David Peterson and John Dudgeon Department of Anthropology, and Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy

(CAMAS)Idaho State University

Archaeometallurgy in the South CaucasusTechnological Artifacts as Historical Documents

Ancient Armenian History

Erebuni

South Caucasus Archaeometallurgy Project

Focus on networks that incorporated metallurgy in social relations

Largest Scale: Interregional

E. N. Chernykh, Ancient Metallurgy in the USSR, 1992

Circumpontic Metallurgical Provinceca. 3500-2000 BC

Caucasus Zone

MetallurgicalFocus

MetallurgicalFocus

MetalworkingFocus

MetalworkingFocus

MetallurgicalFocus

Eurasian Steppe Zone

MetallurgicalFocus

MetalworkingFocus

MetalworkingFocus

MetallurgicalFocus

MetallurgicalFocus

Intermediate Scale: Local

D. Peterson, et al. Early Metal Technology and Related Practices in the Caspian Coastal Plain: Metalwork from the Velikent Cemetery, for Works of the Velikent Archaeological Expedition Volume 1: The Western Caspian Coastal Plain in the Early and Middle Bronze Age: Investigations at Velikent and Its Environs , edited by P. Kohl and R. Magomedov, forthcoming

Early Bronze Age Metalwork from Velikent, Daghestan, ca. 2850 BC

Rings

Bracelets

IntensityFrequency

CopperArsenic bronzeTin bronzeCopper+SilverSilver

Copper and Copper Alloys from Velikent, Daghestan (North Caucasus)

D. Peterson. Production and Social Complexity: Bronze Age Metalworking in the Middle Volga. In Social Complexity in Late Prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, Metal, and Mobility, edited by B. Hanks and K. Linduff, pp. 187-214. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009

Smallest Scale: IndividualCopper and Bronze from Samara, Russia (Volga Region), ca. 2100-1900 BC

Work Pattern 2Annealed + light-moderate cold work(Chisel, Utevka VI, kurgan 6, grave 6; 300x enlarged)

Work Pattern 3Annealed + heavy cold work(Knife, Utevka VI, kurgan 6, grave 6) Annealed+coldwork

Annealed+coldworked+annealed+heavy coldwork

2009-2010

Geoarchaeological research• 200 copper ore samples from 55 areas in 14 deposits for source analysis (chemistry and Pb isotopes)

Artifact sampling• LBA II - EIA I

• 199 (copper, bronze, tin, lead)

Evaluation of archaeological sites for for continuing research

• Drmbon, Navzran, Drjahovit, Hankavan, Fioletovo, Margahovit, Koghb

LA-ICP-MS artifact analysis• Horom cemetery (LBA II - EIA I, 13th-9th

centuries BCE)

Armenia and Karabakh

Phase II: Marmarik Project (2012)

Objectives• Identify metallurgical activities and dating

• ArcGIS modeling of probable network relations surrounding different mining and metallurgical activities (e.g., fuel and ore, processing, smelting, metalworking), consumption, and their relationship to other activities (e.g., pastoralism in mining areas)

• Relationships in networks that incorporated metallurgy

Hankavan Mining District of North-Central Armenia

Bracelets

Horom Necropolis, Shirak Plain, Armenia

..

HoromArtik

Gegharot

Lori Berd

Erebuni

..

• LBA II-EIA I, 13th-9th centuries BCE• 400 hectares• Salvage of 160 burials 1987-89, unpublished• American-Armenia investigations 1990, 1992, 1993

Site Plan: R. Badaljan et al., Archaeological Investigations at Horom in the Shirak Plain in North-West Armenian, 1990. Iran 30: 31-48, 1993 T1 T2

Burial plans: R. Badaljan et al. Preliminary Report on the 1992 Excavations at Horom, Armenia. Iran 31: 1-24, 1993

Sample Preparation and Ablation

Samples• 50, copper-based

• Implements:Banding, wire, a dagger, and 22 arrowheads

• Ornaments: clothing plaques, rings, pins, hammered sheeting, pommels, and pendants

• Set in Buehler Epo-Thin epoxy, ground and polished

Ablation• New Wave UP-213 laser ablation system (on right)

• UHP helium and argon as carrier

Drift correction and matrix suppression• Laser ablation gas introduced with liquid internal

standard (20 ppb Rh, Ru and Ir)

Thermo X-II ICP-QMS

New Wave UP 213 Laser Ablater

Analysis of unknowns

• 5 certified copper and bronze standards:

• B10, B12, 51.13-4, 71.32-4, SRM-494

Calibration• Speakman and Neff(2005),

Neff and Dudgeon (2006)

EDS copper values

Sample Heterogeneity

EDS element maps• Backscatter mode

• 20 kv

• Phasing in tin bronzes

• HFW 800, 1000 and 100 micrometers

• 500 micrometer raster pattern selected (with some variation on smaller samples)

Standardization and Calibration

Experimental Detection Limits

Analyte (Isotope) Detection Limit (ppm)27Al 1.0155Mn 2.2657Fe 12.8959Co 0.1862Ni 1.6165Cu 2878.6167Zn 0.7775As 56.0982Se 0.12109Ag 1.35117Sn 213.45121Sb 2.88139La 0.02197Au 0.02204Pb 9.84209Bi 0.19

Results

Conclusions

• New information on the system of copper-based metallurgy in the South Caucasus in the LBA - EIA

• Hypothesis: In the western zone that included present-day Armenia, artisans tended to reserve primary alloys for implement. Antimony appears to have been an extender of the bronze supply, possibly mixed with recycled materials.

• Promise for the use of (relatively inexpensive and accessible) LA-ICP-MS with EDS for characterizing metal groups and trace elements associated with the ores that were used to discriminate intentional from accidental alloying.

Funding Agencies American Councils for International Education / National Councils for Eurasian and East European

Research US National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Research, Faculty Research Committee and Humanities and Social Sciences Research

Committee, Idaho State University

Research Centers / Institutes Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy, Idaho State University Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Armenia (NAS

RA) Institute of Geological Sciences, NAS RA Institute for the History and Archaeology of the Volga Institute of Archaeology, Daghestan Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Acknowledgments

Thank you!

Students and Colleagues from Idaho State University Field Museum of Natural History Oxford Materials Wellesley College