croisette ingot typology. Stephens et al. (2023).

These HXR ingots have been a subject of considerable archaeological interest, being known from the Ingombe Ilede burial site (eight ingots), eight from a hoard in the Dedza area of Malawi, and two from the Chedzurgwe site in Zimbabwe, and thirty other sites within northern Zimbabwe having produced a further sixty examples, often accompanied by pottery of a similar style to that of Ingombe Ilede. Oral histories from the area record that copper crosses were obtained by trade from a people called the Va-Mbara from the Urungwe area, who were renowned for their metal-working skills, and the sixteenth century Portuguese explorer Antonio Fernandes recording that such metal crosses were produced by a people called the Mobara from the land of Ambar, which maybe a reference to the same group.

Highlighted archaeological sites, geological districts, and geological mines. Stephens et al. (2023).

The copper crosses mentioned by Fernandes and the HXR ingots have been thought to be the same thing for some time, potentially suggesting that Fernandes' records might provide an insight into the origin of these ingots. Fernandes himself believed that the ingots originated from close to the 'Copper rivers of Manyconguo'. which may be a reference to the Niari Basin ore deposits, which lie near the mouth of the Congo River, and which were exploited by the Kongo Kingdom at this time. This is about 2100 km from the area where these ingots are found today, making it highly unlikely that Fernandes was correct on this issue, but several researchers have suggested that this might indicate that the ingots originate from the Copperbelt, which is in the same direction as Niari Basin, albeit considerably closer. 

Few of these large ingots have been directly dated, although, based upon their archaeological context, it is assumed that they were manufactured between the 14th and 18th centuries. The majority HXR ingots have been found at sites which have also produced Ingombe Ilede style ceramics, although examples are also known from Musengezi and Mutapa culture sites. As with earlier ingots, these items seem to have been used both for trade and as prestige items, something recorded by the Portuguese and which matches with the contexts in which they were discovered. 

At some time in the 18th century, production of these HXR ingots ceased, with their replacement by X-shaped un-flanged handa ingots, and I-shaped Ib and Ic ingots, which could weigh up to 30 kg. These were frequently recorded by European visitors to what are now Malawi, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, although they have never been recorded from the Zimbabwean Plateau. 

Additionally, copper ingots of the lerale (rod-shaped) and musuku (cuboid) types were produced in South Africa, while nail head ingots, and more informal bun and bar ingots were produced in both South Africa and Zimbabwe, during the 12th to 20th centuries, although these are outside the scope of Stephens et al.'s current study.

Copper ore invariably contains a small amount of lead, with an isotopic composition dependent on the age, type, and other geological characteristics of the rock. This lead is incorporated into the smelted copper with its isotopic signature unaltered, something which has previously been used to trace the origin of copper artifacts from archaeological sites in Europe and the Mediterranean region since the 1980s. More recently, the technique has been applied to copper, bronze, and tin archaeological material from Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa with some effect.

Stephens used an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry system at the University of Arizona to analyze 34 copper samples taken from ingots, 33 of which came from the collections of the Museum of Human Sciences in Harare, Zimbabwe and the Livingstone Museum in Livingstone, Zambia, for their lead isotope composition, and proportions of chromium, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic selenium, molybdenum, silver, cadmium, tin, antimony, and lead.

The type Ia rectangular and fishtail ingots produced similar lead isotope ranges, all of which were consistent with an origin somewhere within the Copperbelt, as well as a radio-isotope age of 589 ± 15.4 million years, also consistent with an origin within the Copperbelt. It was not possible to assign any of the ingots to a specific mine within this region.

The HIH and HXR croisette ingots from Ingombe Ilede and northern Zimbabwe can be split into two groups, both of which contain both types of ingot. The first group, comprising eight HIH ingots and four HXR ingots, match the type Ia ingots in their lead isotope ratios, and a radio-isotope age of 627.25 ± 3.57 million years; again consistent with a Copperbelt origin, but not sufficient to pin that origin down to a specific mine.

The second group, comprising three HIH and 13 HXR ingots, as well as three large HH ingots from the Upemba Depression in the Democratic Republic of Congo, have isotopic signatures consistent with having originated from the Kipushi Mine deposit within the Copperbelt.

Another HXR ingot, recovered from the Kent Estate in Zimbabwe, has a quite different lead isotope ratio. This appears to match with ores from the Magondi Belt, although Stephens et al. are unable to confirm this with any confidence as relatively few ore samples from Magondi have been analysed.

Chemically, the Ia type bar and fishtail ingots are remarkably pure, containing less than 5 μg per gram of chromium, selenium, molybdenum, silver, cadmium, tin, antimony, and lead, and less than 50 μg per gram of nickel, zinc, and arsenic. The levels of cobalt and iron are slightly higher (if quite variable), with 5-204 μg per gram of cobalt and 27-71 μg per gram of iron. This high level of purity, and pattern of elements has previously been observed in copper artifacts from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Botswana. Once again, this elemental composition is consistent with the metal having originated within the Copperbelt, but is not sufficient to pin it down to a specific mine, with about 150 known mines potentially capable of having made these ingots.

The HIH and HXR croisette ingots were split into two groups on the basis of their isotopic composition, and their chemical content was found to match this. The  first group, comprising eight HIH ingots and four HXR ingots, which were had similar isotope ratios to the type Ia ingots, also had similar chemical compositions, with chromium, zinc, selenium, molybdenum, cadmium, tin, antimony, and lead all under 5 μg per gram, silver under 20 μg per gram, nickel concentrations of 5-42 μg per gram, iron concentrations under 50 μg per gram, and cobalt values of 2-144 μg per gram. This is again sufficient to suggest that these ingots originated from the Copperbelt, but not where, although the variation in nickel, cobalt, and silver seen across these and the type Ia ingots suggests that more than one mine was involved in production.

The second group, comprising three HIH and 13 HXR ingots, have much higher levels of zinc, at 13–146 μg per gram, with a mean of 61 μg per gram, arsenic, at 240–2515 μg per gram, with a mean of 869 μg per gram, silver, at 88–1966 μg per gram, with a mean of 1254 μg per gram, antimony, at 2-111 μg per gram, with a mean of 29 μg per gram, and lead, at 14-1465 μg per gram, with a mean of 378 μg per gram. Concentrations of cobalt, nickel, selenium, molybdenum, cadmium, and tin mostly remain below 5 μg per gram. The lead isotope ratio of these ingots matches the ore from the Kipushi Mine. Three large HH ingots which were analysed in an earlier study led by Frederik Rademakers were found to have similar chemical compositions and lead isotope ratios to this group. The enrichment in chalcophile elements (zinc, arsenic, silver, antimony, and lead) may have happened within the malachite ore, where ions of all of these elements could substitute for copper, or come from the supergene deposits (deposits which lie above the ore body) which are a similar colour to the malachite ore, and could be introduced accidentally. 

A single HXR ingot from Kent estates in Zimbabwe does not fit into either of these groups. This ingot has chromium, cobalt, zinc, arsenic, molybdenum, cadmium, tin, and antimony, levels below 10 μg per gram, lead and nickel below 30 μg per gram, an iron level of 490 μg per gram, selenium at 145 μg per gram, and silver at 1572 μg per gram. This enrichment in selenium and silver, while most other elements are depleted, is typical of ores from the Deweras Group of the Magondi Belt, such as those accessed by modern mines at Mhangura (formerly Mangula) and Norah. These ores also contain uranium, which could account for the high proportion of radiogenic lead in this ingot. 

Stephens et al.'s study suggests that croisette ingots were manufactures in at least three separate locations: the Central African Copperbelt, the Kipushi deposit, and the Magondi Belt. All the ingots appear to be made from ore from a single source, without any evidence of ingots being made from mixed ores or recycled copper from multiple sources, something which has also been observed in previous studies.

Inferred provenance conclusion for the rectangular, fishtail, and croisette ingot in the study. Provenance results indicate that objects travelled significant distances to reach certain destinations and that interactions between the Copperbelt and areas further south can be traced back to the 6th-7th century. Stephens et al. (2023).

Sixteen of the ingots have elemental and isotopic signatures which match the ores of the Central African Copperbelt, something which has previously been observed in copper objects from the Upemba Depression in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo and the Tsodilo Hills in northwest Botswana. These ingots are depleted in chalcophile elements and enriched in siderophile elements such as cobalt and nickel, as are the ores of the Copperbelt, although neither the elemental nor isotopic composition of the ingots allows any more precise diagnosis.

Molds for rectangular or fishtail ingots have never been found within the Copperbelt, but numerous croisette ingot molds have been found, along with considerable evidence for precolonial mining. More than 100 precolonial mines had been recorded in the Copperbelt by 1906, the majority in an arc from Kolwezi to Kipushi in the Katangan Copperbelt of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but with examples in the Kafue Hook and Domes Region of the Zambian Copperbelt. 

