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Science 2 April 1982:
Vol. 216. no. 4541, pp. 11 - 19
DOI: 10.1126/science.216.4541.11
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Articles

Bronze Age Copper Sources in the Mediterranean: A New Approach

Noël H. Gale 1 and Zofia A. Stos-Gale 2

1 Codirector of the Geological Age and Isotope Research Laboratory at the Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Oxford, England
2 Research scientist with the Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Efforts by scientists to locate the sources of copper used in ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures through comparative chemical analyses of copper ores and archeological artifacts have largely failed for various mineralogical and metallurgical reasons. The isotopic composition of lead, an element present in a minor amount in many copper ores and bronze objects, is unchanged through metallurgical processes and may in principle be used to determine the sources of the copper used in Bronze Age artifacts. Results suggest that for Late Bronze Age Crete the Laurion region in Attica, Greece, may have been a more important copper source than Cyprus.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Chemical Composition and Lead Isotopy of Copper and Bronze from Nuragic Sardinia.
F. Begemann, S. Schmitt-Strecker, E. Pernicka, and F. L. Schiavo (2001)
European Journal of Archaeology 4, 43-85
   Abstract »    PDF »
Archaeology, Science-Based Archaeology and the Mediterranean Bronze Age Metals Trade: A Contribution to the Debate.
N. Gale (2001)
European Journal of Archaeology 4, 113-130
   Abstract »    PDF »
Archaeology, Science-Based Archaeology and the Mediterranean Bronze Age Metals Trade.
A. B. Knapp (2000)
European Journal of Archaeology 3, 31-56
   Abstract »    PDF »
Kestel: An Early Bronze Age Source of Tin Ore in the Taurus Mountains, Turkey.
K. A. Yener, K. A. YENER, H. OZBAL, E. KAPTAN, A. N. PEHLIdotVAN, and M. GOODWAY (1989)
Science 244, 200-203
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)