Investigating past metallurgical technologies with a wide geographical and diachronic focus in Europe, the Mediterranean and western Asia. Currently, I am an MSCA postdoctoral fellow at LMU looking at social transformations in Late Bronze Age Greece through the lens of metallurgical technology as part of the project Changing World.
Address: Institute for Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, LMU Munich, Schellingstrasse 12, 80799 Munich
Address: Institute for Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, LMU Munich, Schellingstrasse 12, 80799 Munich
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Papers by Vana Orfanou
200 metal tools and weapons, we use data reduction methods to define technological pathways in the long biographies of hoarded objects extending across the sourcing of materials, production, use, decommissioning, and deposition in the Carpathian Basin. We show how the differential treatment of materials and objects was strongly biased by social decisions across artefact types. We identify shared, standardised signature treatments that crossed over social-spatial boundaries. Our findings bring new insights on the interface between communal and elite wealth management at the intersection of technological reasoning and cultural beliefs in prehistoric communities.
We examined an assemblage of 72 copper alloy pins from the Athena Alea sanctuary at Tegea in central Peloponnese, Greece, dated to the 9th-7th centuries BCE, with a stereo-microscope and with micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The microscopic and elemental analyses investigated the technology and metalworking practices used in the sanctuary’s votives with a micro-invasive analytical protocol. Results confirmed that the assemblage consists of copper-tin binary alloys and provide evidence for the continuity of bronze in the Tegea area during the Geometric (9th-7th century BCE) and Orientalising (7th century BCE) periods. Most of the artefacts are made of bronze with an average tin content of ca. 9 wt% Sn, while a small group (n= 3) of pins is tin-free (<0.3 wt% Sn). Tin concentrations in the alloys do not correlate with the typology of the pins. The results further suggest an intentional addition of tin, as indicated by the normal distribution of tin values, along with a local metallurgical technology, that catered for the local sanctuary’s demand for votive objects.
With contributions by Andreas Rhoby, Paul Hetherington, Olga Shashina, Martin Dennert, Sabrina Schäfer, Anastasios Antonaras, Antje Steinert, Jessica Schmidt, Nikos Kontogiannis, Vana Orfanou, Holger Kempkens, Irina A. Sterligova, Vesna Bikić and Martina Horn.
200 metal tools and weapons, we use data reduction methods to define technological pathways in the long biographies of hoarded objects extending across the sourcing of materials, production, use, decommissioning, and deposition in the Carpathian Basin. We show how the differential treatment of materials and objects was strongly biased by social decisions across artefact types. We identify shared, standardised signature treatments that crossed over social-spatial boundaries. Our findings bring new insights on the interface between communal and elite wealth management at the intersection of technological reasoning and cultural beliefs in prehistoric communities.
We examined an assemblage of 72 copper alloy pins from the Athena Alea sanctuary at Tegea in central Peloponnese, Greece, dated to the 9th-7th centuries BCE, with a stereo-microscope and with micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The microscopic and elemental analyses investigated the technology and metalworking practices used in the sanctuary’s votives with a micro-invasive analytical protocol. Results confirmed that the assemblage consists of copper-tin binary alloys and provide evidence for the continuity of bronze in the Tegea area during the Geometric (9th-7th century BCE) and Orientalising (7th century BCE) periods. Most of the artefacts are made of bronze with an average tin content of ca. 9 wt% Sn, while a small group (n= 3) of pins is tin-free (<0.3 wt% Sn). Tin concentrations in the alloys do not correlate with the typology of the pins. The results further suggest an intentional addition of tin, as indicated by the normal distribution of tin values, along with a local metallurgical technology, that catered for the local sanctuary’s demand for votive objects.
With contributions by Andreas Rhoby, Paul Hetherington, Olga Shashina, Martin Dennert, Sabrina Schäfer, Anastasios Antonaras, Antje Steinert, Jessica Schmidt, Nikos Kontogiannis, Vana Orfanou, Holger Kempkens, Irina A. Sterligova, Vesna Bikić and Martina Horn.
We welcome contributions that explore, but are not limited to: 1) cross-craft interactions; 2) innovation; and 3) knowledge transmission in material culture investigations. We encourage the integration of methodological and theoretical frameworks that are applicable in multiple case studies and hence more prone to cross-cultural application and comparison.
We wish to highlight the role that materials played in the weaving of the social fabric and the importance of comprehensive material studies that stem from social inquiry in archaeology. We hope that this session will provide ideas for impactful enquiry-driven archaeomaterials research, through examples of collaborative efforts or innovative approaches, which will foster the development of a more comprehensive investigation of material culture.
Social competition was a key aspect of community interactions in the past. This session adopts a material culture and materiality perspective to the diachronic investigation of social negotiation, including notions of 'otherness', in antiquity as understood through their tangible expressions. We consider spaces of negotiation as cultural settings of antagonism, where groups and individuals engaged in identity formation and consolidation through mechanisms of social competition, often through confrontation with the 'other', purposefully or unintentionally.
