Department of Protohistory and Near Eastern Archaeology, Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University, Beyazıt, Istanbul,Turkey.
PLoS One. 2020 Jul 16;15(7):e0234563. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234563. eCollection 2020.
The archaeometallurgical and archaeological research carried out in Anatolia has provided numerous examples of diverse alloying practices representing different levels of societal interaction, from the extraction of ores to the trade of finished goods and high level gift exchange among elites. While discussions abound about the exploitation of mines, mining settlements, possible origins of artifacts, resources of copper, arsenic, and especially tin to improve our knowledge about Anatolian Bronze Age mining and metallurgy, uncommon alloying practices including the use of antimony, nickel, or lead have long remained in the shadows of scholarly research. With the aim of bringing attention to the diversity in alloying practices in Anatolian metallurgy, this article focuses on the use of antimony through an appraisal of archaeological and textual evidence from Bronze Age Anatolia. Archaeometric data from several Early Bronze Age sites are re-examined alongside new data emerging from Resuloğlu (Çorum, Turkey) to explain the reduction of the variety of alloy types used. Portable-XRF analysis of artifacts from Resuloğlu and mineralogical analysis of an antimony-bearing ore fragment present evidence of use of antimony at the region during the Early Bronze Age. This period is followed by disappearance of antimony in material record until the Iron Age, while textual records weakly refer to its circulation within the region. This paper considers geological, technological, and socio-economic factors to explain why the use of antimony alloys falls dormant after the Early Bronze Age. The political and economic change towards centralization over geological and technological factors is proposed as an explanation.
安纳托利亚的考古冶金学和考古研究提供了许多不同合金实践的例子，代表了不同层次的社会互动，从矿石的提取到成品的贸易以及精英之间的高级礼品交换。虽然关于矿山开采、矿业定居点、工艺品可能的起源、铜、砷，特别是锡的资源的讨论很多，这些都有助于提高我们对安纳托利亚青铜时代矿业和冶金的认识，但包括使用锑、镍或铅在内的不常见的合金实践长期以来一直处于学术研究的阴影之中。本文旨在关注安纳托利亚冶金合金实践的多样性，通过评估青铜时代安纳托利亚的考古和文本证据，重点关注锑的使用。对几个早期青铜时代遗址的考古计量数据进行了重新检查，并结合土耳其雷苏洛格鲁（Çorum）的新数据，解释了所用合金类型种类的减少。雷苏洛格鲁遗址出土的文物的便携式 XRF 分析以及含锑矿石碎片的矿物学分析为该地区在早期青铜时代使用锑提供了证据。这一时期之后，直到铁器时代，锑在物质记录中消失，而文字记录则微弱地提到了它在该地区的流通。本文考虑了地质、技术和社会经济因素，以解释为什么在早期青铜时代之后，锑合金的使用会停滞不前。提出了政治和经济向集中化转变而不是地质和技术因素的解释。
