Dating Iron Age goldwork: First direct AMS 14C results from Northwestern Iberia

This article presents the first direct radiocarbon dates for NW Iberian “Castro culture” goldwork. Three samples were taken from a melting mass and a plano-convex ingot from the so-called Recouso (Oroso, A Coruña) and Calvos de Randín (Ourense) “hoards”. The study includes pXRF analysis of the pieces from both assemblages. Identifi- cation of charcoal samples allowed us to better evaluate the results. The dates point to a period late in the Second Iron Age for both assemblages. They are the first direct chronological references for this rich goldworking tradition after more than a hundred years of investigation and they open up a line of research that offers interesting future prospects

Macro-regional scale of silver production in Iberia during the 1st millennium BC in the context of Mediterranean contacts.

The extraction of silver has been traditionally considered one of the main incentives for the Phoenician expansion through the Mediterranean and their settlement in Iberia. In this paper we approach the organization of silver production in Iberia during the Early Iron Age through the study of productive evidence currently available and the development of Lead Isotope Analysis (LIA). Previous results (Hunt, 2003; Stos Gale 2001; Kassianidou, 1992) are considered in the light of new data. The extraction of silver from complex minerals is conspicuously intensified in Southwest Iberia. Imports of exogenous lead, needed for the extraction of silver from these complex minerals, stand out. Flows of lead come in from other Iberian regions such as Gádor, Cartagena/Mazarrón, Linares or even the mining district of Molar-Belmunt-Falset (MBF) in Catalonia. This picture reveals an organization of silver production much more complex than initially thought, with the needed articulation of an exchange network of raw materials at a macro-territorial scale embracing almost all Iberia. Socioeconomic implications that control of these distributions networks of lead could have had are also discussed

Comercio protohistórico: el registro del Nordeste peninsular y circulación de mineral de plomo en Ibiza y el Bajo Priorato (Tarragona)

Our recent research shows that lead from the Baix Priorat (Tarragona) mining area circulated in the Phoenician-Tartessian sphere. However, archaeometallurgical analysis of a group of ore and metallic samples from the island of Ibiza reveals the exploitation of local galena, whose use co-existed on the sa Caleta site with ores from Cartagena; on the other hand, lead from the Priorat mining area is not attested. If we also take into account the information provided by 7th-6th centuries BC pottery from Ibiza and Catalonia, a variety of trade networks between the south and the north-east of Iberia emerges

El cobre de Linares (Jaén) como elemento vinculado al comercio fenicio en El Calvari de El Molar (Tarragona)

The settlement and the necropolis of El Calvari (El Molar, Tarragona), dated between the end of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, provided various copper-based objects and melting wastes. The archaeological site is located in a mining district, the Molar-Bellmunt-Falset (MBF) area, which presents rich deposits mainly of non-argentiferous lead and copper. Lead isotope analyses performed on some lead-based materials recovered from El Calvari show that these mines were already being exploited at this time. However, lead isotope analyses of the copper-based metals indicate that neither the ones from the site nor those from the necropolis can be related to local mineral resources. Indeed, a great part of these items originates from the Linares mines (Jaén) and, in a smaller part, from mines in the Almería province. In this paper we will discuss arguments supporting the possibility of import of ingots or of finished objects as part of the Phoenician trade in northeastern Iberia

Historical Archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula

UID/HIS/04209/2019 DL 57/2016/CP1453/CT0084authorsversionpublishe