The ingots which Stephens et al. attribute to this source include e all three recorded rectangular and fishtail ingots from Zambia, dated to before the 12th century, an HIH ingot from the Harare tradition site of Graniteside, an HXR ingot from burial 8 at Ingombe Ilede, dated to the 15th-17th century, and , 10 HIH and HXR ingots from farms and towns in northern Zimbabwe. These ingots appear to have frequently been carried long distances from their point of origin; about 600 km to the 6th-7th settlement at Kumadzulo near Victoria Falls in southern Zambia, and as far south as Harare in Zimbabwe. This distribution also demonstrates that cultures such as Ingombe Ilede in southern Zambia, Harare in Zimbabwe and Musengezi in northern Zambia were in contact with one another and part of a common trade network.

Another 16 ingots could be linked directly to the Kipushi deposit on the southern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The isotope signature of these ingots form a particularly tight cluster even within the range observed at Kipushi, which Stephens et al. assume relates to the oxidized surface deposits, which are known to have been accessed by a precolonial mine. A fragment of casting spill from a furnace by the Kafue River in Zambia close to Kipushi, and a chunk of malachite ore found nearby, also match this signature. These ingots are also enriched in chalcophile elements, but depleted in siderophile elements, something observed at Kipushi in both the malachite ores, and the overlying carbonate deposits. This has also been seen in three HH ingots previously analysed, and presumed to have come from the same source.

There is a great deal of archaeological evidence for precolonial mining at Kipushi, albeit all on the Zambian side of the border. This includes at least 57 discrete smelting sites with slag heaps, two large habitation sites, one campsite, and 71 individual croisette molds (for both HIH and HXR ingots). This activity appears to have been going on since at least the ninth century, with a significant expansion in the fourteenth, which coincides with the first appearance of HIH ingots in cemeteries of the Upemba Depression and in the archaeological record of Zimbabwe.

The ingots considered to have come from Kipushi include undated HIH ingots from northern Zimbabwe, two HXR ingots from Ingombe Ilede (one from burial 2 and one from burial 8), dated to the 15th-17th centuries, two HXR ingots from Chedzurgwe in Zimbabwe dated to the 16th century, and nine HXR ingots discovered at undated surface sites in northern Zimbabwe. These ingots would have been transported 500 km to Ingombe Ilede and up to 780 km for finds near Harare, Zimbabwe.

Stephens et al. also note that there appears to have been a distinct shift in where the HXR ingots were being made, with 15 of 18 HXR ingots analysed coming from Kipushi, and HXR mold fragments associated with the increase in activity at that location, suggesting that Kipushi became the major producer of these ingots at this time, although quite who was responsible for this activity is unclear.

A single ingot, from Kent Estates in Zimbabwe, had an isotopic signature consistent with an origin in the Magondi Belt. There is considerable evidence for precolonial mining within this area, in the areas where the modern Alaska, Angwa, Mhangura, Norah, and Silverside mines are sited, although this has not been studied much by archaeologists. A mold for an HXR ingot was found at the Golden Mile Mine, which is about 20 km away from the Mhangura Mine in Zimbabwe. This appears to have been copied from the form being used in the Copperbelt, but to have been used to make ingots from local copper.

Ninety four HIH and HXR copper ingots have been recovered from archaeological sites in the Zambezi Valley and across the Zambezi Plateau. It was originally assumed that these were made locally, using copper obtained from the copper deposits of the Magondi Belt of Northern Zimbabwe. However, the subsequent discovery of molds for these types of ingots at Kipushi and other sites within the Copperbelt of northern Zambia and the southern Democratic Republic of Congo presented an alternative source, with the ingots potentially being transported to southern Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Stephens et al. analysed 29 of these 94 ingots geochemically, and conclude from this that 28 of them originated within the Copperbelt, and 16 at Kipushi. This suggests that a trade network carrying copper ingots (and presumably other goods) from the southwest of Zambia was in place by the sixth or seventh century, and that this had reached as far as Botswana by the eighth century. By the fourteenth century copper from the Copperbelt was reaching east to the middle Zambezi Valley, and the Urungwe District of northwest Zimbabwe, where pottery in the style of Ingombe Ilede in the middle Zambezi Valley has also been found. HIH and HXR ingots have not been reported from Botswana, but copper goods with similar chemical signals to the Copperbelt ingots has been found there. In addition, some HXR ingots do appear to have been manufactured in Zimbabwe.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter. 

Reinterpreting the Chalcolithic Rinaldone burials of Central Italy.

It has been a long held opinion among archaeologists that social inequality in Europe first appeared during the Chalcolithic (or 'Copper Age') and Early Bronze Age. Prior to this, in the Late Neolithic, communal burials seem to have been the norm across Europe, but in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age a new trend appeared; communal burials were still common, but alongside these were individual burials, typically of males, accompanied by grave goods including metal and non-metal weapons.

This trend appears to start with the Maikop Culture of the Caucasus Region between about 3700 and 3000 BC, and Bell Beaker Culture, which spread across Europe from about 2800 BC, and has been interpreted as a sign that these were high status individuals, either warriors who had achieved high status in battle, or chieftans whose status was based upon the control of resources. 

However, in recent years, many archaeologists have challenged this, arguing that such assumptions are based upon modern ideas of prestige and personhood, which are not applicable to many non-European cultures, and may not be the best model for these early Europeans. The majority of this work has centred on the re-evaluation of 'warrior burials' in Britain and Northern Europe, where the shift from communal to individual burials is quite sudden. 

This change in funerary practices also occurred in Southern Europe, but in a more gradual way, something which has largely been overlooked by modern archaeologists. For example, the Chalcolithic Rinaldone Culture of Central Italy, which lasted from about 3650 to about 2200 BC, produced multi-chambered tombs, with chambers holding single and multiple burials within the same complex, apparently providing an intermediate phase that predates the appearance of single 'warrior graves' in Northern Europe.

In a paper published in the journal World Archaeology on 8 February 2022, Andrea Dolfini of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle University re-examines the Rinaldone Culture's burial customs, with an emphasis on the Rinaldone and Casetta Mistici funerary sites, and proposes a new interpretation of these sites.

The prevalent theory about the origin of Chalcolithic 'warrior graves' throughout much of the twentieth century was that these marked the arrival of invaders from the Eurasian steppes who quickly subdued the largely peaceful local population with superior, metal-based weapons technology, setting themselves up as a new ruling caste. However, from the 1970s onwards this idea was replaced by a new concept, that the development of metal technologies in Europe allowed for the development of a more divided society without the need for any invaders, as the rarity and high value of metal allowed those who controlled its supply to set themselves up as rulers over the rest of the population. However, recent genetic studies of individuals from the Bell Beaker and Corded Ware (roughly 3000-2350 BC) cultures has suggested that these cultures did in fact have an influx of new genetic material compared to earlier inhabitants of the same area. This has brought the Eurasian invader theory back into favour, with many arguing that these invaders came from the Yamnaya Culture of the Pontiac Steppes (roughly 3300-2600 BC), who are also theorised to have brought with them Indo-European languages, although this fails to explain how the oldest 'warrior graves' predate the origin of this culture.

The Rinaldone Culture of Central Italy appeared in the middle of the fourth millennium BC, directly replacing Late Neolithic cultures in the same area, and marking the earliest example of metal-production in Italy. Unlike the cultures that preceded it, the Rinaldone Culture apparently made a clear distinction the dead and the living, building elaborate funerary complexes and engaging in elaborate mortuary rights.

Rinaldone cemeteries typically consist of small groupings of graves, each of which was a low-vaulted underground chamber, reached through an entrance shaft and closed of with a wooden or stone slab. Each grave could contain up to ten individuals, who might be articulated, disarticulated, or actively reorganised. Multiple burials typically contained a mixture of male and female individuals of all ages, although infants appear to be under-represented.

The funeral process was a long one, and strange to modern thinking. Bodies were initially placed intact within the grave, on their back or side, and often accompanied by some grave goods. The grave was returned to at a later date, and the now dry remains broken up, with some or all of the parts being removed from the grave. Finally, the remains were returned to the graves and either placed onto stacks of bones, or arranged around new burials. Grave goods, including food and drink, could be placed with articulated bodies or bone piles, or left in the corridor leading to the chamber. 

Grave goods varied depending on the age and gender of the person being buried. Adult males typically received copper and stone weapons, including daggers, maces, and axes. Women and children were given beads and jewellery made from silver, antimony, and soft stone, as well as flint blades and/or scrapers and arrowheads. Burials of both genders and all ages were accompanied by copper awls and flasks of a mead-like alcoholic drink.

Some of these tombs contained what would elsewhere be recognised as Chalcolithic 'warrior graves'; individual burials of adult males who were typically buried with weapons, and then sealed, never to be disturbed. The two sites examined by Dolfini, Rinaldone and Casetta Mistici, show an unusually high number of these 'warrior graves'. 

