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Confusing the Issue
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In what follows I present a few finds
that caused some confusion of the issue "history of metals", at least
as far as I'm concerned. This
link gets you to a module where the particular kind of confusion that
museums like to impart is discussed in some detail. |
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The good news are
here! |
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"The site (Çayönü) provided the
archaeological world with several 'first's' including animal husbandry, woven
cloth, smelted copper, ..."
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Well - no! It was
native copper. |
"Metallurgy:
Çayönü is believed to have been the main bead producing
centre during the early-Neolithic period.
Archaeologists discovered four early copper
items at Çayönü, dated at 7,200 BC - two pins, one
bent fish-hook and a reamer or awl - showing that its inhabitants were already
proficient at this time. Çayönü is the location of the
earliest known hammered copper objects,
(craftsmen produced oval-shaped copper beads) and smelted copper and bronze objects for at least 7,000 years." |
Hammered copper objects is fine!
Extrapolating from 4 tiny copper objects to smelting copper and bronze is not!
Actually more than 100 Cu items have been found. Nevertheless, it was not a
center - the Cu was rather an anomaly |
Source: Ancient-wisdom: "Exploring The Frontiers of Prehistory
Internet site" (generally a good site!) |
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Gold can be consolidated
far easier and at low
temperatures! |
Source: D. Killick and T. Fern: Archeometallurg: "The Study of
Preindustrial Mining and Metallurgy"; Annu. Rev: Anthropol. 41 (2012) p.
559 - 575. Otherwise a very informative review about
archeometallurgy. |
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Çatal Höyük
"Between 1961 and 1965 the British archeologist James Mellaart dug out an area in the south-west of
the mound. He unearthed the remains of 160 settlements. In 1965 his digging was
terminated because the Turkish authorities revoked his license based on his
purported involvement into the Dorak affair. Some preliminary reports and a
kind of popular-science book exist about his findings. An exhaustive publication about his findings and results has
not yet been issued. " |
This is not uncommon in
archeological circles. Writing an exhaustive report is not only time-consuming
and boring, worse, it gives your opponents material to attack your with.
It's far easier to promote your specific point of view if only you have access
to all data.
James Mellaart, by the way, did have a peculiar and controversial point of view
about how archeology should be conducted. I'm not saying that his point of view
was right or wrong - I don't know - but that he viewed Çatal
Höyük as an opportunity to prove it. This is dangerous. As the saying
goes: "if your only tool is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
nail".
This kind of (unscientific) behavior did produce some confusion about
Çatal
Höyük. |
Source: German version of the Çatal Höyük Wikipedia
article; translated by me |
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Varna
The excavations of what became known as the Varna I cemetery continued into the
1990s but a full publication of the site and its
archaeological finds is still awaited. |
See above.
It is rather difficult to find anything about the making of the Varna gold and
copper objects |
Source: John Chapman, Tom Higham, Vladimir Slavchev, Bisserka Gaydarska
and Noah Honch: The Social Context of the Emergence, Development and
Abandonment of the Varna Cemetery, Bulgaria European Journal of Archaeology
2006 9: 159 |
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Source: Tamara
Stech I'm sure that Tamara Stech is right. She also suspected that
those "lead" beads from Çatal Höyük could not
possibly be lead - see above - before that was proved. |
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"Çatal Höyük is important in terms of the history
of metal because the site has yielded copper and lead artifacts dated about 6000 BC. The copper
had apparently been hammered into little plates and used to decorate the edge
of a piece of cloth, and the lead had been made into 13 beads strung on a
necklace." |
No, it hasn't yielded lead
artifacts! |
"Çatal Höyük" in the English 2013 Wikipedia page! The German one got it
right (of course) |
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Lead in
the form of galena? How about sulfur in the form of galena? Or iron in the form
of pyrite? |
Source: K. L. Ehrhardt: "Copper working technologies..." J
World Prehist. 22 (2009!!!) p. 213 |
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A long and learned treatise,
much of it about Asikli Höyük. That's where one would expect to learn
all about the amazing
obsidian bracelet found there, right?
Nope. It is not mentioned at all. |
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"Melting before
smelting" - witness cast mace head
from Can Hasan |
That mace head was hammered into
shape! |
Source: Forgot |
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To melt copper out the rock it is necessary to keep a
fire at least 1981°F (1083°C). This was most likely done in ancient
Copper Age sites by continuously blowing a fire through tubes made from wood,
bamboo or reeds |
You do not melt
copper out the rock, you smelt it, i.e. reduce copper oxide or whatever. Just being very hot
won't do the trick!
You certainly do not add arsenic to a
proper mixture of copper - tin!
I realize that it is hard to compress complex stuff into short texts but this
site is supposed to give facts and details. |
Scientists believe,
the heat required to melt copper and tin into bronze was created by fires in
enclosed ovens outfitted with tubes that men blew into to stoke the fire.
Before the metals were placed in the fire, they were crushed with stone pestles
and then mixed with arsenic to lower the
melting temperature. Bronze weapons were fashioned by pouring the molten
mixture (approximately three parts copper and one part tin) into stone
molds. |
Source: COPPER AGE, BRONZE AGE AND IRON AGE - Facts and Details
http://factsanddetails.com/ |
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Die erste
Verhüttung von Kupfererz fand vermutlich zufällig statt. Man nimmt
an, daß gelegentlich Erzstücke in Töpferöfen gerieten, die
seit etwa 7000 v. Chr. bekannt sind. Bald darauf wurde bergmännisch
abgebautes Kupferz bei Temperaturen von mehr als 1080 Grad Celsius geschmolzen
und mit tönernen Gußtiegeln aus dem Schmelzofen geholt.
(... mined ore was molten at temperatures above
1080 0C and taken out of the melting
furnace in ceramic pouring vessels) |
See above |
Source: Science author Ernst Probst: "Rekorde der Urmenschen"
(Records of Prehistoric men) |
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© H. Föll (Iron, Steel and Swords script)