Analyses of metallurgical remains from Failaka, Kuwait: Exploring the Persian Gulf metals trade in the 2nd millennium BCE

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeometallurgy, Eurasia and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Vince Pigott" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper reviews the exchange of metals within the greater Persian Gulf region during the 2nd millennium BCE, considering archaeological, archaeometric and documentary evidence. The specific focus is the metallurgical assemblage from Failaka Island (Kuwait) and its implications for the continued production and trade of copper from southeastern Arabia at a time when primary production evidence is scarce. Evidence from contemporary sites in the Persian Gulf is introduced to contextualise the Failaka data, and the exchange of other metals (particularly tin and silver) is also considered in order to build a more complete picture of routes and mechanisms through which these metals circulated in eastern Arabia. Together, these metals illustrate the significance of eastern Arabian metal production and trade for understanding wider regional developments, while highlighting the necessity of a supra-regional scale of analysis in order to better understand ‘local’ Arabian instances of economic and technological change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Archaeometallurgy, Eurasia and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Vince Pigott

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51274