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Studies of metal production frequently show a correlation between scale and organizational complexity. The remarkably rich landscapes of metal-producing sites of late 2nd-early 1st millennium BC Colchis provide an unprecedented opportunity to reexamine this apparent correlation. Investigations of copper smelting sites show that industries with a large aggregate output can be the result of numerous small groups of metalworkers acting independently. Spatial data on site distributions, estimates of productive output, and archaeometric data on ore procurement patterns were integrated to reconstruct the organization of production. Judicious use of a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) showed that not only were smelting sites highly dispersed, but also that metalworkers at different sites were using ores from geologically distinct deposits. This innovative approach helped to reconstruct the organization of production in a distinctive metal production landscape, bridging an enduring divide between landscape-scale and microscopic investigations of craft production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Caucasus was a major center of metal production in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Nowhere is this more clear than in the hills and mountains in the southeastern Black Sea region (ancient Colchis), where exceptionally large numbers of metal production sites have been found. Chemical and microscopic analysis of slagged technical ceramics at these sites illuminates several aspects of both raw copper and tin bronze alloy production. Copper ores were smelted in a complex multi-stage process designed to extract metal from sulfide ores. Technical ceramics served as containers for a range of different reactions, from the first phase of smelting, in which the copper sulfides were likely consolidated into a matte, though later stages of matte processing and metal copper production in smaller crucibles. In addition, a single crucible fragment, recovered from a late 2nd millennium BC slag heap, demonstrates that tin bronze was created by the direct addition of cassiterite tin ore, probably of alluvial origin, to metallic copper. The crucible's context, the use of cassiterite ore rather than tin metal, and a review of local geology suggests that the tin used in this crucible came from nearby, with the most likely source being the Vakijvari and Bzhuzhi gorges roughly 10–15 km away. While a single fragment does not speak to the regularity of this practice, at the very least it raises the possibility that the Colchian bronze industry was based on local rather than imported tin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]