Eurasian and European Metallurgical Provinces of the Second Millennium BC: The Use of Scientific and Natural Methods to Investigate Their Interactions

• Timeframe: 2011-2012
• Funding Institution: Proyecto financiado por la convocatoria de Proyectos conjuntos CSIC (P2010RU03) Fundación Presidente de Rusia para la Investigación Fundamental (RFBR 11-06-93979)
• Leader researcher: Dra. Mª Isabel Martínez Navarrete (CCHS-CSIC)
• MAN researchers: Eduardo Galán Domingo

The team is led by Dr. Isabel Martínez Navarrete (Centre of Human and Social Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council, CCHS-CSIC) and involves Spanish researchers from the CSIC and Russian researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The project aims to describe mining and metallurgical production in the Eurasian and European metallurgical provinces (MPs) in the second millennium BC and to explore how these vast systems interacted with each other.

A “metallurgical province” is a system of interconnected or related mining and metallurgical or metalworking centres or points.

The project will define the two MPs according to the following parameters:

a) the systematic analysis of metal distribution in each of the main sites (deposits, necropolises, settlements) and regions (spatial analysis) where metal is found;

b) the dominant morphotypological groups of bronze: the chemical composition of the metal analysed and the main copper-based chemical-metallurgical groups;

c) the main mining and metallurgical centres in each province and their location;

d) the radiocarbon-based chronology of the different centres;

e) the palaeoeconomic context of the production centres in both provinces based on archaeobotanical and archaeozoological methods.

The team intends to publish the results of its research in a short monograph. The project is part of a wider study of ancient mining and metallurgical production in Eurasia during the first of the metal ages