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An introduction to articles published within the issue is presented, including one on the early metallurgical production in the Far Northeast of Asia and Alaska, another on the maritime hunter-gatherers in the subarctic North Pacific using biogeographic and archaeological data from the Kuril Islands, and another on which explored walrusing, whaling and the origins of the Old Bering Sea culture.

Archaeological investigations of Paleometal Epoch in the Primorye (south of the Far East of Russia) are generating insight for the introduction of metals into the Pacific coastal areas of prehistoric Eurasia. The chronological framework covers the turn of the 2nd −1st mil. BC to the beginning of 1st mil. AD. The temporal limits of bronze-bearing and iron-bearing cultural units of Primorye region overlap. The limited degree of local metal production and re-working during the Paleometal epoch still suggests progressive changes in the material culture of prehistoric populations of the southern Russian Far East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Findings and traces of early metallurgical production in the Far Northeast of Asia and Alaska show that the spread of bronze and iron metallurgy took place mainly along the Lena River towards of the Far Northeast, as well as to Taimyr. Spread of metallurgical technology is confirmed by the casting mould for a burin or awl, which was discovered in Eastern Chukotka on the Amguema River. However, metals in Chukotka were obviously too rare to trade until the first millennium AD. An eastward decline in emphasis on metals is evidenced. Across the Bering Strait, into Alaska, iron appeared nearly two thousand years later than it existed within the the Far Northeast of Asia. Traces of metallurgy production were not found in Alaska. The spread of metals across Northeast Asia to Alaska indicates the existence of lasting and persistent connections between the Lena River Basin, the Far Northeast and Chukotka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract North America's Old Copper Complex (4000-1000 B.C.) is a unique event in archaeologists' global understanding of prehistoric metallurgic evolution. For millennia, Middle and Late Archaic hunter-gatherers around the North American Upper Great Lakes region regularly made utilitarian implements out of copper, only for these items to decline in prominence and frequency as populations grew and social complexity increased during the Archaic to Woodland Transition. Yet, it may be reasonably asked whether these demographic and social factors are the only, or predominant, factors contributing to this evolutionary pattern. To answer this question, we initiated an extensive archaeological experimental program comparing replica copper tools versus analogous ones made of stone or bone ones to better understand whether relative functional efficiency also contributed to the decline of utilitarian copper implements. We present here the first of these experiments, a controlled ballistics study that examined how well copper projectile points penetrated a target relative to stone points. Our results showed that on average, copper projectile points did not penetrate our experimental target significantly shallower than stone ones; indeed, when mass is controlled there is evidence that copper points can penetrate substantially deeper. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that functional efficiency did not play a role in the decline of utilitarian tools at the end of the Old Copper Culture, although future assessments of functional efficiency should consider the role, costs, and benefits of production efficiency and skill acquisition in copper- and stone-tool making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southeastern Europe is the birthplace of metallurgy, with evidence of copper smelting at ca. 5000 BCE. There the later Eneolithic (Copper Age) was associated with the casting of massive copper tools. However, copper metallurgy in this region ceased, or significantly decreased, centuries before the dawn of the Bronze Age. Archaeologists continue to be debate whether this hiatus was imposed on early metalworking communities as a result of exhaustion of workable mineral resources, or instead a cultural transition that was associated with changes in depositional practices and material culture. Copper isotopes provide a broadly applicable means of addressing this question. Copper isotopes fractionate in the near-surface environment such that surficial oxide ores can be differentiated from non-weathered sulphide ores that occur at greater depth. This compositional variation is transferred to associated copper artifacts, the final product of the metallurgical process. In the central Balkans, a shift from 65Cu-enriched to 65Cu-depleted copper artifacts occurs across the metallurgical hiatus at the Eneolithic-Bronze Age boundary, ca. 2500 BCE. This indicates that the reemergence of metal production at the beginning of the Bronze Age is associated with pyrotechnical advancements that allowed for the extraction of copper from sulphide ore. Thus copper isotopes provide direct evidence that the copper hiatus was the result of exhaustion of near-surface oxide ores after one-and-a-half millennia of mining, and that the beginning of the Bronze Age in the Balkans is associated with the introduction of more complex smelting techniques for metal extraction from regionally abundant sulphidic deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The colors of copper alloys are of particular interest in archaeology and can be characterized quantitatively and systematically. The CIELAB color system can determine different color parameters such as a*, b*, and L* by means of a spectrophotometer that