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Ancient Raw Copper from Primary Smelting Sites in Cyprus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

W. Fasnacht  and
J.P. Northover
W. Fasnacht
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, EMPA, Section for Inorganic Chemistry and Characterisation of Solids, EMPA, Ueberlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
J.P. Northover
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Begbroke Business and Science Park, Sandy Lane, Yarnton, Oxford, OX5 1PF, UK
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Abstract

Finds of metallic copper from various primary smelting sites in the Sia valley in Cyprus have been analysed by ICP-OES for their composition and by optical and electron microscopy for metallography. Results show a characteristic pattern of impurities for each of the sites examined which allow an assignment to specific types of ore body and geological matrix. Different zones of the Cyprus Ophiolite Complex were exploited in different periods in antiquity, but these results show different types could be exploited contemporaneously within a specific period, especially during the first millennium BC. One location in this area, Agia Varvara-Almyras, an Iron Age copper smelting site with the only complete chain of operation recorded in ancient Cypriote metallurgy, is used to show how analytical work can guide future field surveys to find ancient furnaces, slag heaps and mines. The ultimate goal of the project is to extend it to reconstruct the complete history of copper production in a well-defined mining district over the last 4000 years.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 712: Symposium II – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology VI , 2002 , II4.7
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2002

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References

REFERENCES

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