Abstract
Analysis of prehistoric copper and bronze in the Caucasus was performed previously on thousands of objects with arc optical emission spectroscopy (OES). While arc OES is no longer widely used in archaeometry, LA-ICP-MS has shown great promise for isotopic and chemical analysis of ancient copper and bronze artifacts. In order to explore the effectiveness of LA-ICP-MS for the characterization of materials in a large group of ancient copper-based metalwork from the South Caucasus, we analyzed 48 metal artifacts from the Horom necropolis and 16 from the Karashamb necropolis, at Idaho State University’s Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy (CAMAS). These artifacts had been recovered from burials dating to the late second–early first millennium bc, a period noted for the use of a variety of copper alloy mixtures, including antimony bronze (which is very unusual at this early period in Europe and Asia). The metal artifacts from Horom had been previously analyzed by arc OES at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Yerevan, Armenia. This provided the opportunity to compare the performance of arc OES with LA-ICP-MS for analysis of variations in the use of copper alloys in ancient metal artifacts. In addition to LA-ICP-MS, EDS was used to analyze major elements, especially the proportion of copper in relation minor and trace elements that were measured with LA-ICP-MS. Besides unalloyed copper, the alloys detected by EDS and arc OES included mixtures with arsenic, tin, lead and antimony. More alloys were detected in the assemblage by LA-ICP-MS and EDS than with arc OES. This may be because copper levels were measured by EDS allowing the results for all elements to be normalized in proportion to copper. Normalization of results was therefore not possible with arc OES, which is another advantage of using LA-ICP-MS together with EDS.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The majority of these analyses are summarized by Chernykh (1992).
- 2.
In addition to the OES results, additional points of comparison are available from XRF and neutron activation analysis of samples from other copper and bronze artifacts from Armenia that were collected previously by Meliksetian and colleagues (Meliksetian et al. 2003a, b; Meliksetian et al. 2007; Meliksetian and Pernicka 2010). However, these are discussed only in passing here since those analyses were not conducted on the same objects as those described in this chapter.
- 3.
These ores are more difficult to smelt into metallic copper than the weathered oxide ores that would have been encountered earlier in the upper levels of deposits.
- 4.
In other projects using other techniques, copper, bronze, antimony and lead artifacts as well as Armenian copper ores have been analyzed at the Curt-Englehorn Zentrum, Mannheim (Meliksetian et al. 2003a, b; Meliksetian et al. 2007; Meliksetian and Pernicka 2010). Other ongoing archaeometallurgical research in the South Caucasus includes investigations of ancient gold mining in Georgia by Stöllner, Gambashidze, and Hauptmann (Hauptmann et al. 2010; Hauptmann and Klein 2009), and research recently initiated on the Sotk mine and neighboring sites in Armenia under the direction of Ernst Pernicka.
- 5.
By three of us: Dudgeon, Tromp, and Peterson.
- 6.
A closer examination of the dating and periodization of the Horom metalwork is beyond the scope of the present discussion.
- 7.
SRM B10 and B12 are from the Centre de Développement des Industries de Mise en Forme des Matériaux, France, and 51.13-4, 71.32-4 are from the Bureau of Analysed Samples Ltd, England.
- 8.
Another strategy for dealing with heterogeneity in a situation in which it is not possible to remove samples for SEM-EDS visualization, such as analysis through the corroded surface of a bronze, might be to sample numerous points and to average the results. However, it is not possible to say how many points would be sufficient in a given case.
