Report on the conference ‘Archeology, history and ethnography of precious and non-ferrous metals in the Carpathian Basin. Methodological, archeometrical and social-historical approaches’

On 14th and 15th of November 2018 our research team participated in a conference at the Hungarian National Museum, organized by the Working Comitte for Industrial Archaeology and Archaeometry and the Working Comitte for Handicraft History at the Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Veszprém (VEAB) and the Archeometry Subcommittee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

On the first day of the program, the scientists reported on the archaeological and archeometrical research of the raw materials processing and production technologies and of copper, bronze, golden and silver artefacts from prehistory to the Early Middle Ages. On the second day, medieval archeology lectures were followed by presentations on historical and ethnographic research. The lectures focused on examining the mining, production and use of precious and non-ferrous metals.

An important issue for tracking the European relations evolving throughout the Bronze Age (between 2600/2500 and 800 BC) is the question of how the metalworkers of the era could obtain the raw materials of golden objects discovered in present-day Hungary. Although studies to determine the exact origin of gold (see Szathmári et al. in print) can only be achieved using invasive (laser ablation) ICP-MS methods, the non-destructive analysis of finds can also provide a lot of information on the topic.

In collaboration with the Department of Archaeology, Hungarian National Museum, the Déri Museum in Debrecen, the Laczkó Dezső Museum in Veszprém, the Ferenczi Museum Center and the Laboratory for Heritage Science at MTA Atomki, the Momentum Mobility Research Group HAS RCH analyzes Bronze Age golden artefacts from various Hungarian museums by non-destructive PIXE test series in order to determine their material composition, to investigate various production techniques and to link them to possible workshops. At the present conference János Dani, Zsófia Kertész, Ildikó Szathmári, Gábor J. Tarbay, Zita Szikszai and Viktória Kiss presented the results of the cooperation so far in a lecture titled ‘Non-Destructive PIXE and Microscopic Camera Surveillance of Middle Bronze Age Golden Artefacts.’

PIXE examination of the Dunavecse armlet in the Laboratory for Heritage Science at MTA Atomki

References

Szathmári, I., Maróti, B., Tarbay, J. G., Kiss, V.: Bronzkori arany hajkarika leletek vizsgálatáról a Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum gyűjteményéből. In: Bartosiewicz L., T. Biró K., Sümegi P., Törőcsik T. (szerk.): Mikroszkóppal, feltárásokkal, mintavételezéssel, kutatásokkal az archeometria, a geoarcheológia és a régészet szolgálatában. Tanulmányok Ilon Gábor régész 60 éves születésnapi köszöntésére. Szeged, SZTE TTKI Földtani és Őslénytani Tanszék, in print.

Szathmári, I., Maróti, B., Tarbay, J. G., Kiss, V.: Archaeological and archaeometallurgical analyses of Bronze Age gold hair rings from the collection of the Hungarian National Museum and British Museum. In: R. Jung–H. Popov (eds.): Searching for Gold. International conference held in Vienna 9-10 June 2018. Vienna in print.



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