Map of central Italy showing sites associated with the Rinaldone culture. (1) Rinaldone, (2) Casetta Mistici, (3) Ponte San Pietro, (4) Fontenoce di Recaniti, (5) Marcellina-Vasoli, (6) Lunghezzina. Hollow circles represent modern cities. Dolfini (2022).

Rinaldone, which gives its name to the culture, lies between Lake Bolsena and the River Tiber, and comprises sixteen chamber graves with entrance corridors facing towards the southwest. The graves are arranged in two clusters, one containing thirteen graves, and the other three. Seven of the burial chambers at Rinaldone contain 'warrior graves', adult males buried with copper and stone weapons, six in the main cluster and one in the smaller cluster. One of the burials in the larger cluster also contains reorganised bones from other burials. Between them these graves contain six copper-alloy objects, two stone maceheads, 22 flint arrowheads, and a ceramic flask, one of the largest collections of grave goods from the Italian Chalcolithic. The graves have been dated to between 3650 and 3350 BC, based upon the manufacturing style of the objects present.

Objects collected from the Rinaldone 'warrior graves'. Museo delle Civiltà in Dolfini (2022).

As well as the 'warrior graves', the Rinaldone site also contains a grave with two sets of articulated remains, accompanied by four arrowheads, and a grave with the reorganised bones from an indeterminate number of individuals, accompanied by eight arrowheads, and a few potsherds. The site also contains five empty graves, two of which still contain grave goods; four arrowheads in one and an axe/hammer in the other. While the acid soil at the site had damaged all of the skeletons to some extent, skeletons are unlikely to have completely disappeared, and the site was excavated by competent archaeologists unlikely to have overlooked even the most fragmentary of Human remains. This leaves two possibilities; either the graves were never used, and what we interpret as grave goods were placed into the empty chambers for some reason unclear to us, or bodies (and possibly other goods) were placed into these chambers, and subsequently removed.

The Casetta Mistici site lies on the outskirts of Rome, and was excavated in 2005-6. The site comprises seven underground chambers, arranged in a tight cluster, with entrances facing to the south, and two later trench graves. The chamber burials have been radiocarbon dated to between 3650 and 3350 BC, although one of these graves contains a body which was apparently added later. One of the trench graves directly overlies one of the chamber burials (this is is thought to have been intentional) and was dug between 3540 and 3350, while the second dates from the early third millennium BC and has partially cut into another grave chamber, causing it to collapse.

Plan of the Casetta Mistici cemetery. Anzidei, Carboni, & Mieli (2020), reprinted in Dolfini (2022).

Other than the chamber which had a body added later, all of the graves contain a single body. Five of these contained children under twelve years old, four buried without any grave goods, the fifth with a copper awl, two stone beads, and a pendant made from the canine tooth of a large Canid. One of the graves contains a woman between the ages of 40 and 49, buried with a copper awl, a short flint blade, two arrowheads, and some pottery fragments. Notably, this woman showed signs of a blunt force trauma to the head at about the time she died, suggesting that she may have died a violent death. The two individuals sharing a grave are both between 13 and 19, and buried without goods. The remaining two graves contain individuals between 30 and 39, one of whom was buried with an impressive selection of grave goods. This includes five metal items, one of which is an axe of a type associated with the Levantine region, and otherwise unknown from Italy. Analysis of the lead isotopes present in this axe suggest it does come from outside of Italy. As well as the metal goods, this grave contained a finely knapped bifacial dagger, a long flint knife, ten arrowheads and a bone awl.

Items from a single chamber at Casetta Mistici. Anzidei, Carboni, & Mieli (2020), reprinted in Dolfini (2022).

'Warrior graves' are also known from several other Rinaldone burial sites, including Marcellina-Visoli, where a single 'warrior grave' is unaccompanied by other burials, Ponte San Pietro, where a large cemetery contains two 'warrior graves' among numerous other burials, Lunghezzina, where a single 'warrior grave' is present among other burials, and Fontenoce di Recaniti, where there are several 'warrior graves', but metal goods are rare. 

The appearance of these single graves with apparently valuable grave goods has generally been interpreted as the dawn of a new age of material culture in Italy, combined with the rise of new concepts of male dominance and power. This perception has, however, undergone several revisions over time. In the 1950s it was proposed that the Rinaldone culture marked the arrival of invading warrior-shepherds from the east, who set themselves up as rulers over the local population, establishing dynasties that would go on to become bronze-age aristocracies. From the 1970s onwards it has been argued that these burials represented the emergence of a local aristocracy, who gained power by securing control over resources such as metals and imported goods, although possibly without any concept of inheritance, so that each successful leader would have his accumulated wealth buried with him, rather than passing it on (although the presence of some children buried with lavish grave goods has been cited as evidence against this theory). It has also been noted that the Rinaldone burial sites tend to be located on fertile alluvial plains, possibly indicating that an emerging land-holding elite was using the location of burial grounds to lay claim to high quality farmland.

Dolfini has previously examined the nature of the burials at the Rinaldone sites, noting that a small number of men (and an even smaller number of women and children) were given single step burials, accompanied by grave goods, while the majority of the population were given multi-step burials, during which bodies were broken up and mixed with other remains over time, causing them to lose their individual identities. This led him to conclude that the single, undisturbed, burials were a mark of individuals having achieved some level of power and status meriting special treatment. 

All of these hypotheses make the assumption that the 'warrior graves' mark the appearance of a new elite caste, who were somehow able to gain control over resources, and whose burial marked them out as special, something which Dolfini now questions.

Dolfini starts his re-evaluation by questioning whether the goods placed within the 'warrior graves' were genuinely richer than those placed within other burials. We can see the value of the goods placed within the 'warrior graves' because they have largely remained there until uncovered by modern archaeologists. However, other graves were re-opened, probably several times, as part of a complex, multi-stage funerary process, during which parts of the body were removed and placed elsewhere. This removal of parts of the body makes it quite plausible that goods buried along with the body were also removed. 

This can clearly be demonstrated with ceramic vessels, as there is evidence of such vessels being buried with the dead, then smashed when people re-entered the tomb, with most of the fragments being removed, and some of them subsequently re-buried with the disarticulated body parts, and Dolfini believes that is likely to have been the case for other grave goods.

Another piece of evidence cited by Dolfini is the presence of occasional weapons in chambers with rearranged bones, or no burial at all. When found, these weapons are either alone or parts of small collections scattered over the floor apparently at random, rather than arranged in a precise pattern about the dead, as is the case in 'warrior graves', something which has been interpreted as evidence of evidence of collections of weapons being broken up and scattered at the same time as the bodies were dismembered.

Dolfini argues that it is the preconceptions of archaeologists and anthropologists, and in particular the tendency to try to interpret 'primitive' cultures through the lens of colonial studies of Polynesian and New Guinean societies, is likely to have led to a flawed interpretation of the Ridaldone burials and the customs surrounding them. 

He observes that the 'warrior burials' seen from five thousand years later, seem to have been the most important burials produced by the Rinaldone culture, but that in fact these were the most simple burials produced by these people. The 'warrior graves' contain an individual placed in a grave, which was then sealed and apparently forgotten, while other grave sites were re-opened numerous times and the remains within interacted with by the people in them. Dolfini theorises that it may be this ongoing ritual involvement with the community that may signal status within the community, rather than the presence of grave goods.

Many of the assumptions made about the status of 'warrior graves' relate to the perceived value and rarity of copper metal. It has been assumed that such items were rare objects, requiring considerable skill and technological know-how to produce, and that they are therefore valuable items which could have been hoarded by an emerging elite class. 

However, while the conceptual leap needed to smelt copper from ore is a big technological step up from the Neolithic, once this step has been made the smelting process is not particularly difficult (i.e. people who had seen the process were likely to be able to reproduce it). Furthermore, the production of copper items once you have copper requires considerably less skill than making similar items from stone. 

The apparent rarity of copper items probably stems not from the difficulty of making them, but from the fact that copper is recyclable. Once a flint blade is broken it must be discarded, and new flint collected to make a new blade, but if a copper blade is broken it can be melted and used to make a new blade, leading to far less discarded items entering the archaeological record. Analysis of bones and other material from Chalcolithic sites in Italy suggests that the use of copper tools was usual for ordinary domestic tasks.

The importance of trade as a source of wealth in the Chalcolithic may also have been over-stated. In the Late Neolithic Italian communities are known to have been plugged into very extended trade networks, with valued materials such as obsidian from Lipari and Greenstone from the Alps being traded thousands of kilometres from their source. In the Chalcolithic, these networks seem to have disappeared, with few materials being found more than 200 km from their source. 