References
Badaljan R, Edens C, Kohl PL, Tonikjan AV (1992) Archaeological investigations at Horom in the Shirak Plain of North-Western Armenia. Iran 30:31–48
Badaljan R, Edens C, Gorny R, Kohl PL, Stronach D, Tonikjan AV, Hamayakjan S, Mandrikjan S, Zardarjan M (1993) Preliminary report on the 1992 excavations at Horom, Armenia. Iran 31:1–24
Badaljan R, Kohl PL, Stronach D, Tonikjan AV (1994) Preliminary report on the 1993 excavations at Horom, Armenia. Iran 32:1–29
Badalyan RS, Agekyan OK (1991) Excavations of early Iron Age burials in the Horom cemetery situated on the territory of the Artik Reservoir. Abstracts of papers given at the scientific session devoted to field archaeological investigations in the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan (in Armenian)
Burchuladze AA, Togonidze GI (1987) Tblisi radiocarbon dates IV. Radiocarbon 29:239–262
Chernykh EN (1992) Ancient metallurgy in the USSR. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Chernykh EN (2009) Formation of the Eurasian steppe belt cultures: viewed through the lens of archaeometallurgy and radiocarbon dating. In: Hanks B, Linduff K (eds) Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: monuments, metals and mobility. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 115–145
Dussubieux L (2007) Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry of ancient copper alloy artifacts. In: Glascock MD, Speakman RJ, Popelka-Filcoff, RS (eds) Archaeological chemistry: analytical methods and archaeological interpretation. ACS publication series 968. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, p 336–348
Dussubieux L, Deraisme A, Frot G, Stevenson C, Creech A, Bienvenu Y (2008) LA-ICP-MS, SEM-EDS and EPMA analysis of Eastern North American copper-based artifacts: impact of corrosion and heterogeneity on the reliability of the LA-ICP-MS compositional results. Archaeometry 50:643–657
Gevorkyan A (1980) Iz istorii drevneyschey metallurgii Armyanskogo nagor’ya. Yerevan
Gevorkyan A (2009) Reflections on metal production in Armenia during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. Armazd 4:36–54
Hauptmann A, Klein S (2009) Bronze Age gold in Southern Georgia. Revue d’archéométrie 33:75–82
Hauptmann A, Bendall CHR, Brey GP, Japarize I, Gambasidze I, Klein S, Prange M, Stöllner TH (2010) Gold in Georgien. Analytische Untersuchungen an Goldartefakten und an Naturgold aus dem Kaukasus und dem Transkaukasus. In: Hansen S, Hauptmann A, Motzenbäcker I, Pernicka E (eds) Von Majkop bis Trialeti. Gewinnung und Verbreitung von Metallen und Obsidian in Kaukasien im 4. - 2. Jt. v. Chr. Habelt, Bonn, pp 139–160
Kohl PL (2007) The making of Bronze Age Eurasia. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY
Kushnareva KKh (1997) The Southern Caucasus in prehistory: stages of cultural and socioeconomic development from the eighth to the second millennium B.C. University Museum Monograph 99. The University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, PA
Lechtman H, Klein S (1999) The production of copper–arsenic alloys (arsenic bronze) by cosmelting: modern experiment, ancient practice. J Archaeol Sci 26:497–526
Meliksetian K, Pernicka E (2010) Geochemical characterisation of Armenian Early Bronze Age metal artefacts and their relation to copper ores. In: Hansen S, Hauptmann A, Motzenbäcker I, Pernicka E (eds) Von Majkop bis Trialeti. Gewinnung und Verbreitung von Metallen und Obsidian in Kaukasien im 4. - 2. Jt. v. Chr. Habelt, Bonn, pp 41–58
Meliksetian Kh, Pernicka E, Avetissyan P, Simonyan H (2003a) Chemical and lead isotope characterisation of Middle Bronze Age bronzes and Some Iron Age antimony objects (Armenia). In: Proceedings, second international conference archaeometallurgy in Europe, vol 2. Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia, Milan
Meliksetian Kh, Pernicka E, Badalyan R, Avetissyan P (2003b) Geochemical characterization of Armenian Early Bronze Age copper based artefacts and their relation to copper ores. Proceedings, second international conference archaeometallurgy in Europe, vol 1. Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia, Milan
Meliksetian Kh, Pernicka E, Badalyan R (2007) Compositions and some considerations on the provenance of Armenian Early Bronze Age copper artefacts. In: Proceedings, second international conference archaeometallurgy in Europe, Aquiliea, Italy, 17–21 June 2007. Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia, Milan
