Changing World - MSCA action

New study out on archaeometallurgy and the Bronze Age

What a pleasure and an honour to talk to this lovely bunch over at LMU Mineralogy last night about ancient metals, but also about William Morris, angry Roman emperors and (of course) Lord of the Rings

This, my friends, is a laser microscope 🤯

Through the looking glass 🔭

A (visual) story of metals, minerals and silicates

In the photo: Copper prill in crucible slag under reflected light microscopy (taken with a smartphone camera through the eye piece for extra effect) from the experiments we conducted with the amazing Brendan O’Neill and under the ever watchful eye of Barry Molloy last September at the UCD Experimental Archaeology and the UCD centre for experimental archaeology and material culture

We will be presenting results for the first time at Archaeometallurgy in Europe in Sweden in June

Because I did promise archaeometallurgy trivia on this page, here’s one on the D**g Son bronzes and Vietnam Airlines

Recently I travelled to Vietnam and took a ridiculous amount of domestic flights. Vietnam Airlines has two in-flight magazines. One for fashion, one for heritage. That is refreshing alone. But imagine finding in the heritage volume not one but 𝙩𝙬𝙤 archaeometallurgy relevant articles.

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First article on the 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘇𝗲𝘀:

• D**g Son culture located around the Red River Delta, Vietnam
• the bronzes dating to 600 BC made with lost-was casting
• measuring up to a 1m in height and 100 kg in weight
• both musical instruments and objects of worship)

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Second article on the 𝗛𝘂𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗻𝘀:

• located at the gate of the Hue imperial city
• dating to the 19th century
• symbolic protectors of the kingdom, but never actually used
• made of brass, measuring 5 m in length and 10 tons in weight

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And to top it all off, there was another article on contemporary ceramic artists

- I would write an archaeometallurgy article for your in-flight magazine

Hashtag make in-flight magazines better

An incredible publication led by Dr Caroline Bruyere at the Journal of Archaeological Science is just out.

Read to see 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗶𝘅 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵- 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘄-𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗿 ores and learn about 'ghost fractions' in the process

Also to see why and how this has important implications to our undestanding of past material exchange networks and of the Late Bronze Age society specifically.

Read open access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440324000232

publication alert from the LAB and The Fall of 1200 BC team ✒️

Have you heard of ‘𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨’? No? Then you’re in for a treat because we have just published a new study spearheaded by the amazing Dr Caroline Bruyere, where we demonstrate that:

The frequent mixing of copper from different sources with varying lead concentrations to make objects resulted in the masking of the low-lead LIA signatures by the high-lead ones. This means that in 𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐰-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐬, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐝.

This has extremely important implications on how we interpret Lead Isotope Analyses in ancient copper-based alloys and on how we understand trade and craftsmanship in the past generally in the past and in the 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘻𝘦 𝘈𝘨𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯 specifically

Read it all on our recent paper as part of The Fall of 1200 BC project:

𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙚, 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙮𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙞𝙭𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝘽𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙯𝙚 𝘼𝙜𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙣: 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙥𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙤𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠

Open access, of course

DOI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440324000232?via%3Dihub

𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱

During a wonderful collaboration with Brendan O’Neill and the UCD CEAMC - UCD Experimental Archaeology, we designed a series of metallurgical experiments to help us decode prehistoric metallurgy. We made crucibles based on finds in Late Bronze Age Romania (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-022-09566-6) and we conducted the experiments in Dublin in September 2023. Now the samples are being cut and processed in the lab in Munich.

We are also happy to share that we’ll be sharing our preliminary results at the 6th Archaeometallurgy in Europe in Sweden in June.

In the photos: the journey of the crucible from the field to the lab.

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 is looking at changing technologies in an ever changing social environment

Join is at the in Rome where we discuss enquiry-driven approaches to the study of past materials and technologies

Abstract submission deadline now extended to 12 February

Welcome to a Changing World 🔵

It's a changing world we live in. It has been and it will always be.

Some changes are more difficult to understand than others.

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This is where the Changing World project (funded via a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action) comes in to help us better understand the dramatic shifts in social organisation that took place during the Late Bronze Age, that ultimately brought the end of the Bronze Age itself.

We turn to metallurgy to give us clues about resource management and communication networks that reflect people's worldviews at the final Bronze Age in Greece.

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The project is run by Vana Orfanou at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich with the invaluable contributions by Prof. Philipp Stockhammer, and friends and colleagues from several ephorates of antiquities and museums in Greece.

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Stay tuned for learning more about how did the Bronze Age end, but also for:

🟠 Fun facts about the Late Bronze Age
🟠 Inside facts about some of the most important LBA sites in Greece
🟠 Weird facts about ancient metallurgy

and

🟠 Photographic highlights from this research journey

Below, photo of the Mycenaean cemetery at Voudeni, Achaia, with tombs overlooking the Gulf of Patras - one of the sites of interest for Changing World, when we visited with Nelly Kladouri last September.