If the Rinaldone 'warrior graves' do not contain important leaders, the question of who they were still remains. The presence of grave goods, while it may not be a sign of wealth, is clearly not a sign of poverty or social exclusion, suggesting that these people did have some status in the society they lived in. Rinaldone suggests that these burials may have been those of people (usually male) who either died violent deaths or lived violent lives, noting that many societies in different parts of the world have associated violent death with vengeful spirits, and developed a variety or rituals aimed at protecting themselves from said spirits. 

A person who had been somehow tainted by violent death could well be buried with personal effects (particularly weapons) which had also become tainted. It is also quite conceivable that other members of the community might leave weapons in a burial to placate the dead, or that the weapons of their enemies might be buried with them. However, once the dead were laid in their burial chamber, the tomb would then be sealed permanently, with no-one wishing to risk re-entering.

Dolfini theorises that such practices could be applied both to male warriors of particular ferocity (which would account for the overwhelming majority of 'warrior graves' containing male bodies, both in the Rinaldone culture and elsewhere in Europe), but also those that had died violent deaths at the hands of another. He suggests that the woman from Casetta Mistici may have been an example of this, as she shows signs of having died of a blunt force trauma, and was sealed in a burial chamber which was not subsequently disturbed. He further notes that a male burial from Marcellina-Vasoli had a copper arrowhead embedded in his tibia, and that other deaths by violence might not be detectable from skeletal remains (Ötzi the Iceman is known to have died as a result of an arrowshot, but has no marks on his bones).

Cross section of the tomb of a woman from Casetta Mistici who had apparently died a violent death, and was sealed in a tomb which was never re-entered. Dolfini (2022).

Dolfini questions the long-held assumption that the 'warrior graves' of the Rinaldone tradition held high-status individuals along with symbols of their wealth. He instead suggests that these individuals may have received different treatment in death because they were in some way tainted by deeds or circumstance in life, preventing them from being allowed the usual funerary rites. 

This claim relies heavily upon the idea that the goods found with these burials were not of outstanding value, and that other members of the community may have been buried with items of equal value, which were subsequently removed. Central to this review is a reassessment of the value of copper to Chacolithic communities. If it was genuinely rare, as has previously been assumed, then prior claims about the status of the 'warrior grave' internments are probably valid. But if, as Dolfini suggests, copper was a relatively abundant resource, then its inclusion in grave goods would be relatively unimportant, and these burials must be judged by their exclusion from the more usual burial customs of the day.

Dolfini does not attempt to suggest that important leaders were absent from Chalcolithic communities, but rather that it would not necessarily be possible to identify them via their graves. Such individuals could well have been buried with extensive grave goods, but in a community that valued post-mortem interactions between the living and the dead, such goods could well have subsequently been removed from the grave and distributed among the community for ritual or practical use, while the body eventually reached its rightful final destination, broken up and mixed in with the bones of the community they lead.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter. 

Deciphering the metal content of objects from the Middle Bronze Age Lapithos site of northern Cyprus.

The Middle Bronze Age in Cyprus (roughly 2000–1700 BC) has often been seen as comprised of agropastoral communities largely isolated from the wider eastern Mediterranean world. Current excavations and new readings of ‘legacy’ data, however, are challenging such views, suggesting that Middle Bronze Age communities were significantly more complex and interconnected and that the internationalism of Late Bronze Age Cyprus, largely based on the trade of Cypriot copper, had its antecedents in the Middle Bronze Age. The site of Lapithos, located on the north coast of Cyprus, is of major importance in this discussion. Some 140 tombs excavated here in the early 20th century produced over 1800 copper-base artefacts and more than 150 imported objects, primarily of faience, gold, silver, lead, copper and bronze. These suggest that the settlement was involved in an internal procurement network, which linked Lapithos with mining villages located close to copper ore bodies in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains, and an international maritime trade in metals and other goods conducted along sea routes which passed between the south coast of Anatolia and the north coast of Cyprus in the first half of the 2nd Millennium BC.

In a paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on 18 November 2020, Andreas Charalambous of the Archaeological Research Unit at the University of Cyprus, and Jennifer Webb, also of the Archaeological Research Unit at the University of Cyprus, and of the Department of Archaeology and History at La Trobe University, discuss the metal content of bronze artifacts from the Lapithos area, and the implications of this for trade with other areas around the eastern Mediterranean.

Map of Cyprus showing the location of Lapithos and other sites. Charalambous & Webb (2019).

Four hundred and fifteen copper-base objects from Lapithos were analysed for this study, using portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry. They constitute one of the largest site-specific datasets for the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean and offer an opportunity to investigate the use of non-local tin and alloying, recycling and mixing practices on Cyprus in the Middle Bronze Age, and the extent to which Lapithos may have been involved in an international trade in raw metals. The analyses also provide an opportunity, within the precision limits imposed by the use of X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry, to investigate changes in alloy composition over time and consider the degree to which alloy types may have been preferred for certain artefact categories.

The objects are held by the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia. They form part of an assemblage of over 1125 metal artefacts recovered from 80 tombs excavated in 1913 and 1917, the remainder of which can no longer be securely identified. The associated settlement remains unknown and this part of the island has been inaccessible for excavation by archaeologists from outside since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

The artefacts belong to four broad categories—weapons (spearheads) and tool/weapons (daggers, axes), tools (needles, awls, chisels), items used for personal grooming (razors, tweezers), including clothing or shroud fasteners (pins, toggle pins), and ornaments (spiral rings), and those of uncertain purpose (‘hooks’, small spatula?). In addition, a number of items occur only once in the assemblage. The relative incidence of sampled objects broadly reflects their relative incidence in the overall assemblage. Several types, most notably the spiral rings, are, however, significantly underrepresented
and others (beads and bracelets), which are relatively rare overall, do not appear among the analysed objects.

Artefact types in the analysed assemblage. (a) Spearheads, (b) Daggers (knives), (c) axes, (d) awls, (e) chisel, (f) needles, (g) razors, (h) tweezers, (i) spiral, (j) spatula (?), (k) hook, (l) pins, (m) toggle pins. Charalambous & Webb (2019).

The depositional contexts of the artefacts are dated by the associated pottery. Fine-scale chronological attributions, however, are made difficult by the long-term use of tomb chambers and disturbance caused by subsequent burials, flooding and roof-fall. For this reason, dates of deposition are assigned to two broad phases identified as early/middle Middle Bronze Age (roughly 2000-1800 BC) and middle/late Middle Bronze Age (roughly 1850-1690 BC), which may be reliably dated by the associated ceramics. While the earliest artefacts may belong to the last phase of the Early Bronze Age (roughly 2100–1950 BC), the majority were deposited during the Middle Bronze Age, with a marked increase in the rate of deposition over this period and changes in the form and incidence of some artefact types.

The results of the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry analysis may be compared with those obtained by Neutron Activation Analysis for another 75 copper-base artefacts recovered at Lapithos in 1927. Elemental data for 38 of these, along with the results of Lead Isotope Analysis, were published in 1994, and the full set is available in the Oxford Archaeological Lead Isotope Database. These objects include 12 spearheads, 13 daggers and a rivet, 8 axes, 4 awls, 1 chisel, 1 needle, 6 razors, 7 tweezers, 11 pins, 7 toggle pins, 2 spirals, a ‘button’ or spiral and a bracelet or earring. In addition, 30 metal objects from tombs excavated at Lapithos in 1931 were subject to Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis in the late 1980s. They include 13 spearheads, 8 daggers, an axe, an awl, 3 razors and 4 toggle pins. Together, the three sets of results provide compositional data for 520 artefacts of all major artefact groups from Lapithos.

Handheld X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry devices have been used successfully to derive compositional data from archaeological materials of various types in numerous recent case studies. This method examines only the surface of an object, where some alloying metals and impurities may be more or less abundant than others. It thus involves increased sampling uncertainty compared to more invasive techniques, but similar analyses have proved successful in identifying the major alloyed elements in prehistoric artefacts, while tending to overestimate the proportion of secondary metals. The latter is less of an issue for qualitative analyses where the focus is on the identification of alloys and their distribution among object classes and over time. For such purposes, results obtained by the use of non-invasive handheld X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry devices have been demonstrated to be as useful as those generated by invasive analytical approaches.

 

The data acquired by X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry on weight percent concentrations of secondary metals (Tin, Arsenic, Lead, Zn), however, should be treated with caution in what follows, as quantities may be under or, more likely, overestimated as a result of corrosion or patination. While all analysed objects had been cleaned in the Cyprus Museum, removing much of the surface encrustation, the metal at and beneath the original surface is still affected by corrosion to variable depths, given that the copper of the surface encrustations must have been leached out, mobilised and re-deposited from this near-surface original metal. This process of copper depletion and the consequent enrichment of tin and lead at and below the original surface will inevitably have some affect on the data quality, at both the qualitative level of alloy identification and specific numerical values, particularly with regard to the reported concentrations of Tin and Lead, which may differ significantly from those of the bulk or core of the object.

