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- Title
Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia, c. 6500 years ago.
- Authors
Radivojević, Miljana; Rehren, Thilo; Kuzmanović-Cvetković, Julka; Jovanović, Marija; Northover, J. Peter
- Abstract
The earliest tin bronze artefacts in Eurasia are generally believed to have appeared in the Near East in the early third millennium BC. Here we present tin bronze artefacts that occur far from the Near East, and in a significantly earlier period. Excavations at Pločik, a Vinča culture site in Serbia, recovered a piece of tin bronze foil from an occupation layer dated to the mid fifth millennium BC. The discovery prompted a reassessment of 14 insufficiently contextualised early tin bronze artefacts from the Balkans. They too were found to derive from the smelting of coppertin ores. These tin bronzes extend the record of bronze making by c. 1500 years, and challenge the conventional narrative of Eurasian metallurgical development.
- Subjects
SERBIA; BALKAN Peninsula; TIN bronze; VINCA culture; ARCHAEOLOGICAL excavations; METALLURGY; ORES; HISTORY; ANTIQUITIES
- Publication
Antiquity, 2013, Vol 87, Issue 338, p1030
- ISSN
0003-598X
- Publication type
Article