A Match Made in Heaven: Materials Science and Archaeology in the studies of Invention and Innovation of the Earliest Eurasian Metallurgy

The invention of pyrotechnologies able to create new materials such as ceramics, metals, glazes and glass remains a scholarly obsession as well as a fundamental building block in regional and global archaeological narratives. Pyrometallurgy in particular attracted scholarly attention as the first transformative technology of the human past. The recognition of the fact that the metal extracted from ores in no way resembled its original source material increased humanity's understanding of the surrounding environment, and consequently, dramatically developed the ability to manipulate it. The c. 7000 years old evidence for copper smelting from Belovode, a Vinča culture settlement in eastern Serbia opened new avenues in pursuing the origins of Eurasian metallurgy at a location remote from the Near East, a traditional heartland of metallurgy. The “how and why” of this invention is investigated through microstructure, composition and provenance analyses of a selection of copper minerals and metal production evidence: ores, slags, slagged sherds and metal droplets recovered from seven settlements in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, altogether spanning from the late 7th to the late 5th millennium BC.

Date: Tuesday 1 March

Time: Light refreshments from 6:00pm. The presentation will commence at 6:30 pm.

Venue: Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS [on West Cambridge site].

Further information available from Ismael Moreno-Gomez (im380@cam.ac.uk) or Geoff Hale (geoffrey.hale@ntlworld.com 01223 842403)

These talks are open to anyone with an interest in the topic. Please forward these details to other contacts who may be interested.

A poster to advertise this event can be downloaded here.

This talk is organised by the Cambridge and Anglian Materials Society.