Charalambous and Webb attempted to alleviate this problem, as far as possible, by adopting as a final value for each object the mean value of three to five measurements conducted on less visibly corroded areas. In some cases, where multiple such areas were detected, more than five measurements were taken. For each object, the elements detected in the multiple measurements were checked for consistency, setting as an acceptance criterion of about 10% relative deviation of the mean value for every element, and in cases of non-consistency the measurements were rejected.

In order to test potential problems arising from varying degrees of preservation and surface preparation, Pb and Sn values for 32 artefacts without visible surface corrosion and 32 with only small areas of relatively ‘clean’ surface, both randomly selected and of various artefact types, were compared. The results show no discrimination between the two groups, suggesting that, while corrosion may have affected ‘original surface’ readings, adding to the problem of data reliability in regard to the numerical values of Tin and Lead, the impact of this problem is unlikely to have differed significantly within the sample. Notably, also, the more corroded artefacts do not show higher concentrations of lead and tin.

Measurements were also taken on corroded and cleaner surface areas on the same artefact, in order to see how the level of corrosion had affected the composition, focusing on the secondary elements of Tin, Lead, Arsenic and Iron that were detected in the majority of the artefacts. Measurements on corrosion areas showed much lower values for Tin, Lead and Arsenic, when compared with those on original surfaces. Only Iron values were higher. If an object was free of visible corrosion, measurements were conducted across the surface in order to examine the homogeneity of the chemical composition.

Two objects in the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry sample, a spearhead and axe, had also previously been subject to spectrographic analysis. The spearhead was identified in both the spectrographic and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry analyses as Copper with an almost identical amount of Aresenic (0.7  and 0.6 wt% respectively). The axe was identified in both programs as a Copper-Aresenic-Tin alloy with similar readings of Aresenic (2.3 and 2.15 wt%) but a markedly higher spectrographic reading of Tin (about 9 wt%) compared to that achieved by X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (3.5 wt%). This is perhaps to be explained by the likelihood that the drilled sample was taken before the object was cleaned and ‘may not have penetrated the corrosion very deeply’. The X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry result, achieved after removal of the surface encrustation, may be more accurate.

With regard to the identification of alloys, Charalambous and Webb used an elemental concentration of over 1.0 wt% for Aresenic and Tin. This reflects the level at which changes in mechanical properties are likely to have become evident to metalsmiths, but did not assume that these concentration limits define intentional alloys. In the case of Aresenic, in particular, the minimum presence required to distinguish the addition of this metal from the use of ores naturally rich in Arsenic is a matter of controversy and especially relevantb in the case of Cyprus, where polymetallic ores with a reported Arsenic content of 0.5–7.6 wt% are available in the Limassol Forest region. Previous works have suggested the presence of 1–2 wt.% Arsenic as indicative of an intentional alloy, however, other works propose 2.5 wt% as the minimum for deliberate Cypriot alloys. Charalambous and Webb's results do not suggest an obvious threshold, but a continuum in line with natural ore content and should probably be viewed as signalling the use of arsenic-rich ores rather than the addition of Aresenic for most Arsenical Copper objects.

Tin is rare in copper ore deposits generally and when present at more than 1.0% is usually assumed to have been added intentionally. Cypriot ores contain no Tin. This suggests that a 1 wt% threshold for the identification of Copper-Tin alloys is appropriate, whether as a result of recycling or mixing (using Cypriot Copper and imported Bronzes) or an intentional addition for the improvement of the metal.

The compositional analysis by X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry revealed significant variability, in terms of both alloying elements and alloy types, among the 415 Copper artefacts. Arsenical Bronze (Copper-Aresenic) is the most common (152 artefacts, 37%), while Arsenic-Tin Bronzes (Copper-Aresenic-Tin) occur at the second highest frequency (117 artefacts, 28%). Tin was recorded at over 1 wt% in 49% of the sample and Lead in 18%, while Zinc occurred at over 1 wt% in 6 artefacts. This higher than expected incidence of Copper-STin alloys and of Lead may be driven in part by our alloy threshold of 1 wt%, together with the likely enrichment of Tin and Lead at and beneath the original surface.

Tin occurs in detectable amounts in 283 artefacts (68% of the total), in concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 21.3 wt%. Notably, artefacts from the early/middle Middle Bronze Age have lower Tin concentrations overall than those in the middle/late Middle Bronze Age group, but there are high Tin Bronzes in the earlier period. The middle/late sample also shows a more even presence of Tin across the concentration range from 6 to 18 wt%.

Lead was detected in 90% of the assemblage (379 artefacts), in concentrations from 0.1 to 7.5 wt%. A single outlier is a razor with a Lead concentration of 15.5 wt%. The vast majority of artefacts (350) have a Lead concentration lower than 2 wt% (only 29 artefacts exceed 2 wt%). Iron was detected in all artefacts, in concentrations from 0.2 to 2.1 wt%, but the great majority have an iron content below 1 wt%. Sulphur was detected in 66% of the assemblage (278 artefacts), in concentrations from 0.3 to 2 wt% but, as with Iron, most artefacts have Sulphur concentrations below 1 wt%. Zinc was detected in 14 artefacts (0.5–4.5 wt%) and Antimony (Sb) in 14 artefacts (0.1–0.3 wt%).

Tin was not detected in 132 objects (32% of the total). One hundred and eighty-two contain traces to 6 wt.% Tin. Since Cypriot Copper ores do not contain Tin, the Tin concentration of the less than 6 wt% group is not due to impurities in the ore, and is best explained as a result of the melting down of scrap metal or Bronze artefacts mixed with Arsenical Copper. This is supported by the fact that the majority of low-Tin artefacts contain significant concentrations of Arsenic (over 1 wt%).

On the other hand, 101 objects have recorded concentrations of 6–21.3 wt% Tin. In this case, the great majority of artefacts contain much lower concentrations of Arsenic (Arsenic exceeds 1 wt% in only 17 artefacts), especially in the high-Tin group (over 13 wt%, 52 artefacts) where the Arsenic content is in almost all cases below 1 wt% (Arsenic exceeds 1 wt% in only 6 objects).

In comparing the results from the two phases, there is a decrease in the number of objects with no Tin, from 56% to 25% of the sample, with a corresponding increase in all other concentration groups. Notably, the increase in the traces to 6 wt.% group, from 30% to 48%, suggests a significant rise in the quantity of recycle metal, and specifically Tin Bronze, in circulation at Lapithos in the middle/late Middle Bronze Age; while the higher incidence of objects in the over 6 wt% groups (from 14% to 27%) indicates an increase also in the use of medium-to high-Tin Bronze.

A slight decrease overall in the presence of arsenic from the early/ middle to middle/late Middle Bronze Age has already been noted. A more nuanced decrease in the latter period of artefacts in the over 1 wt% Arsenic groups and a corresponding increase in the percentage in the low-Arsenic group (traces to 0.9 wt%). This drop-off in Aresenic content concomitant with an increase in the use of Tin may be due to a decrease over time in the use of high-Arsenic ores or increased recycling practices, as already suggested by the rise in the traces to 6 wt.% Tin group, with repeated melting and post-casting operations leading to a depletion of Arsenic by oxidation and evaporation of Arsenic Trioxide (As₂O₃) fumes.

The 41 spearheads are primarily of Copper-Arsenic, with a small number of unalloyed copper and Copper-Arsenic-Tin and one of Copper-Tin. Copper and Copper-Aresenic are also predominant among the 25 spearheads analysed by Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis and Neutron Activation Analysis. Tin is, however, present in the Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis and Neutron Activation Analysis samples at sub-alloy levels (less than 0.01–0.53 wt% and less than 0.01–0.93 wt% respectively), and in the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry data from below detection levels to 19.3 wt%; with a median nondetectable value. Only two spearheads have a significant amount of Tin. The Aresenic readings in the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry data are comparable, on median, with the Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis and Neutron Activation Analysis data and within the range of naturally occurring high Arsenic ores in most cases. Only seven spearheads with more than 4 wt% Aresenic might be considered deliberate Copper-Aresenic alloys. The low incidence of Tin Bronze is not surprising. If the effectiveness of a spearhead depended more on its momentum at impact than edge-sharpness, there may have been little mechanical benefit to be gained in using valuable Tin. Most previously analysed Cypriot spearheads are also of unalloyed Copper or Arsenical Copper.

The 85 daggers are primarily of Copper-Arsenic and Copper-Aresenic-Tin, with smaller numbers of Copper-Tin and unalloyed Copper. The incidence of Tin, particularly in the ternary alloy Copper-Aresenic-Tin, is significantly higher in the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry sample than among 21 daggers analysed by Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis and Neutron Activation Analysis, with a consequent reduction in the incidence of Copper and Copper-Aresenic. Across all data sets, however, daggers show more compositional diversity than spearheads and a greater use of Tin. This suggests that Cypriot metalsmiths were aware of the advantages of using Tin Bronze, which can be hammered to produce a hard edge, for objects which required sharp and durable cutting edges.