Meredith C, Peterson D, Tromp M, Dudgeon J, Gevorkyan A, Meliksetian Kh (2011) New standards in the analysis of archaeological metalwork using LA-ICP-MS: a case study from the South Caucasus archaeometallurgy project. Poster displayed at the 76th annual meeting of the society for American archaeology, Sacramento, 30 March–3 April 2011
Neff H, Dudgeon JV (2006) LA-ICP-MS analysis of ceramics and ceramic raw materials from the Gila River Indian Community, Arizona. Research report: Institute for Integrated Research in Materials, Environments, and Society, California State University, Long Beach, CA
Oganesian VE (1992) A silver goblet from Karashamb. Sov Anthropol Arch 30:84–102
Ouzounian JG (1984) Armenian astronomy in the Bronze Age. Archaeoastronomy 7:105–109
Peterson D (2012) Forging social networks: metallurgy and the politics of value in Bronze Age Eurasia. In: Hartley CW, Yazıcıoğlu GB, Smith AT (eds) The archaeology of power and politics in Eurasia: regimes and revolutions. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, pp 283–301
Peterson D, Gevorkyan A, Meliksetian K, Bobokhyan A, Dudgeon J, Tromp M, Hovakimyan S, Vardanyan A, Meredith C, Schneyder T (2011) The South Caucasus Archaeometallurgy project: investigation of early mining and metal production on the Armenian Plateau. An interim report. In: Hauptmann A, Modaressi-Tehrani D, Prange M (eds) International conference, Archaeometallurgy in Europe III, Abstracts, Metalla 4. Duetsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, p 213
Pike AWG (2002) Appendix: Analysis of Caucasian metalwork – the use of antimonal, arsenical and tin bronze in the Late Bronze Age. In: Curtis J, Kruszynski M, Pike AWG, Searight A (eds) Ancient Caucasian and related materials in the British Museum. British Museum Occasional Paper 121. The British Museum, London, p 87–92
Scott D (1991) Metallography and microstructure of ancient and historic metals. Getty Museum, Malibu
Smith AT, Badalyan R, Avetisyan P (2009) The archaeology and geography of ancient Transcaucasian Societies I: the foundations of research and regional survey in the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia. Oriental Institute Press, Chicago, IL
Speakman RJ, Neff H (eds) (2005) Laser ablation ICP-MS in archaeological research. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Aram Gevorkyan (Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan, Armenia) for providing the results of Arc OES analysis of metalwork from Horom presented in Table 8.4. Some of the results discussed here were presented at the Archaeometallurgy in Europe III conference (June 28–July 1, 2011) at the Deutsches-Bergbau Museum, Bochum, Germany (Peterson et al. 2011), and were the subject of a poster displayed at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Sacramento, California (Meredith et al. 2011). This research was sponsored by the American Councils for International Education and the National Councils for Eurasian and East European Research, through a National Endowment for the Humanities International Collaborative Research Fellowship in 2009–2010 for Collaborative Investigations of Early Mining and Metal Production on the Armenian Plateau, ca. 7000–800 bce (David Peterson, PI). Additional support was provided by Idaho State University’s Faculty Research Committee (2009–2010) and Humanities and Social Sciences Research Committee (2010). Laure Dussubieux (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) graciously provided copper and bronze standards utilized in the LA-ICP-MS analysis. The objects analyzed were recovered in excavations at Horom directed by Ruben Badalyan and O. K. Agekyan in 1987–1989 (Badalyan and Agekyan 1991). Many thanks to Idaho State University Anthropology students Adam Clegg for preparation of Fig. 8.2, and Bradley Paige for Fig. 8.3.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Peterson, D.L., Dudgeon, J.V., Tromp, M., Bobokhyan, A. (2016). LA-ICP-MS Analysis of Prehistoric Copper and Bronze Metalwork from Armenia. In: Dussubieux, L., Golitko, M., Gratuze, B. (eds) Recent Advances in Laser Ablation ICP-MS for Archaeology. Natural Science in Archaeology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49894-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49894-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-49892-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-49894-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)