New Insights for Provenance Studies of Iron Artifacts

Summary

The study of the production and trade of metals is one of the means to highlight the technical and social organization of societies. Among several issues, the question of the provenance of the metal is of primary importance and can lead to enlighten the organization of the production (spatial and temporal structures of the chaine opératoire) and of the supply networks. Concerning iron and its alloys, these last years have seen important developments in archaeological sciences to address the question of provenance. These approaches are based on both trace elements and isotopic approaches.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the principle, potentiality, advantages and limits of the archaeological science approach through the example of two provenance studies applied to different socio-economical contexts. The first one deals with the circulation of iron products in the North-Alpine area during the end of the First Iron Age (6th-5th c. BC). The second one concerns the use of iron reinforcements in the gothic monuments and cathedrals of the Middle Age in France. Finally, several prospects will be proposed for developing integrated and interdisciplinary provenance studies in the future.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20420