Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2018, 6(2), 1-20
DOI: 10.24411/2310-2144-2018-00009
Social processes in ancient Europe and changes in the use of ore and alloys in metallurgical production
Stanislav A. Grigoriev
Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation; E-Mail: stgrig@mail.ru
Abstract
In archeometallurgy, the main trends in the development of ancient technologies are well studied. And, usually they are considered as two principal trends. The first is associated with the type of minerals used: native copper - oxidized minerals - sulfide minerals. The second trend is associated with the types of metal used: pure copper - arsenic and antimony-arsenic copper - tin bronze. On the basis of materials from Northern Eurasia, we demonstrated that both these trends were interrelated (Grigoriev, 2017). The transition to new types of raw materials caused the transition to new types of copper alloys. This was caused, for example, as in the case of the transition from arsenic alloys to tin, by that in the production of arsenic alloy, ore with additions of arsenic minerals was smelted. But after the following transition to richer ores from quartz or to sulphides, conditions were created in the furnace when arsenic evaporated, which made it impossible to produce alloyed metal. This caused the transition to tin alloys, as tin was alloyed directly with copper. In the long run, this system depended on socio-economic processes, since they stimulated the growth of metal consumption and the need to use other types of ores. Tin, whose deposits are very rare, provoked prerequisites for creating a wide network of trade and exchange. The task of this work was to study this system on the European material. The analysis showed that, in general, to Europe all the same regularities may be applied, which makes it possible to consider them as universal. There are some differences caused by the abundance of fahlores in Europe, which made it possible to produce antimony-arsenic alloys in some regions. Another feature is a higher level of economic development, compared with the Eurasian situation, and the proximity of the Eastern Mediterranean, where early civilizations arose rather early. As a result, a global network of trade and exchange was formed in Europe already by the Middle Bronze Age.
Keywords: Europe, Bronze Age, ore, types of alloys, socio-economic relations.
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