describes the surface color. Additional information such as C* and h values can be calculated from these parameters which allows one to build a set of color-composition diagrams that connects chromaticity and alloy composition. With such data it is possible to estimate the color of prehistoric metal artifacts with similar chemical composition. A better understanding of the association between metallurgical composition and color will aid the research of prehistoric metalwork because choices in production and use of metal were likely influenced by this particular quality of metal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The settlement of Boroo Gol was explored by a Swiss-Mongolian team from 2005 to 2007. The following article gives an overview over the most important results of this latest research, emphasising the special position Boroo Gol occupies in Xiongnu civilisation. This settlement in the middle of the Mongolian steppes raises questions concerning its role, function and place vis-à-vis the traditionally nomadic populations. We propose some original interpretations which might shed new light on Xiongnu society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the early copper and copper-alloy metallurgy of the entire Alpine region. It introduces a new approach to the interpretation of chemical composition data sets, which has been applied to a comprehensive regional database for the first time. The Alpine Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age each have distinctive patterns of metal use, which can be interpreted through changes in mining, social choice, and major landscape features such as watersheds and river systems. Interestingly, the Alpine range does not act as a north-south barrier, as major differences in composition tend to appear on an east-west axis. Central among these is the prevalence of tin-bronze in the western Alps compared to the east. This 'tin-line' is discussed in terms of metal flow through the region and evidence for a deeply rooted geographical division that runs through much of Alpine prehistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological record in mainland Southeast Asia from ca. 2000 b.c. to the formation of early states in the mid-first millennium a.d. is built on excavations in mounded settlements that incorporate habitation, industrial, and mortuary remains. For most sites, formation processes are not readily identified. have presented a new view of the social organization of the Southeast Asian 'metal age' based on a reinterpretation of mortuary and settlement data, founded on their premise that the dead were interred in, under, or in conjunction with domestic residences rather than dedicated cemeteries. They argue that such house societies were instruments for remarkably long-term occupation of individual settlements by heterarchic, non-violent supravillage affiliative social groupings. A detailed examination of the evidence for such residential burial suggests a lack of convincing evidence until the Iron Age. Moreover, new dating programs have shortened the prehistoric sequence, leading to more rapid and intense social changes than hitherto suspected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of this study are to describe the channel patterns of the Czarna Nida River quantitatively and to determine the factors that have had the greatest influence on the development of these patterns. Among the factors considered were natural (climatic) and anthropogenic (prehistoric metallurgy). River development was examined with a focus on valley floor formations, channel geometry changes, and depositional changes. River widths and channel patterns were measured on aerial photographs, and longitudinal profiles were prepared from topographic maps. Within the bottom of the valley, in a single morphological level, a row of inserts of various ages appears. These inserts were formed by the river of different development of the channel – macromeanders (Late Glacial) – multichannel systems (Early Holocene, Subatlantic) – small meanders (Holocene). General tendencies of the Late Glacial and Holocene erosion–accumulation cycle are related to the well-known principles for valleys of Central Europe and described in numerous studies. They encompass dissection from the turn of the younger Pleniglacial and Late Glacial, Younger Dryas straightening and braiding of channels, as well as Holocene phases of intensified fluvial activity. In the Czarna Nida River valley, distinct traces of higher fluvial activity linked with development of prehistoric iron metallurgy in the Roman period were recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plank figures are hallmark anthropomorphic depictions that illuminate Bronze Age society on Cyprus. The excavation of a rare limestone plank figure from a public space at Politiko-Troullia is interpreted in conjunction with spatial patterning of ceramic plank figures, plant macrofossils, animal bones, ground stone, spindle whorls, and metallurgical evidence to infer communal behavior at this Early/Middle Cypriot-period settlement. The Politiko-Troullia stone plank figure is significant as the sole example from a fully documented excavated context and as part of a growing body of evidence for the creation of social identities in emerging complex society on Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prehistoric silver purification using lead cupellation has been documented in multiple places throughout the Andes, but direct evidence of the Inka use of this technology has remained elusive. In this study, we use X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, and electron-microprobe analysis to document direct evidence of Inka period (AD 1400–1532) silver purification using lead cupellation in the Tarapacá Valley of