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Oxhide Copper Ingots in Crete and Cyprus and the Bronze Age Metals Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

N. H. Gale  and
Z. A. Stos-Gale
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Abstract

Lead isotope and neutron activation analyses of second millennium BC copper ingots are described. Examples from Cyprus, from the Mathiati hoard, and from Skouriotissa are consistent, and show similarities with Late Cypriot bronze artefacts from Hala Sultan Teke and Ayios Dhimitrios. Analysis of the Hagia Triada ingots shows that these Cretan examples were not imports from Cyprus. The possibility that they used Cretan ores is discussed and rejected. It is tentatively suggested they may be of Anatolian origin. It is clear that the Late Bronze Age metal trade was organized on a more complex basis than was previously assumed to be the case.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 81 , November 1986 , pp. 81 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1986

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References

Acknowledgements. We are very grateful to Professor Y. Sakellarakis both for allowing us to take samples from the Hagia Triadha ingots and for his generous assistance and advice. We wish to thank A. Fountoulakis for his valuable assistance in sampling the ingots and Dr H. W. Catling and other members of the British School at Athens for their continued support for and assistance with our work in Greece. This work was supported by grants from the Science and Engineering Research Council, NATO (Grant No. 574/83), and the Leverhulme Trust.

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