Archaeometallurgy – Materials Science Aspects

The primary objective of this new edition is the interdisciplinary exploration of ancient geo-resources—including copper, gold, silver, lead, tin, and iron—and their impact on early metalworking through a combination of traditional and modern scientific investigative methods. It examines the chaîne opératoire, tracing the entire process from the extraction of raw materials (mining archaeology) to the production and alloying of metals through technological operations (archaeometallurgy), which leave behind archaeological traces that are often fragmentary and require reconstruction to understand ancient metallurgical practices.