The Origin and Spread of Antimony as a Raw Material in Metal and Vitreous Materials Making: From the Bronze Age to the Roman Period

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Movement of Technical Knowledge: Cross-Craft Perspectives on Mobility and Knowledge in Production Technologies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Antimony has a long history of use in metallurgy and glass making. The first attestation of Cu-Sb alloys dates to the 5th millennium BC (e.g. Nahal Mhismar), while its widespread adoption started around 3500 BC. Metallic antimony objects are reported in Mesopotamia (e.g. Tello, Tell Leilan, Assur, Hasanlu, Carchemish) and more abundantly in the southern Caucasus (e.g. Chambarak) from 3000 BC onwards. Sb was also commonly used as an opacifier and colourant in glass made in late Bronze Age Egypt and Mesopotamia. From the Greco-Roman period onwards, antimony is used as a decolourant in the large-scale glass industry, while it’s occurrence in metallurgy is much more rare.

Many questions pertain on the geographical location and nature of Sb extraction and on the nature of its adoption in several technological processes. This paper identifies the primary origin of the Sb raw materials used, tracing sources through a mineralogical and chemical characterisation of different Sb-rich ores from various regions. It compares the origin of the mineral resources used for the glass craft with the development of metallurgy, in order to reveal the interrelation of these two industries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Movement of Technical Knowledge: Cross-Craft Perspectives on Mobility and Knowledge in Production Technologies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23720