northern Chile. Local metalworkers used wind-driven huayra furnaces to produce pure lead metal, sustaining temperatures of ca. 900–1100 °C to smelt lead-bearing ores that may have included galena. The lead metal was then used in open-vessel cupellation of silver-bearing ores, some of which may have been cupriferous and derived from the nearby Inka mines at Huantajaya. Phase analyses of the slagged interiors of bowl-shaped ceramic vessels used for cupellation indicate that the metalworkers maintained the oxidizing environment and temperatures between 800 and 1100 °C requisite for cupellation. We argue that the Inka introduced this technique to Tarapacá metalworkers. The absence of finished silver artifacts in local valley contexts suggests that the refined silver was removed from the valley for use elsewhere in the empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent archaeological survey conducted in Mali in the Guringin Valley, located in the Séno Plain, as well as at the top of the nearby Bandiagara Escarpment, has produced evidence allowing the characterisation of numerous settlement sites and locations at which prehistoric metallurgy was practised. The latter have abundant surface material, mainly consisting of ceramics that show a considerable diversity of decoration. Analysis of the surface pottery assemblages, complemented by that of stratified assemblages from a test pit at one of the sites, indicates important inter-site differences. The results suggest that water, a rare and precious resource in this sandy Sudano-Sahelian plain, attracted the settlement of different populations from Neolithic times to the present, with a particular density of occupation during the first and early second millennia AD. Groups of sites of similar modest size evoke the rural settlements of the Méma area of Mali more than the settlement clusters of the Inland Niger Delta, which are defined by large sites surrounded by satellite settlements in a context of proto-urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of copper-base metallurgy in the mainland of Eurasia began in the Near East and ended in Southeast Asia. The recognition of this Southeast Asian metallurgical province followed in the wake of French colonial occupation of Cambodia and Laos in the nineteenth century. Subsequently, most research has concentrated in Thailand, beginning in the 1960s. A sound chronology is the prerequisite to identifying both the origins of the Bronze Age, and the social impact that metallurgy may have had on society. This article presents the revolutionary results of excavations at the site of Ban Non Wat in northeast Thailand within the broader cultural context of Southeast Asian prehistory, concluding that the adoption of copper-base metallurgy from the eleventh century BC coincided with the rise of wealthy social aggrandizers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More iron objects have been found in East Yorkshire than in any other part of Iron Age Britain of comparable size, largely in the burials of the Arras Culture, named after the excavations at Arras near Market Weighton (1815-17). The region also contains one of Britain's largest prehistoric iron production centres, contemporary with the Arras Culture. This article aims to contribute to re-establishing early iron production and consumption, and its social and economic significance in the archaeological mainstream, and demonstrate the importance of understanding ironworking for the Iron Age landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archeologické Rozhledy is the property of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Archaeology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Satellite-based multi-spectral remote sensing data were used in an attempt to identify control signatures for known prehistoric copper smelting sites in Thailand. It had been hoped that these characteristic signals could then be used as a reference for the detection of unknown Southeast Asian metal production sites, with the overall intention of strengthening the evidence base for early technological interactions with China and India. Regrettably, control signatures were not identified from the ASTER data due to issues of scale, chemistry, and vegetation, but we are able to offer reasons for this setback that might lead other scholars to develop successful applications of this methodology in more amenable (non-tropical) environments. Combined with ground truthing, intensive survey, excavation, and the technological analysis of metallurgical assemblages, this potentially useful and cost effective approach could lead to improved data density for the metal technology transmission discussions currently spanning Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South India early metal artifacts, usually associated with megalithic sites, include both copper and iron. Although in some cases copper artifacts predate those made of iron, there is no evidence of an extensive metallurgical tradition based on copper and its alloys. Typological studies have had limited success in explaining the megalithic sites and the production and consumption of metal, while other approaches have not explicitly addressed the social contexts of metal production. While there emerge some suggestive patterns from the archaeometallurgical evidence to date, understanding the role of metal production and consumption in megalithic contexts means reevaluating traditional paradigms about the nature of these sites and about how metal technologies develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the beginnings of metallurgy in the eastern half of the African continent, focusing on three regions: (1) Egypt and Nubia; (2) the Great Lakes region of Central and East Africa; and (3) southern Africa. Metallurgy