Thesis (doctoral)--University of Wales Cardiff, 2000. / BLDSC reference no.: DX215521.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [18-19]).

Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, 1976. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES. / Bibliography: leaves 68-72. / by Tania A. Krapchev. / B.S.

No description available.

This thesis aims to examine the modes of production and the sources of metal supply for Migration period bow brooches, concentrating on a single form, the Anglian cruciform brooch. The thesis is in two volumes; text and bibliography (volume 1), catalogues, tables, illustrations (volume 2). The text is in six chapters. Attitudes to artefact studies are briefly discussed in Chapter 1 and the techniques employed in this study are outlined. Chapter 2 places the cruciform brooch forms into a simple hierarchical typology by formal similarity. A relative chronology is gained by contextual evidence, with absolute dates given by associations with other artefact types. Similarities between early English and continental forms are shown to be adequate to suggest importation, during the first half of the fifth century. Frisian and north German brooches have a special place in this system. Parallel stylistic development persisted during the second half of the fifth century but sixth-century English brooches are well distinguished from their continental contemporaries. Simple brooch types are thought to have had a long period of production and use. By examining methods of casting and assembling cruciform brooches, Chapter 3 establishes the types and ranges of technical variation observable. Some of these technical attributes provide links between England, Frisia, northern Germany and Denmark. English brooch manufacture is diverse throughout the period under study. Norwegian metalworkers developped a very different style and the technical evidence suggests a movement towards standardisation and mass production. In Chapter 4 we discover the types of alloy used and discuss the likely sources. Initially the alloys used were leaded brasses or bronzes. By the sixth century, copper alloys were commonly very impure. It is suggested that recycling provided a major part of the raw materials for cast copper alloys. Imports of copper alloys from France or the Celtic regions of Britain are relegated to a position of minor importance. The chemical compositions of Norwegian, Frisian, north German and Dutch cruciform brooches demonstrates access to high-tin, high-purity bronzes prevailed throughout the period. Brasses and mixed alloys were also available, probably originating from scrap. With the exception of Frisia, which appears to be more similar to Kent, alloy supplies were similar throughout the Scandinavian and continental cruciform brooch production. Chapter 5 provides a synthesis for these findings. Plans are given for a project extension into other regions (Chapter 6).

No description available.

The study of ancient Eurasian metallurgy has been suffering from (or preoccupied by) two conventional perspectives. One is that of the diffusion model emphasising the importance of the settled empires of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, of south-eastern Europe and of China (Shennan 1986, 1993; Kristiansen 1984). The supremacy of these 'cradles' of early civilisation is marked not only by social hierarchies, but also by technological inventions such as metal production. This view sees the mobile populations of the Eurasian steppe as occupying the "hinterland" of these early settled states in the south, believing that the emergence of metal technologies in the Steppe was the result of the expansions of "advanced" civilisations. The second perspective is rooted in the provenance study which traces metal objects back to their geological sources (Pernicka 2014). It assumes that chemical and isotopic composition of metal is static and only reflects a simple linear relationship between artefacts and specific ore deposits. Drawing from a legacy database of approximately 9,000 chemical analyses of copper-based artefacts, this thesis rejects the simplicity of both the diffusion and the provenance models. While admitting that the use of metal might have originated from western Asia, the development of metallurgy in the Eurasian steppe should be understood on its own terms. It is constantly re-shaped by vigorous circulation of metal artefacts across mobile communities on a regional or inter-regional scale. This observation is based on the application of a new innovative framework to interpret the patterns of compositional data (Bray et al. 2015). This novel method argues that metal can flow, quite literally, from one object to another as it is re-melted, re-mixed and re-cast in different shapes and colours, depending on different social contexts. Thermodynamic modelling and modern experiments have shown that during the copper melt, some volatile elements in copper alloys (e.g. arsenic, antimony, and zinc) are preferentially removed through oxidative loss. Instead, some elements, such as silver, nickel, and gold, tend to be preserved in metals. These predictable patterns of elemental losses provide valuable information to trace the directional flow of metal units between regions/cultures, if we combine chemical data of metal artefacts properly with archaeological context, landscape and chronology. By using this new methodology, several routes of copper supplies have been identified in the Steppe during different periods. They feature the exchange of metals within regional networks, fuelled by local copper sources. The Urals, central Kazakhstan, the Altai, and the Minusinsk-Tuva regions were the primary copper production centres that developed distinct trace-element chemistry and artefact typology. By contrast, alloying techniques employed by steppe peoples, generally demonstrate the long-distance connections based on two major metallurgical practices: arsenical copper in the western steppe and tin-bronze in the eastern steppe. Copper-arsenic production was concentrated in the Caucasus but the recycling of its arsenical copper became more apparent further away towards the Urals. On the other hand, the invention of tin-bronze metallurgy was triggered by the formation of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon (c. 2100- 1800/1700 BC) in the Altai, and this alloying tradition was amplified by the emergence of the Andronovo culture (c. 1700-1400 BC) in the Ural-Kazakh steppe. Tin-bronze ornaments, in particular, were exchanged between eastern and western mobile communities over a considerable distance, through the mechanism of pastoral seasonal movements. In conclusion, traditional views of diffusion and provenance theories cannot be uncritically applied to the inception of ancient metallurgy in the Eurasian steppe. Mobile pastoralists developed multi-regional production hubs based on the accessibility of ore resources and the variations in subsistence strategies. Although steppe metalwork revealed some technological borrowings from settled communities, steppe peoples had transformed them into locally adapted products that could fit into their socio-economic systems. That is, when dealing with the issues of Eurasian metallurgy, we should acknowledge the complexity of human engagement with metal and look into subtler differences in cultural context, landscape, and ideology.