The Composition of the São Brás Copper Hoard in Relation to the Bell Beaker Metallurgy in the South‐western Iberian Peninsula

A large ceramic vessel was discovered at São Brás (southern Portugal) containing a metallic hoard from the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age period. These weapons and tools were characterized by microanalytical techniques as being composed of copper with varying arsenic contents (2.2 ± 1.6 wt%) and mino...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archaeometry 2019-04, Vol.61 (2), p.392-405
Main Authors: Valério, P., Soares, J., Araújo, M. F., Alves, L. C., Tavares da Silva, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arsenic
arsenical copper
Bell Beaker
Bronze Age
Chalcolithic
Copper
Iberian Peninsula
Iron
material culture
Metallurgy
micro‐EDXRF
micro‐PIXE
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Summary:A large ceramic vessel was discovered at São Brás (southern Portugal) containing a metallic hoard from the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age period. These weapons and tools were characterized by microanalytical techniques as being composed of copper with varying arsenic contents (2.2 ± 1.6 wt%) and minor amounts of lead, bismuth and iron. The collection shows a clear association between daggers and copper with a higher arsenic content, which can be explained by the high status of these silvery alloys. Finally, the compositional distribution of the hoard was compared with the metallurgy of the Bell Beaker and non–Bell Beaker communities inhabiting the south‐western Iberian Peninsula.
ISSN:0003-813X
1475-4754
DOI:10.1111/arcm.12422