was not practiced much beyond the Nile valley until the first millennium BC, when copper, bronze and iron metallurgy began in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and iron metallurgy in the Great Lakes region. The expansion of agricultural societies carried iron metallurgy south, reaching its southern limit in South Africa by c. 300 cal AD. Copper was also smelted in southern Africa, but its use was restricted to pendants, bracelets, wire and other items of jewelry. In stark contrast to the metallurgical sequence in the Nile Valley, there was no production of tin, lead, gold or silver in central or southern Africa before these regions were linked to the Islamic world system after c. 800 AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on West African metallurgies cannot be properly understood without reference to the colonial template that featured Africa as the receiving partner in all crucial social, economic, and technological development. The interesting debate that took place in West Africa during the Colonial Period was more meta-theoretical than factual. These conflicting glosses, despite their lack of empirical foundations, have constrained the nature of archaeological research and oversimplified the dynamics of the many facets of technological innovation. The relative boom in archaeological research that took place from the 1960s onwards resulted in an exponential growth of factual information. Challenging evidence has emerged from Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Togo, and Senegal. The picture that emerges from this survey calls for more sophisticated explanations for the origins of West African metallurgies away from the single non-African source hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earliest metal objects and metal production practices appeared in Western Europe during the fourth and third millennia BC. The presence of earlier dates for copper, gold, silver, and lead, as well as arsenical copper and tin-bronze alloys in Central and Eastern Europe implies that there is no evidence for the independent invention of metallurgy in Western Europe. Instead, the acquisition of metal objects as exotica by communities appears to have led eventually to the movement of people possessing metallurgical expertise. However, the metals, production techniques and object forms used in each region reflect local standards seen in other materials. This implies a process of incorporation and innovation by the communities involved rather than a straightforward or inevitable adoption. The presence of metal may have created new networks of communication and exchange but, due to its small scale, there is no evidence for any metallurgical revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: From the Early Chalcolithic to the Late Iron Age, melting and smelting crucibles were usually made from non-refractory ceramic fabrics, which required heating of the charge from within the crucible to avoid collapsing the ceramic itself. In this paper, an unusual melting crucible from Northeast Iran, radiocarbon-dated to the Late Chalcolithic (ca. 3600 BCE), will be presented that significantly changes our understanding of the development of technical ceramics in Southwest Asia. This crucible, made of a highly refractory talc-based ceramic held together by an outer layer of traditional non-refractory ceramic, is to our knowledge unprecedented at such an early date. As will be argued, this ancient crucible was heated from the exterior or from below and not from the interior. This method of firing, combined with the highly-specialized construction technique, makes this crucible so far unique in prehistoric metallurgy, and forces us to re-examine traditional models for the development of technical ceramics and metallurgical practices in the Old World. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Ljubljansko barje is a wet plain which lies to the south-west of Ljubljana, Slovenia. In archaeology, it is primarily known for the remains of prehistoric pile-dwellings, which appeared in this region for the first time in the 5th millennium (46th century). The later settling cycles took place in the 4th millennium (between the 37th and 32nd century), 3rd millennium (between the 28th and 24th century), in the late 3rd millennium and in the first half of the 2nd millennium B.C. The relatively numerous finds of moulds, melting pots and other metalworking utensils - both those recently discovered and those that have already been presented - indicate that the pile-dwelling settlements of Ljubljansko barje were closely connected to the metalworking activity. The oldest find of this kind has been dated to the 36th century B.C. and it was discovered on the site of Hočevarica near Verd. The metal processing demanded a great deal of knowledge and skill. It had magical implications. For this reason it presented a constant threat for settlements and people. It seems that metal workers held a very special position in the society, which was also reflected in the exposed location of their workshops. In Ljubljansko barje, their position is narrowly located in the area of three pile-dwelling settlements from the 4th and 3rd millennium B.C.: Maharski prekop, Stare gmajne and Založnica. Now for the first time, on the basis of the archaeological sources, in Ljubljansko barje we can talk about the division of labour and appearance of a social elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article challenges received thinking relating to the interpretation of Bronze Age finds from the seabed in the waters of north-western Europe, especially the North Sea and Channel area. Metal objects recovered from the sea are traditionally presumed to be the result of shipwrecks. As such, their interpretation as casual, if