Lead isotope analysis in magic artefacts from the Berlin museums

• Published in: Archaeological and anthropological sciences 2018-08, Vol.10 (5), p.1111-1127
• Main Authors: Vogl, Jochen, Rosner, Martin, Curbera, Jaime, Peltz, Uwe, Peplinski, Burkhard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 3rd century; Anthropology; Archaeology; Chemistry/Food Science; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Geography; Inscriptions; Isotopes; Life Sciences; Museums; Ores; Original Paper; Provenance
• ISSN: 1866-9557; 1866-9565
• DOI: 10.1007/s12520-016-0445-6

A set of 59 ancient magical artefacts, mainly made of lead, was selected from the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in order to unravel their origins. All the selected artefacts have been studied for their Pb isotope compositions, which covered the whole range of the Mediterranean ore deposits. However, the majority (≈86%) were made of lead matching the small compositional range of the Laurion ore deposits. Only eight out of the 59 artefacts were made of recycled lead or lead from other ore deposits. Additionally, all but two were approximately dated based on their inscriptions. The lead isotopic composition together with information obtained from the inscriptions, the resulting dating, the context of the find and the known history of each item allowed us to gain more detailed information about the origins of these magical artefacts. The Attic provenance of 36 curse tablets was confirmed, whereas for 11 curse tablets previously classified as non-Attic, the provenance was either confirmed and specified (six artefacts) or changed to Attic (five artefacts). Surprisingly, the majority (six out of eight) of the analysed curse tablets from the Egyptian collection showed a lead isotopic composition closely matching that of Laurion. A Laurion-like lead isotopic composition was also observed for three of the four analysed oracular tablets from Dodona. Together with the dating information, this points to Laurion as the major and dominant lead source in the Aegean, at least during the fourth–third century B.C. The few curse tablets from earlier than the fourth–third century B.C. point to the use of multiple and thus isotopically more variable lead sources compared with the Roman times.