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The Chemical Composition of Archaic Greek Bronze

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Extract

This paper sets forth the chemical analysis of a number of copper objects from Greece of the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages. The majority of these objects were picked up by me during my wanderings, and so are not exactly stratified or datable, but nevertheless may be assigned with tolerable certainty within the limits described. The collection from the Argive Heraeum was found in the temple rubbish-heaps; the pieces of determinate form are paralleled from Geometric times, so it is highly probable that the whole of this deposit is of the same date.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1935

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References

page 133 note 1 Pliny, N.H. xxxiv 9, 97.Google Scholar

page 133 note 2 Mosso, Atti Accad. Lincei. Mem. Classe Scienze morali, V, xii (1908) 479.Google Scholar

page 133 note 3 Villari, Monumenti Antichi iv (1894) 374.Google Scholar

page 133 note 4 B.S.A. xxviii 195.

page 133 note 5 de Launay Géologie de Lesbos.

page 133 note 6 Roman Mines in Europe 266.

page 133 note 7 B.S.A. xxx. 74.

page 133 note 8 The date is probably Mycenean. It is to be published in Mr. Heurtley's book Prehistoric Macedonia.

page 133 note 9 Roman Mines in Europe 253.

page 133 note 10 Radimský, , Wissenschaftliche Mitteilungen aus Bosnien und Herzegowina V 29.Google Scholar

page 134 note 1 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1932, 153.

page 134 note 2 Roman Mines in Europe 260.

page 134 note 3 Ibid. 240.

page 134 note 4 Rathgen, in Diergart Beiträge aus der Geschichte der Chemie.

page 134 note 5 Willers, Zeitschrift für Numismatik xxxiv (19241) 193.Google Scholar

page 134 note 6 Roman Mines in Europe 74.

page 134 note 7 E.g. sword no. 7 from Arkalochori (Hazzidakis, B.S.A. xix 35)Google Scholar, or a double axe from H. Triada (Mosso Origini della Civiltà mediterranea), or an axe from Psychro, though no negative constituents are given (Mosso, Atti Accad. Lincei, Mem. Classe Scienze morali, V. xii (1908) 479).Google Scholar

page 134 note 8 For slag from here cp. Roman Mines in Europe 270. A specimen which I examined contained 0·56% lead, o·1% antimony, no arsenic.

page 134 note 9 Roman Mines in Europe 267–8.

page 134 note 10 Baux, Matériaux (1884) 202.Google Scholar

page 134 note 11 Hertz, Revue Archéologique 1927, i, 48.Google Scholar

page 135 note 1 Mosso Origini della Civiltà mediterranea.

page 135 note 2 Mosso, Monumenti Antichi xix (19081) 349.Google Scholar

page 135 note 3 Rolfe, American Journal of Archaeology 1890, 96.Google Scholar

page 135 note 4 Roman Mines in Europe 240–41.

page 135 note 5 Ibid. 253.

page 135 note 6 Phillips, American Anthropologist xxiv (1922) 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 135 note 7 Schwabe, Jahrbuch des deutschen archäologischem Instituts 1886, 163.Google Scholar

page 135 note 8 Reports of the British Association 1929, 264.

page 135 note 9 Tsoúndas, Dimini and Sesklo.

page 136 note 1 Roman Mines in Europe 264.

page 136 note 2 Mosso Origini della Civiltà mediterranea.

page 136 note 3 Iron Ore Resources of the World (ed. XI Internationale Geologenkongress, Stockholm, 1910)Google Scholar; Scott, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1913, i, 447.Google Scholar

page 136 note 4 At Laurium, near Chaïdari, Grammatikon, and elsewhere. Cf. Roman Mines in Europe 247, 252; Kordellas,

page 136 note 5 Roman Mines in Europe 254–6; Philippson Der Peloponnes.

page 136 note 6 Cf. Roman Mines in Europe 256–64.

page 136 note 7 For the early date of the Elba workings cf. Roman Mines in Europe 68; Mellini, , Bollettino di Paletnologia italiana 1879, 84Google Scholar; and the amount of iron found at Perachora.

page 136 note 8 Cf. Aeschylus P.V. 733; Cratinus ap. Pollucem vii 107; Xenophon, Anab. V. 5, 1Google Scholar; and many later writers. Some locate them near the Halys (Ammianus Marcellinus xxii 8, 21), others behind Trapezus (Tzetzes, Chil. x 338).Google Scholar

page 136 note 9 A slag specimen, partly fused, contained 46–87% iron, no copper or lead. This site was presumably occupied by refugees from the sack of about 600 B.C., as it contains only late pottery (cf. Theognis 891). The town-wall is built of small rough stones, with occasional squared blocks. The name Kerinthos should date from the Early Bronze age, but its site at that date has not yet been discovered. It may have been one of the unidentified prehistoric settlements in the plain of Vatonta north of Chalkis.

page 136 note 10 A slag specimen contained 49·87% iron.

page 136 note 11 A specimen contained 61·44% iron.

page 136 note 12 A specimen contained 64·12% iron. The amount of silica was small, and this may be rusted iron and not slag.

page 137 note 1 A specimen contained 53·11% iron. The site contains mainly late objects, and was a centre for mercenaries in Hellenistic times, but I have seen a polished stone axe thence.

page 137 note 2 A specimen contained 62·88% iron. The ancient name of the village, Metallum, should indicate mines, but I heard of none. A specimen of sand which I took was kindly examined by Mr. Hartley; it contained about 3% heavy material including some flaky unrolled pieces of iron ore from some neighbouring deposit. Gold was thought unlikely to occur in this context.

page 137 note 3 A specimen contained 66·71% iron. Iron slag is said to occur also east of Vathý(Ithaca). There is ore on Atokos, perhaps the source of Pliny's, lapis Taphiusius (N.H. xxxvi 21, 150)Google Scholar, as the Taphians were located there.

page 137 note 4 Kordellas, id.,