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A study investigating copper smelting remains from San Bartolo, Chile

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-66). / Introduction: Research on the metallurgy of archaeological artifacts has focused primarily on the examination of objects to reveal their design, their composition, the properties of the material people selected to achieve the design, and the fabrication processes used in managing the metal to produce the end product. Recently that focus has begun to broaden, and archaeologists are taking a step back to investigate the earliest stages of prehistoric metal processing that precede object manufacture, namely ore mining and extractive metallurgy. However, little archaeological work on mining and extraction has been accomplished to date, in part because so few metal processing sites have been identified. These sites are very difficult to find because of the lack of standing architecture, particularly smelting installations. Prehistoric smelting furnaces tend to be small and are either excavated beneath the ground surface or are above ground but made of impermanent materials. / by Antonella I. Alunni. / S.B.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35075
Date January 2006
CreatorsAlunni, Antonella I
ContributorsHeather N. Lechtman., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.
PublisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Source SetsM.I.T. Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format145 leaves, 5848703 bytes, 5856692 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf
Coverages-cl---
RightsM.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

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