unfortunate loss is unquestioned. However, abandoning the shipwreck scenario as a remnant of the ‘sacred vs profane’ heuristic, it is suggested that offshore finds could provide insight into deliberate Bronze Age maritime practice, rather than misadventure. Certain patterning in the data of offshore finds, including affinities with hoards on terra firma, urges another interpretive framework – that of considering the sea as a place for deposition. This appeared to be the case particularly in regions which experienced an intensity of maritime interaction, such as the Channel area during the later Bronze Age. From this it is hypothesized that rather than being considered outside the Bronze Age social realm, the sea, especially in the MBA to earlier LBA in the Channel area, was incorporated into Bronze Age cosmology in similar ways to other zones in the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current interpretation of Bronze Age metalwork deposits relies on an opposition between deposits made ritually and those made with the utilitarian objective of temporary safe keeping. Tied to this distinction were the intentions, respectively, to leave buried in perpetuity, or to retrieve. Contrasts in the character and burial location of hoard deposits are used to support the dichotomous interpretation. The article challenges this bipolar model by showing that hoard characterization often reflects a more complex spectrum and by disputing that the recovery of valuables by depositors would invalidate ritual objectives. Furthermore, in considering the flow of metal through the exchange systems of Bronze Age Europe, it is argued that flexibility of intention at and after deposition would have been an invaluable strategic device, enabling greater control over the local metal stock. To extract the full meaning locked up in these crucial archaeological deposits for the period, their interpretation is better centred on new questions relating to expression, occasion, enactment, and the social conditions triggering recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the role of metalwork in the changing gendered human life course in the Copper Age of the Carpathian Basin. Variations of metal use in the pattern of age-gender life course configuration; Impact of metalworking on socio-cultural development; Role of copper artifacts in expressing the performed link between biological and social life change.

Excavations at the sacred precinct of the Late Bronze Age city of Kition uncovered the remains of metalworking workshops which were clearly associated with the temples. The results of the excavation as well as a number of specialist reports of the archaeometallurgical finds have already been published. Since their publication, however, archaeological research has progressed and new evidence has come to light regarding the Late Bronze Age in general and metalworking in particular. The object of this paper is to present the finds from these workshops and reconsider some of the issues that their discovery has raised. The results of the previous studies of the archaeometallurgical studies are critically assessed and the evidence reinterpreted based on what is available today. One of the issues addressed is that of metal recycling during the Late Bronze Age. This communication was presented at a research workshop organized by the Israel Science Foundation and the University of Haifa on 'Recycling, Hoarding and Trade in Bronze, 13th-11th centuries BCE' (Haifa 26-28 April, 1998). The first part of the paper was written by Karageorghis, the second part by Kassianidou. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the nature of metal industries in Anatolia, with particular reference to the metal culture of the Hittites. Metal extraction from the central Taurus region; Industrial highland and urban lowland production; Artifacts from the Chalcolithic to the Late Bronze Age periods. INSET: Brief profile of K. Ashlan Yener..

The investigation of a Late Bronze Age occupation layer on the banks of the Thames below Wallingford, on a number of occasions since 1949, has yielded an assemblage of Late Bronze Age pottery, flints, small finds including metalwork, and animal bones. The environment of the site, and the sequence of alluviation, have been elucidated by molluscan analysis. The precise character of the settlement is unknown, but it can be compared with other British later Bronze Age settlements in respect of both its riverside location and the presence of a 'midden; deposit, The site bears directly on the question of riverine finds of Bronze Age metalwork; it is concluded that settlement erosion does not account for much of-this material. The site is one of the few Late Bronze Age settlements to have been indentified in the Upper Thames Valley, and represents an early phase in the Iron Age settlement sequence of this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zephyrus is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses a study by Matthew Sanger and colleagues, published within the issue, who found copper band and burials in the center of a Late Archaic shell ring in coastal Georgia, suggesting likely use of copper in ritual gatherings and feasting events during the Archaic Period in the U.S.

Copyright of Zephyrus is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on iron production in the Northern areas of Norway during the prehistoric era. It states that despite many archeologists that work in Northern Norway being able find iron production in the area, reports on iron production before 1994 can only be regarded as possible indicators as the amount of recovered slag is modest and a furnace was never found. It adds that the book "Nord-Norges bosetningshistorie" stresses Iron Age similarities in Northern and Southern Norway.