The 31 axes are of Copper-Aresenic-Tin and Copper-Aresenic with one of unalloyed Copper. Tin is present below 1 wt% in 12 axes, with only 2 recording no Tin. The number with tin at over 1 wt% is high, at 53% of the sample, with a median of 1.3 wt%. Arsenic is present in all samples, with a median of 2.5 wt%. The Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis and Neutron Activation Analysis samples recorded a lower incidence of Tin alloys and a significantly lower median Tin content. While in both cases this may reflect the problem of surface Tin enrichment, the recorded presence of Tin at or over 1 wt% in over half the sample and at trace level in another 16 axes, together with lead at over 1 wt% in 5 examples, suggests that most are made of recycled Bronze or local Copper mixed with imported metal containing some Tin. It would seem that few, if any, of the Lapithos axes were made of Copper cast directly from Cypriot ores.

The 37 needles are of unalloyed copper and Copper-Aresenic-Tin, with lower numbers of Copper-Arsenic and Copper-Tin. The high incidence of unalloyed Copper for these simple items is not surprising. Traces of Tin (under 1 wt%) in only 5 of the 14 needles of unalloyed Copper and 2 of the 5 Copper-Arsenic needles also indicate more frequent use of first generation metal. Given, however, that there seems no reason to use Tin at all for such artefacts, the presence of more than 1 wt% Tin in 49% of the sample suggests that they were often made opportunistically from small quantities of metal prepared for other purposes or from recycled metal.

Half of the 16 awls are of Copper-Aresenic-Tin and the remainder of unalloyed Copper and Copper-Arsenic with one of Copper-Tin. While the sample is small, the prevalence of Tin, recorded at over 1 wt% in 56% of awls, is clear. The concentration of Tin ranges from less than 0.1 wt% to as high as 17.2  wt%, with a median of 1.65 wt%. Arsenic ranges from under 0.1–4.4 wt%, with a median of 1.35 wt%. Thus few awls appear to be deliberate Copper-Aresemnic alloys, while over half are Copper-Tin alloys. Another 2 have traces of Tin and appear, therefore, to be of recycled metal.

Ten of the 19 razors are Copper-Arsenic, with 5 of Copper-Tin, 3 of Copper-Arsenic-Tin and 1 of unalloyed Copper. The incidence of tin at recorded levels above 1 wt% in 42% of the sample is only slightly lower than that of daggers (44%). Surface readings on thin objects corroded from both sides can, however, appear richer in Tin than thicker objects of the same original composition which still have a less Tin-rich core preserved. Arsenic is present in the razor sample from below 0.1-4.3 wt%, with a median of 1.6 wt%. Nine razors analysed by Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis and Neutron Activation Analysis are also primarily of Copper-Aresenic, with 2 of unalloyed Copper and 1 of Copper-Aresnic-Tin. Earlier compositional data for razors show a similarly high incidence of unalloyed and Arsenical Copper (13 of 15 analysed razors).

Seventy percent (70%) of the 34 analysed tweezers are of Copper-Aresenic and Copper-Aresnic-Tin. Tin was recorded at over 1 wt% in 65% of these objects, with a median of 5.55 wt%, and 9 (26.5% of all tweezers and 40.9% of those with Tin) were recorded with tin levels above 10 wt% and up to 20.0 wt%. The median overall Tin content is 2.45 wt%. These high Tin readings may to some extent be due to problems noted above with respect to surface readings on razors. Tweezer blades are typically even thinner than razors. The incidence of Tin at above 1 wt% in the Neutron Activation Analysis data, however, is similar to that in the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry sample, and 2 of the Copper-Tin examples also had high levels of Tin, at 11.4 wt% and 14.29 wt%.

The 48 plain pins (i.e. pins without eyelets) are compositionally diverse. The presence of Tin at over 1 wt% in only 26% of the sample is lower, and for the most part significantly lower, than in all other artefact groups except spearheads. The recorded Sn content ranges from under 0.1 wt% to 20.8 wt% with a median non-detected value. When present above 1 wt%, however, Tin concentrations have a median of 17 wt%. Plain pins are thus less likely than other artefact types (with the exception of spearheads) to contain Tin, but when they do they are all high-Tin bronzes. Arsenic levels range from under 0.1 wt% to 15.6 wt%, with a median of 1.4 wt%. The Copper-Zinc pin contains 4.2 wt% Zinc and is technically brass. It is of non-local form and almost certainly an import. Nine pins analysed by Neutron Activation Analysis show the same preference for Copper and Copper-Aresenic as the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry sample. Arsenic levels range from 0.005 to 7.18 wt%, with a median of 2.34 wt%, higher than that of the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry group.

The 77 toggle pins are also of varied composition, with only 4% of unalloyed Copper. Tin was recorded at over 1 wt% in 76% of the sample and Lead at over 1 wt% in 43%, in both cases at a much higher level than in other artefact categories. Toggle pins have the highest median incidence of Tin and the lowest median incidence of Arsenic in the assemblage, as well as a significant component of Lead, recorded from traces to as high as 7.5 wt%, with a median of 0.85 wt%. One toggle pin contains Zinc at 3.0 wt% and one of Copper-Aresenic showed traces of Silver (0.7 wt%). Ten toggle pins analysed by Proton-induced X-ray Emission Analysis and Neutron Activation Analysis are of Copper-Tin, with a single example of Copper-Arsenic. The median concentration of Tin, at 11.36 wt%, is higher than in the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry sample. Arsenic levels were again lower than in other artefact categories, with a median of only 0.15 wt%.

Some of the high-Tin Bronze pins may be imports or local imitations of Levantine pins. Twenty-one examples with a domed head, 81% of which are of Copper-Tin with a median Tin content of 15.15 wt%, are of a type known in Syria and Lebanon from about 2000 BC onwards. Toggle pins with mushroom-shaped heads, on the other hand, are local products and also predominantly Copper-Tin (67.7% of 31 examples), with a lower but still significant median Tin content of 9.5 wt%.

Arsenical Copper has several technical advantages which are likely to have led either to the selection of Arsenic-rich, polymetallic ores from the Limassol Forest region of Cyprus, or the addition of imported Arsenic-rich minerals, such as realgar/orpiment, or possibly the artificial Iron-Arsenic alloy, Speiss, to copper obtained from other ore bodies on the island. While there is no direct evidence for exploitation of the Limassol Forest ore bodies during the prehistoric Bronze Age, or indeed of any ore body on the island with the exception of that at Ambelikou, Lead isotope data suggest the use of ore from Laxia tou Mavrou and Petromoutti in the Limassol area already in the Early Bronze Age. The consistent use of Copper-Arsenic during the Middle Bronze Age at Lapithos leaves no doubt that imported Arsenic Sulphide or, more likely, high-Arsenic Copper ores from the other side of the island were available in significant quantities.

Mechanical properties change significantly with Aresenic concentrations as low as 0.5 wt%. Copper with increased Arsenic content in solid solution can be more hardened by cold work and high-Arsenic alloys are frequently favoured for cutting, carving and sewing tools. The presence of Arsenic also lowers the melting point of Copper, acts as a deoxidant and improves castability, although alloys containing more than ca. 7–8 wt.% Arsenic rapidly become too brittle to work cold. The formation of an Arsenic-rich phase (Cu₃As) also gives a silvery colour to Arsenical Copper alloys with more than 4 wt% Arsenic.

The preference for Copper-Arsenic among analysed spearheads, at 59% of the assemblage, suggests that the advantages of Copper with over 1 wt% Arsenic for casting large objects which were required to be strong and durable and which would not significantly benefit from the addition of Tin were understood by metalsmiths. The maximum recorded concentration of Aresenic, at 6.5 wt%, further suggests an awareness of the brittleness associated with alloys containing more than 7–8 wt.% Arsenic, while the occurrence of Aresenuc at over 4 wt% in 6 spearheads may indicate an intention in some instances to achieve a silvery surface colour.

The other artefact class in which Copper-Aresenic predominates, at 50% of the assemblage, is razors. It may be that metalsmiths understood that the greater ductility and toughness of Copper-Arsenic over unalloyed copper and Copper-Tin alloys made it better suited to the production of thinly hammered objects. The maximum recorded level of Arsenic, at 4.3 wt%, is again well below the brittleness threshold.

