Andreas Hauptmann

Early Bronze Age metallurgy: a newly discovered copper manufactory in southern Jordan

Recent excavations in southern Jordan have revealed the largest Early Bronze Age (c. 3600-2000 BC) metal manufactory in the ancient Near East. On-site Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses of the finds provide new evidence concerning the scale and organization of metal production at a time when the first cities emerged in this part of the Near East. Materials and lead isotope analyses of the metallurgical finds provide important data for reconstructing ancient metal processing and for identifying trade networks.

Copper objects from Arad - Their composition and provenance

We report lead isotope data and trace element contents for 21 copper artifacts from EB I/II layers at Arad and for 3 contemporaneous copper objects from the southern Sinai. All objects are made of pure, unalloyed copper; tin contents are invariably far below 1 percent, and arsenic in two cases reaches up to about 1 percent. We argue that even the latter is not due to intentional addition of arsenic to improve the qualities of the implements as such but is rather an incidental constituent. Also reported are results for copper ores from six deposits in the southern Sinai. Their lead isotope abundance ratios are distinctly different from those in the artifacts; a derivation of the artifacts from ores like these can definitely be excluded. There is excellent agreement, on the other hand, in the lead isotope fingerprint and the trace element abundances, between the artifacts and copper metal from Feinan and Timna. All present evidence points to these source areas as having supplied a considerable fraction of the metal retrieved at EB I/II Arad, with circumstantial evidence favoring Feinan over Timna. The results challenge previously held assumptions that Arad was a major trading center for copper from Sinai.

On Early Bronze Age Copper Bar Ingots from the Southern Levant

We report on late Early Bronze Age (crescent-shaped) copper bar ingots from Khirbat Hamra Ifdan, Faynan, Jordan, from Har Yeruham in the central Negev, and from a stray find hoard from the Hebron Hills. All these ingots are composed of pure copper, with remarkably constant phase content and texture as well as concentrations of trace elements and lead isotope abundance ratios. We suggest the origin of these ingots to be the copper district of Faynan, Jordan. There are two reasons for the almost identical composition of the ingots. First, the Dolomite-Limestone-Shale Unit (Burj) that was mined during this time period in Faynan is characterized by a homogeneously composed copper mineralization. Second, copper lumps and prills, as well as copper-rich slags delivered from various smelting sites in this area to the central copper workshop of Khirbat Hamra Ifdan, were commonly remelted and recycled. This resulted in a characteristic cluster-fingerprint of Early Bronze Age Faynan copper, which was also identified in numerous bar ingots found elsewhere in the southern Levant.

The potential of stable Cu isotopes for the identification of Bronze Age ore mineral sources from Cyprus and Faynan: results from Uluburun and Khirbat Hamra Ifdan

Copper isotope ratios differ between hypogene sulfidic, supergene sulfidic and oxidized ore sources. Traditional lead isotope signatures of ancient metals are specific to deposits, while Cu isotope signatures are specific to the types of ore minerals used for metal production in ancient times. Two methodological case studies are presented: First, the mining district of Faynan (Jordan) was investigated. Here, mainly oxidized copper ores occur in the deposits. The production of copper from Fayan’s ore sources is confirmed by the measurement of the Cu isotope signature of ingots from the Early Bronze Age metal workshop from Khirbat Hamra Ifdan. Based on our results illustrating differences in the Cu isotope composition between the ore mineralizations from Timna (Israel) and Faynan, it is now possible to determine these prehistoric mining districts from which copper artifacts originated by combining trace elements and Pb isotopes with Cu isotopes. The second case study presents data on Late Bronze Age copper production in Cyprus. Oxhide ingots from the shipwreck of Uluburun (Turkey) were tested for their lead isotope signatures and assigned to Cypriot deposits in the recent decades. The oxhide ingots from Uluburun show a Cu isotope signature which we also found for oxidized copper ores from Cyprus, while younger oxhide ingots as well as metallurgical slag from the Cypriot settlements Kition and Enkomi show a different signature which might be due to the use of sulfidic ore sources from a greater depth of deposits. We assert that there could be a chronological shift from oxidized to sulfidic ore sources for the copper production in Cyprus, requiring different technologies. Therefore, Cu isotopes can be used as a proxy to reconstruct mining and induced smelting activities in ancient times.

Coins from Faynan, Jordan

Abstract During extensive field studies of ancient copper production at Faynan in 1963 and between 1984 and 1997, 1395 coins were collected, of which 1013 have been identified in detail. Of these, 103 coins had been minted between about 300 BC and AD 312. They include 7 Ptolemaic, 6 Jewish, 40 Nabataean, 17 Roman provincial and civic and 9 Roman imperial coins. 609 coins have been dated between 312 and the severe earthquake of AD 363. Field evidence suggests that during this period a Roman garrison at Faynan intensified the production of copper. The following 60 years are represented by 643 coins, the next 225 years by only 18 coins. No coins have been found from the periods AD 655 to 1210 and AD 1360 to 1800. Eleven Islamic coins date the last major efforts to revive copper production to between AD 1210 and 1360.

Types of Gold, Types of Silver: The Composition of Precious Metal Artifacts Found in the Royal Tombs of Ur, Mesopotamia

Abstract The many gold and silver artifacts from the Early Dynastic Royal Tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia are among the greatest metal finds of Ancient Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC. Within the framework of a research project, 32 of these artifacts were analyzed for their composition using a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and a scanning electron microscope. Predominantly gold-silver alloys rather than pure gold were identified, containing up to 50 wt.% of silver and often with additional copper content well above 10 wt.%. This spectrum of composition ranges from alloys that could be of natural origin to alloys that were intentionally produced. Some gold artifacts were deliberately blended to gold-silver-copper alloys for color gradation. In addition, Sumerian written sources from the end of the third millennium BC can be compared to the results of the analyses of this study and offer more information on the processing of these metals at that time. In the present study, it is shown that gold originating from placer deposits was brought to Ur. Direct association of gold artifacts with lapis lazuli in many precious objects from the Royal Tombs and the particular composition of inclusions of platinum group minerals in the worked gold both point to a possible provenance in northern Afghanistan. One significant result was the confirmation of the use of depletion gilding for the removal of copper from surfaces; the technique of refining silver-bearing gold, known as parting, is not thought to have been known at this time. A previous version of this paper has been presented as a talk at the 62e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale of Philadelphia 11th–15th July 2016 by A. Hauptmann, S. Klein and R. Zettler under the title: “A. Hauptmann, S. Klein, and R. Zettler, Sorts of Gold, Sorts of Silver from the Royal Tombs of Ur, Mesopotamia”. “For the late Hans-Gert Bachmann, the pioneer of ancient gold metallurgy. (Andreas Hauptmann)”