Native silver resources in Iberia

The use of silver in south-eastern Iberia during the Bronze Age (c. 225o–145o cal BC) is conspicuous in the so-called El Argar Culture. Trace elements detected in the compositional analyses of the objects coupled with the absence of cupellation residue reveal that native silver or silver chlorides (mainly cerargyrite) were used as resources. In this paper we present all the known Iberian deposits of native silver or silver chlorides and discuss their accessibility in prehistoric times as well as their compositional characterisation by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analyses and a scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). A first approach towards the definition of their isotopic fields by lead isotope analyses (LIA) is also presented. LIA were conducted using an inductively coupled plasma multi-collector mass spectrometer (ICP-MC-MS).