Technè
La science au service de l’histoire de l’art et de la préservation des biens culturels
43 | 2016
Une Europe de la recherche en sciences du patrimoine
Studies on Romanian prehistoric bronze artifacts at ATOMKI Debrecen
Bogdan Constantinescu, Angela Vasilescu, Catalina Chiojdeanu and Daniela Stan
Electronic version
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/techne/684 DOI: 10.4000/techne.684
ISSN: 2534-5168 Publisher C2RMF Printed version
Date of publication: 1 August 2016 Number of pages: 61
ISBN: 978-2-7118-6338-9 ISSN: 1254-7867 Electronic reference
Bogdan Constantinescu, Angela Vasilescu, Catalina Chiojdeanu and Daniela Stan, « Studies on Romanian prehistoric bronze artifacts at ATOMKI Debrecen », Technè [Online], 43 | 2016, Online since 19 December 2019, connection on 15 September 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/techne/
684
La revue Technè. La science au service de l’histoire de l’art et de la préservation des biens culturels est mise à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
Une Europe de la recherche en sciences du patrimoine TEC H N È n° 43, 2016
61
References
1. Lyubomirova et al., 2015; Pernicka et al., 1993; Pernicka et al., 1997; Radivojevic et al., 2010.
2. Petrescu-Dimbovita, 1997.
3. Vasilescu et al., 2013.
Bibliography
Lyubomirova V., Djingova R., Kuleff I., 2015,
“Comparison of analytical tehniques for analysis of archaeological bronze”, Archaeometry, 57, 4, p. 677-686.
Pernicka E., Begemann F., Schmitt-Strecker S., Wagner G.A., 1993, “Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age Copper artefacts from the Balkans and their relation to Serbian Copper ores”, Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 68, p.1-54.
Pernicka E., Begemann F., Schmitt-Strecker S., Todorova H., Kuleff I., 1997,
“Prehistoric Copper in Bulgaria – Its composition and provenance”, Eurasia Antiqua, 3, p. 41-180.
Petrescu-Dimbovita M., 1997, Bronze deposits in Romania, Editura Academiei, Bucharest.
Radivojevic M., Rehren T., Pernicka E., Sljivar D., Brauns M., Boric D., 2010,
“On the origins of extractive metallurgy: new evidence from Europe”, J. Arch. Sci., 37, p. 2775-2787.
Vasilescu A., Constantinescu B., Chiojdeanu C., Stan D., Simon R., Ceccato D., Simon A., Kertesz Z., Szikszai Z., Uzonyi I., Csedreki L., Furu E., 2013,
“Elemental characterization of Bronze Age copper objects by micro-beam measurements”, Romanian Reports in Physics, Vol. 65, No. 4, P., p. 1222-1233.
Fig. 2. Geographical distribution of archaeological deposits cyanide and geological copper sources red.
Fig. 1. Examples of analyzed artifacts. © Bogdan Constantinescu.
Compositional studies on ancient bronze artefacts and on the possible provenance of their copper and tin contents are performed all around the world. For South-Eastern Europe, Balkan Bronze Age artifacts have been studied in relation to the compositional pattern of ancient mines from Serbia and Bulgaria1.
We decided to start a similar investigation on Bronze Age bronze artifacts found on Romanian territory and to compare the results with already published data on old regional mines – Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria. A series of 30 samples from 12 Bronze Age copper-based objects2 – sickles, celts, knives, small ingots (fi g. 1) – belonging to Santana (votive deposit), Spalnaca (foundry deposit), Drajna de Jos (votive deposit) and two native copper samples from Balan (Eastern Transylvania) and Rudabanya.Santana, Spalnaca and Drajna de Jos deposits (fi g. 2) have been studied by micro- PIXE at ATOMKI.
The results3 showed that trace elements like cobalt, sele- nium, bismuth, mercury and brome as well as indium and silver could be possible indicators of certain metal sources.
More specifi cally, mercury has been identifi ed in a Hungarian native copper sample and lead a Transylvanian source. Bismuth has been detected in a set of Drajna sickles, partly superposed with a set containing mercury; this suggests partly use of re- melted Alpine and maybe also Hungarian copper (and prob- able commercial links with the region).
Micro-PIXE can describe the local composition of the objects, the local in-homogeneity in their structure and put in evidence the presence of trace elements in the copper (Sb, Co, Ag, Se). Averaged over a suffi cient area, they can give an accurate global composition of the material. We can suggest possible sources for some items, mainly for early objects made of impure copper, less for later bronzes, due to remelting.
Studies on Romanian prehistoric bronze artifacts at ATOMKI Debrecen
Bogdan Constantinescu Angela Vasilescu Catalina Chiojdeanu Daniela Stan
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