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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Martin OdlerORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The paper offers a preliminary report on the corpus of metalworking material of the Middle Bronze Age / Middle Kingdom from Elephantine Island, located within Aswan in Egypt. Several excavation seasons of the "Realities of Life" project, led by Johanna Sigl (German Archaeological Institute Cairo), focused on a small part of the Middle Kingdom settlement on the island. The main deposits are datable from the 11th to 13th Dynasties, and meticulous excavations allow the authors to focus on the minute details of the ancient day-to-day reality. Among the uncovered finds were several hundreds of rather small green copper "blobs", coming from metalworking. The production must have happened elsewhere in the settlement, as no metallurgical installations were identified in the trenches. The true nature of the corpus was uncovered with the use of portable XRF spectrometer Niton XL3. Almost 500 unique spectra were produced, and with the help of archaeometallurgical analysis, the authors are able to demonstrate that the remains, although insignificant in size, cover the complete chaîne opératoire of the copper production, from the ores, through the crucible fragments, prills and slags, i. e. metallurgical waste, to the finished artefacts. The specific alloys represented are predominantly arsenical coppers, with gradually increasing number of early tin bronzes. The paper provides a brief description of methodology, selected initial results, and illustrations of the specific find categories, coming from the largest uncovered structure, House 169 of the 13th Dynasty.
Author(s): Odler M, Kmosek J
Editor(s): Kilian, A; Pruß, A; Zöller-Engelhardt, M;
Publication type: Book Chapter
Publication status: Published
Book Title: Excavating the Extra-Ordinary 2: Challenges & Merits of Working with Small Finds. Proceedings of the International Workshop at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 25–26 November 2022
Year: 2024
Pages: 181-202
Online publication date: 02/10/2024
Acceptance date: 12/03/2024
Edition: 1
Number of Volumes: 1
Publisher: Propylaeum
Place Published: Heidelberg
URL: https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1382.c19775
DOI: 10.11588/propylaeum.1382.c19775
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 9783969293133