Copper-Aresenic was also frequently used for daggers (46%) and axes (45%). While Cypriot metalsmiths may have been aware of the advantages of using Tin Bronze for objects which required sharp and durable cutting edges, there may not have been much difference in the mechanical properties of Copper-Arsenic, Copper-Arsenic-Tin, Copper-Tin and other alloys in this respect. Copper-Arsenic, including high-Arsenic silvery alloys (over 4 wt% Arsenic), was also commonly used for daggers elsewhere. Eight daggers have recorded concentrations of Arersenic above 4 wt%, suggesting an occasional desire for a silver-grey surface. The maximum recorded concentration of Arsenic in both daggers (5.9 wt%) and axes (5.5 wt%) is again below the point at which brittleness would have occurred. Either metalsmiths were aware of this threshold or using ores with natural concentrations of Arsenic below this level.

In the case of pins, unalloyed Copper and Copper-Arsenic account for 64% of the assemblage. These objects did not require hardness, sharpness or tensile strength and did not need to withstand the punching of an eyelet. Practical considerations of metal availability might therefore be expected to be paramount in the selection of material for their manufacture. This would appear, however, to be only part of the story. Eleven pins have recorded Aresenic levels above 4 wt%, with 10 in the 4–6 wt.% range and one with a concentration of 15.6 wt%. This suggests the use of high-Arsenic Bronze to achieve an aesthetically-pleasing silvery surface. A similar finding of 5 and 10 wt% As in two Early Bronze Age pins from Psematismenos suggests that the inverse-segregation properties of Copper-Arsenic alloys, which lead to marked Arsenic enrichment at the surface, were exploited for the manufacture of pins throughout the prehistoric Bronze Age in Cyprus. Any resulting brittleness is likely to have been obviated by minimal post-cast working and the low stress use environment of these objects.

A comparison of median values shows a range of 0.25–2.5 wt% Arsenic for different artefact types. Thus the Arsenic content in most artefacts is within the range occurring in some Cypriot ores and the use of both unalloyed and Arsenical Copper is likely a result, for the most part, of the smelting of ores more or less naturally rich in Arsenic.

The highest median Arsenic content is found in axes and daggers and the lowest in toggle pins. It has been suggested that domestic items are likely to have gone through more recycling episodes than prestige items, with lower resulting concentrations of Arsenic. This might apply to the needles, awls, razors and tweezers in the assemblage, which have lower median values than axes and daggers, but different factors were at play when it comes to toggle pins. Toggle pins have the lowest median Arsenic and the highest median Tin values, suggesting the use of low-Arsenic, high-Tin Bronze for these items.

Copper with tin between 5 and 12 wt%, considered a typical Tin Bronze, has excellent casting qualities and hardens considerably when hammered, with the optimal Tin concentration that balances hardness against brittleness considered to be about 10%. Changes in colour which occur with increasing concentrations of Tin, from red to golden and ultimately (at 18 to 33 wt%) to silver—are also thought to have played an important role in prehistory.

In the analysed sample Tin alloys occur least often among spearheads (19%), pins (27%) and razors (37%), near or above 50% of the assemblage in the case of daggers (44%), needles (49%), axes (53%) and awls (59%), and well above 50% in the case of tweezers (65%) and toggle pins (76%). Median Tin content is also highest among tweezers and toggle pins; and the use of high-Tin Bronze (over 13 wt%) is greatest among toggle pins and plain pins.

These results suggest a variety of factors behind the use of Tin. Metalsmiths appear to have preferred Tin alloys for artefacts which required edge-hardness (daggers and axes), although in neither instance do Tin alloys dominate the assemblage. In the case of needles and perhaps awls, the relatively high incidence of Tin bronze may be due to the opportunistic use of small quantities of metal prepared for other purposes or from recycled metal. In the case of tweezers and toggle pins, where the mechanical benefits of Tin Bronze are also unlikely to have been functionally relevant and the average concentration of Tin is at or above the level at which changes in surface colour would have occurred, the use of Tin alloys is best explained as a deliberate attempt to achieve a golden or, at Tin concentrations above 18 wt%, a silvery surface colour. The latter is relevant also to a number of the plain pins. Although Tin is recorded at above 1 wt% in only 27% of the plain pin sample, when present at these levels the average Tin concentration is very high at 15.2 wt%.

The 9 plain pins with Tin recorded at over 13 wt% are all large examples, over 20 cm and up to 40 cm long. In 6 of these the Tin content, at 17.0–20.8 wt%, approximates or exceeds the point at which the surface is likely to have taken on a silver colour. Another 11 pins have recorded Arsenic levels at above 4 wt%. While these are generally smaller, there are 7 examples over 20 cm and up to 28.6 cm long. The correlation between length and high levels of Tin or Arsenic is not as strong among toggle pins, which are generally shorter (though often heavier) than plain pins; only 6 of 13 toggle pins over 20 cm long have recorded Tin levels above 13 wt%. All, however, are Tin Bronzes and the incidence of Tin above 10 wt% across the toggle pin sample is high (44.2%), with 9 in the 17.0–21.3 wt% Tin range. The use of high Arsenic and high Tin alloys to achieve a particular surface colour is thus greatest among pins of both types.

The replacement of Arsenical Bronze by Tin Bronze, with a possible transition period represented by the use of Copper-Arsenic-Tin and Copper-Tin-Arsenic alloys, is usually assigned to the Late Bronze Age in Europe and Western Asia. In Cyprus the use of standard binary Bronzes, typically with a Tin content between 8 and 10 wt%, is thought not to have been fully established until the Late Bronze Age, at which time Arsenic ceased to be used as a major alloying metal for Copper. This has been attributed to the introduction of new metallurgical techniques at the beginning of this period, but the Lapithos data raise the possibility that it was to some extent an evolutionary process which began during the course of the Middle Bronze Age. While the use of Tin, however, increased at Lapithos during the Middle Bronze Age, Arsenical Copper, which has valuable properties in itself and was easily obtained by Cypriot metalsmiths, continued to be used in significant quantities until the demise of the settlement at the end of the Middle Bronze Age.

Copper Zinc alloys, typically known as Brass, are widely believed not to have become common until the Roman era. Chemical analyses of Bronze Age Cypriot Copper alloys, conducted mostly in the 1940s, revealed the presence of significant amounts of Zinc (over 1%) in a number of artefacts but these results were subsequently discounted. In the analyses reported by Charalambous and Webb, however, Zinc was detected in 14 artefacts in a recorded range of 0.5–4.5 wt%. Observation of the analytical spectra of the 6 objects containing above 1 wt% Zinc confirms the presence  higher amounts of Zinc in these artefacts.

Zinc is present in Cypriot Copper sulphide ores and low concentrations of Zinc in locally produced artefacts might be expected. Zinc concentrations above 1% are rare, however, in Late Bronze Age Copper alloys, and it has long been assumed that any Zinc present would have been removed by initial roasting or smelting. A similar loss of Zinc might be expected for pre-Late Bronze Age Copper alloys. Its presence at above 1 wt% in 6 artefacts therefore requires explanation. Two instances, a pin of Copper-Zinc with 4.2 wt% Zinc and a dagger of Copper-Tin-Zinc with 3.9 Zn, are almost certainly imports.

In the case of two spearheads, with 1.1 wt% and 1.8 wt% Zinc, surface readings have possibly exaggerated the amount of Zinc which may in fact fall within the upper limit expected of locally smelted ores. An engraved mushroom-headed toggle pin and a chisel, both Copper-Tin-Zinc alloys and of local types, have reported concentrations of 3.0 and 4.5 wt% Zinc respectively. They are currently the earliest identified Zinc alloys from Cyprus. This should prompt a review of several objects with high levels of Zinc from Late Bronze Age contexts on Cyprus, the date of which has been questioned on the grounds that brass was unknown on the island before the mid-first century BC. A similar revision of the early history of Copper-Zinc alloys in Anatolia and Iran is underway.

Lead (Pb) was detected in 90% of the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry sample (379 objects), in concentrations from 0.1–7.5 wt% (with an outlier (a razor) recorded as 15.5 wt%) and at above 1 wt% in 17.6% of the assemblage. The addition of Lead to Copper-base alloys and Bronze lowers the melting point and improves the fluidity of the melt during casting but does not increase the working properties of the cast Bronze and may reduce the hardness and toughness of an alloy when added in larger quantities (8–25 wt%). The possible presence of Lead alloys in Cyprus in the Early Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age has been discussed in several previous publications. Use of Leaded Copper alloys is also widely recognised from the end of the 3rd Millennium in the Levant, where the occasional presence of Lead in high concentrations, despite its detrimental effects, has led to the suggestion that it was added to economise on more expensive metals or/and reduce fuel consumption. Recent analyses have also shown the presence of Lead in concentrations generally below 1 wt% but up to 3.5 wt% in Late Bronze Age artefacts from Cyprus.

