Arsenical copper and bronze metallurgy during Late Bronze Age of north-eastern Iran: evidences from Shahrak-e Firouzeh a
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(2020) 12:231
ORIGINAL PAPER
Arsenical copper and bronze metallurgy during Late Bronze Age of north-eastern Iran: evidences from Shahrak-e Firouzeh archaeological site Omid Oudbashi 1
&
Mathias Mehofer 2 & Hassan Basafa 3 & Javad Tayyari 1 & Sepehr Bahadori 1
Received: 8 June 2020 / Accepted: 11 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Despite the importance of copper-base metallurgy during Iran’s Bronze Age, limited systematic scientific data exist on the alloying patterns and processes of the period. While it seems that tin bronze metallurgy existed in the Early Bronze Age in western Iran and it was widespread through the Middle and Late Bronze Age, tin bronze technology was less common in eastern Iranian Plateau during Bronze Age. In this paper, a multianalytical study has been undertaken on a series of copper alloy objects excavated from the Late Bronze Age site of Shahrak-e Firouzeh, Neyshabur, located in north-eastern Iran. The study was performed using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and scanning electron microscopyenergy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), as well as optical microscopy (metallography) methods. Results revealed that the prevalent copper-base metallurgy in the site was unalloyed and arsenical copper in general, with objects manufactured by a partially simple procedure, including cold working and annealing (not enough to remove the original coring occurred during solidification of the metallic ingots or pieces). These findings, coupled with comparative and descriptive interpretations, also showed that while tin bronze was made in Early Bronze Age of western Iran, arsenical copper was the main metallic material used in other parts of the country, in central and eastern Iran in particular. Keywords Late Bronze Age . Copper-base metallurgy . Shahrak-e Firouzeh . Arsenical copper . Annealing
Introduction Copper and its alloys were the main products of metallurgical activities worldwide for millennia. The earliest evidences of copper metalworking and metallurgy date back to ca. 10.000 years ago in the Ancient Near Eastern cultures (Ottaway 2001; Radivojević et al. 2010; Thornton 2009a; Roberts and Thornton 2014). The copper-base metallurgy includes working of native copper, extractive metallurgy of different copper ores and alloying processes in prehistoric times. The main
* Omid Oudbashi [email protected] 1
Department of Conservation of Cultural and Historical Properties, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2
Vienna Institute of Archaeological Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
3
Department of Archaeology, University of Neyshabur, Neyshabur, Iran
copper alloys used in the prehistoric time were copper with significant amounts of various impurities (unalloyed or impure copper), early accidentally Cu-As alloys obtained from direct smelting As-bearing copper ores (arsenical copper) and intentionally Cu-As alloys with higher arsenic content (arsenical copper or bronze) as well as tin bronz
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