The Funtana CobertaBallao Hoard: new copper provenances in Nuragic metallurgy

Abstract

Copper exchange in the western Mediterranean reflects highly complex patterns between 1500-500 cal BC due to several interactions happening in an area which acted as a crossroad between the Atlantic and the Eastern Mediterranean worlds. The LIA data obtained from Funtana Coberta-Ballao hoard (Sardinia), dated to the 13th century BC, reveals an unknown signature in the European and Near Eastern Bronze Age metallurgy. The main feature is the low content in 208Pb isotope (the end of the Thorium series from 232Th). This strange signature is clearly different from all LIA geological data available from the Mediterranean and European mainland deposits, but it is not the first time that it was detected in Sardinian objects. Oxalid database, Begemann et al. 2001 and Lo Schiavo et al. 2005 published only a few objects with very low 208Pb, but in the Funtana Coberta-Ballao hoard are the majority (25 of 47 samples). The FCB hoard could only have been formed by using imported copper from different regions, i.e. different mines in the Sinai Peninsula and the Arabian Shield for most of them, Cyprus for some, and one or several radiogenic sites yet to be located.Peer reviewe