As Lead is not present in Cypriot Copper ores or occurs in concentrations well below 0.5 wt%, and the Tin ores exploited in the Bronze Age contain only a few parts per million of Lead, the occurrence of this metal, even at levels below 1 wt%, has been ascribed to a deliberate addition. Lead ores (galena), however, are very rare on Cyprus and not associated with Copper ores, and artefacts with a Lead content above 0.5 wt% may, alternatively, come from the recycling of imported Leaded Bronzes or from the use of non-Cypriot ores containing Lead minerals. There is in fact a considerable degree of correlation in the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry sample between Tin and Lead. Lead occurs at over 1 wt% in 72 artefacts, 88.9% (64) of which also contain more than 1% wt% Tin. In the Lapithos sample, it is also possible that Lead was introduced through co-melting Copper or Bronze with imported Lead spiral rings, a significant number of which were recovered in the tombs.

It was once believed that Tin Bronze did not appear on Cyprus until the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. It is now clear, however, that imported Tin Bronzes (and Tin metal) were reaching Cyprus and being produced locally almost half a millennium earlier. Compositional analyses have identified three artefacts from the first phase of the Early Bronze Age as Tin Bronzes. Two appear to be imports from Anatolia. The third, an axe with a Lead isotope ratio consistent with Copper from the Limassol Forest area, suggests that local metalsmiths were producing Bronzes using local Copper and imported Tin. Six Tin Bronze earrings of similar date from Sotira in the south of the island further suggest that this alloy was already being used in Cyprus to achieve a colour effect similar to that of Gold.

Tin is rare in analysed objects from the later Early Bronze Age, most of which are of relatively pure Copper or Arsenical Bronze. Tin Bronzes reappear in Cyprus in the early years of the Middle Bronze Age sometime after 2000 BC. Charalambous and Webb's analyses suggest that the amount of Tin entering Cyprus at this time may have been underestimated and perhaps significantly so. Previous studies have concluded that Tin Bronze did not become common until the end of the Middle Bronze Age, at which time about half the artefacts produced were made of Tin Bronze or Arsenical Tin Bronze. In the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry analyses reported by Charalambous and Webb 68% of analysed Middle Bronze Age artefacts contain Tin: 21% with a recorded Tin content from traces to 0.9 wt%, 23% from 1 to 6 wt.%, 6% from 6.1 to 10 wt% and 18% over10 wt%.

Since Tin does not occur in Cyprus and is not present in Cypriot Copper ores, Tin-Bronze could only have been obtained via long-distance exchange or made locally using tin imported as a stanniferous mineral (mineral containing Tin) or in the form of Tin-Bronze ingots, scrap or finished artefacts, the latter melted and perhaps mixed with Cypriot Copper and reworked over time to produce second or third generation Bronzes in local styles. The recycling of Tin-Bronze (or the use of imported Copper containing low concentrations of Tin as an impurity in the ore) is indeed indicated by the occurrence of Tin at under 1 wt% in 19% of the analysed sample. Recycling practices and the prevalence of mixed alloys have rarely been acknowledged in discussions of pre-Late Bronze Age metallurgy in Cyprus. An increase in the intensity of recycling through the Middle Bronze Age is also suggested by the decrease over time in artefacts with over 1% Arsenic and an increase in those with concentrations below 1 wt%. This drop-off in Aresenic content may be a result of repeated melting and post-casting operations leading to the depletion of Arsenic by oxidation and evaporation.

An earlier study of the composition and Lead isotope signatures of over 130 Middle Bronze Age Copper-base artefacts from Cyprus, 75 of which are from Lapithos, concluded that of 80 artefacts analysed that seem to be made of Cypriot Copper only about 10% contain Tin, whereas 20 with Lead isotope ratios consistent with published data from the Iranian mines of Deh Hossein and Karkas all contain Tin (and 14 objects have over 20 wt% Tin). If objects made of Copper from Iran (or at least inconsistent with known ore sources on Cyprus) are consistently high-tin Bronzes, it seems logical to assume that the imported material was Bronze. Equally, the use of this alloy for typologically Cypriot objects, including daggers, awls and pins, suggests that it was reaching Cyprus in the form of Bronze ingots or scrap or as finished artefacts which were melted and reworked in Cyprus.

The mixing of Cypriot Copper with imported Tin Bronze should also be considered. A previous study identified 4 isotopic groups amongst artefacts from Lapithos, consistent with Copper ores from Cyprus, the Aegean, Iran and the Taurus Mountains. While the patterning in the Lead isotope data does not suggest mixing, the addition of Cypriot Copper, which has a very low lead content, to bronzes made of Copper from external sources may not significantly change the isotopic composition. Artefacts with lead isotope fingerprints of Iranian or Taurus Copper may, therefore, have been made by mixing imported Tin Bronze with Cypriot Copper to make local Bronzes. This is indeed suggested by the fact that objects with Lead isotope signatures inconsistent with Cypriot ores are of local types. The very varied Tin content and large group of artefacts with very low Tin in the Lapithos assemblage also support a hypothesis of mixing as well as of the recycling of imported metal, and it is likely that metalsmiths were engaging in both practices.

The analysed assemblage was recovered from tombs allocated to two overlapping phases of the Middle Bronze Age. While analytical problems associated with X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry surface readings may be exaggerating the presence of Tin and Lead to some extent, the two sets of data are internally consistent and allow a broad assessment of the compositional profiles of 9 artefact types and changes in metallurgical practices at Lapithos over the Middle Bronze Age.

The results suggest that the Middle Bronze Age was a period of significant metallurgical development in Cyprus, which saw the reintroduction and a steady increase in the use of Tin Bronze. They also suggest a more complex pattern of alloy use than previously thought to have been the case and a greater degree of re-cycling and probably mixing of Cypriot Copper with imported Bronzes, practices about which we have been largely ignorant until now.

Indeed, one of the most significant observations to arise from this study is that metalsmiths at Lapithos may only rarely, if at all, have been producing alloys by co-melting Copper with one or more secondary metals—but rather using naturally high-Arsenic Copper ores from the Limassol Forest region, recycling imported bronze artefacts and mixing local Copper with imported Bronzes. The latter likely also explains the presence in some artefacts of Lead and Zinc in concentrations which do not match the chemistry of Cypriot ores and must ultimately be derived from imported metal.

The metal industry at Lapithos also appears to have been more sophisticated than previously suspected. In some cases it seems that little attention was paid to the selection of an alloy, with unalloyed Copper, Copper-Arsenic with a range of Arsenic concentrations and Tin Bronze alloys used as available; for example, for smaller items like needles. In other cases specific alloys were matched with object types. This is most apparent in the case of spearheads, which are primarily of unalloyed Copper and Arsenical Copper, and toggle pins, 76% of which are Tin alloys. Charalambous and Webb's results suggest that metalsmiths were making conscious choices about appropriate alloys for different categories of object both in relation to their mechanical and aesthetic properties.

The repertoire of tools and weapons in Bronze Age Cyprus remained resistant to the typological developments which marked the Levant from the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. This has long been seen as an indication of the isolation and conservatism of Cypriot metalsmiths. It may equally, however, suggest that these objects were considered ‘fit for purpose’ and that the majority were produced by ‘common craftspeople’ (as opposed to ‘master crafters’ or ‘virtuosi’); whose skills were fully embodied but whose products remained ‘traditional’. The pins, and in particular the toggle pins, arguably, however, belong to another category. While many are simple items, others were produced with special-purpose alloys and stand out in terms of their size, surface colour and decoration. They also show considerable diversity in form, size and composition; and both imports and pins emulating Anatolian and Syrian types as well as new indigenous forms are in evidence. This suggests that some smiths at Lapithos were willing to experiment and apply new techniques to satisfy a local demand for original objects of high social value.

That Lapithos played a key role in developments in metalworking during the Middle Bronze Age is clear. It is also likely to have been the principal port from which Cypriot Copper was exported and its rise to prominence is roughly contemporary with the establishment of Assyrian trading colonies at Kültepe and with evidence for the use of Cypriot Copper at Mari and Babylon, at Malia in Crete and possibly on Kos in the Middle Bronze Age. Several lines of evidence suggest that it was an active participant in a trade in raw metals conducted along sea routes which passed between the south coast of Anatolia and the north coast of Cyprus in the first half of the 2nd Millennium BC. The results reported by Charalambous and Webb indicate that Tin, probably in the form of Tin Bronze, was reaching Lapithos from foreign sources in some quantity.

The extent to which Lapithos may have been managing the distribution of imported Tin, Copper, Bronze and other metals (Lead, Silver and Gold) to metalsmiths and consumers across the island remains unclear. While there is good evidence for metalworking at Middle Bronze Age settlements in the centre and south, no other site has produced anywhere near the quantity of metal recovered in the cemeteries at Lapithos. In this context, the level of metalworking activity, expertise and access to both distant local ores and imported materials suggested by the analyses reported by Charalambous and Webb should come as no surprise.

See also...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.