In this paper, results of the technological investigation of some 130 objects are presented. Metal analysis of the substrate and inlays was conducted with both particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Detailed macroscopic and microscopic observation with a digital microscope, as well as with X-radiography have been carried out in order to characterise further fabrication and decoration techniques.
Alloy recipes show a correlation between artefact typology, quality of fabrication and alloy recipes. The above has been suggested by the preliminary interpretation of the elemental analysis and artefact typology, while the present paper brings together data from the detailed microscopic examination of the collection too. Decoration techniques show a clear change spanning the 10th and 15th centuries with the notable introduction of gold inlays and new inlaying techniques at the end of the 13th c. Remarkable also is the steady use of lost-wax casting even for mass produced objects where sand casting would seem economically more appropriate. Furthermore, particular production centres in the region of Khorasan such as Herat were possible to be discerned. Finally, detailed investigation of this huge corpus provides for the first time key technical references for further comparison with neighbouring Near Eastern and Indian workshops.
Some questions that ResCom will tackle include:
* How can we define societal resilience so that it balances the effect of environmental and societal forces of change?
* How can insights from different pertinent disciplines contribute to promoting the use of the concept of resilience in archaeology given the fragmentary archaeological record?
* How can we quantify resilience using multiple proxies in a meaningful manner to avoid reliance on existing, flawed, top-down approaches?
* Overcoming stressors can enhance the resilience quality of a person according to psychologists and social workers. Can the same be said about larger units, namely societies?
* What is the role, if any, of hierarchies in societal resilience?
The study was also complemented by the archaeometallurgical examination by Orfanou of a selection of copper-based objects. Compositional characterisation was conducted with the use of a handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) as a starting point. Results revealed the use of unalloyed copper, bronze and leaded bronze, as well as traces of a conservation treatment of the early twentieth century which has enriched the artefacts’ surfaces in noticeable amounts of zinc (Dr G. Moraitou, Head of Conservation, NMA , pers. com.). Thus these results can only be used as semi-qualitative, while the discovery of the conservation treatment which the objects underwent, tells an interesting story about their object biographies. Invasive archaeometallurgical study of the assemblage is in progress.
The present paper aims to set the bronze offerings within a broader context of the metalliferous region of the Laureotike, Attica, by addressing the significance and the circumstances that may have led to their dedication at the two sanctuaries and to their subsequent deposition in the hallowed sites before and shortly after the Persian Wars (480/479 BC), as well as their typology, provenance, technology, function and use.
References
Theodoropoulou-Polychroniadis, Z. (2015) Sounion Revisited: The Sanctuaries of Poseidon and Athena at Sounion in Attica, Oxford.
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We are often told that looking at the past we will learn from our mistakes. But I do not think this is entirely true.
My answer is that the past can act as a training ground for empathy. We need knowledge about the past to help us bring the best out of ourselves and gain a deeper understanding of others, beyond our friends and family.
Recent investigations of an apparently ‘empty,’ partly disturbed Viking chamber grave in Denmark (Fregerslev II, dated around the mid-10th century CE) provided an opportunity to develop a novel multi-scale and multi-method analysis of burial and post-burial processes. To overcome the limitations of poor preservation of artefacts and bones, and the lack of a clear macrostratigraphic sequence, we integrated multi-proxy analyses of organic and inorganic materials to study the spatial architecture, burial, and post-depositional processes, including soil chemistry (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry - ICPMS, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer - pXRF), soil micromorphology, archaeobotany (wood, seeds, fruits, phytoliths), palynology (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs), and faecal lipid biomarkers. The results enabled the detailed characterisation, spatial analysis, and sequencing of burial deposits, and the identification of post-depositional factors responsible for the poor preservation of the burial. Soil, phytolith and pollen data indicated that the base of the grave was covered with a matting of plant material, and there was no wooden floor. Faecal biomarkers detected substantial amounts of faecal matter, most probably originating from horse faeces, suggesting that a horse died in situ, and trace amounts of pig faeces, which are more likely to have been trampled into the grave. Enriched phosphorus concentrations could be linked to the bodies in the northern and southern sector of the grave. Furthermore, enrichment in lead was found where metal objects were recovered. The findings from Fregerslev II show that integrating high-resolution approaches to the analysis of poorly preserved burial contexts can fundamentally transform archaeological interpretations.
Lead Isotope Analysis (LIA) has been applied most often as a means of provenancing copper at the macro scale. Here we use LIA at the regional scale to expose the relationship between long-distance communication and local metal management strategies. We conducted lead isotope and chemical analysis on 82 objects and ingots from Late Bronze Age hoards of the south Carpathian Basin, a node in long distance networks. From a social perspective, results indicate the presence of a community of practice of metalworkers that went beyond sociopolitical boundaries. Analyses of ingots demonstrate that communities imported copper from a variety of distant sources, but local circulation and specific mixing and recycling practices created a characteristic chemical signature unique to this region. Moreover, metalworkers' choices of copper sources were tailored to specific object types. From an analytical perspective, we demonstrated that the frequent mixing of copper from different sources with varying lead concentrations to make objects resulted in the masking of LIA signatures for some sourceswe termed these 'ghost fractions' in mixturesby others with more lead.