Ernst Pernicka

Curt Engelhorn Zentrum Archäometrie and University of Heidelberg

Tin was a crucial commodity in prehistory to produce bronze, and knowledge of the origins of this metal is important for understanding cultural relations and the complexity and extent of trade. However, many aspects of the provenance of tin are still not resolved. A recent study in Science Advances 8(48) examined the historically significant tin in...

The Bronze Age in Central Asia was dominated by the Andronovo Culture and the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). Both cultural entities produced bronze, however, the extent of bronze production and use varied considerably in space and time across their territories. The introduction and spread of bronze metallurgy in the region is commo...

The late Roman silver quadripus from Kőszárhegy (Fejér County, Hungary) is the only known silver folding stand from the Late Roman Imperial Age, dated to the fourth century AD. Archaeological evidence indicates that the quadripus is closely related to the Seuso Treasure. Elemental composition and lead isotope analyses of samples taken from the vari...

This monograph includes the results of the excavations and research carried out at the Early Bronze Age site of El Morrón (Moratalla, Murcia) located at the border between the El Argar and the Bronce Manchego archaeological entities.

This article presents the results of a comprehensive investigation of Fårdrup and Valsømagle-type shafthole axes from Denmark and southern Sweden. The combination of artefact style and typology with trace element and lead isotope data in the analysis has provided new insights into the chronological relationship between these two axe types. This way...

The recent archaeological and archaeometallurgical investigations have revealed simulta-neous silver and copper production in a number of central Iranian prehistoric sites includ-ing Arisman, Sialk, and Tappeh Sofalin during the Late Fourth- Early Third Millennia BCE. Some archaeometallurgical remains including ore (Figure 1a), slag, litharge frag...

The paper focuses on the archaeometric analyses of the gold objects from the famous so-called ‘treasures’ of Troy and Poliochni on the island of Lemnos. Altogether 61 Early Bronze Age (EBA) gold objects dating between 2500 and 2000 BCE were investigated in this study. They were primarily sampled with a portable laser ablation (pLA) unit in the Nati...

Innerhalb von geförderten Projekten der Gerda Henkel Stiftung und der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW) konnten im Rahmen einer Kooperation zwischen dem Österreichischen Archäologischen Institut (ÖAI, ÖAW) und dem Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie (CEZA) auch die frühbronzezeitlichen Goldfunde aus Troia und Poliochni, die sich im...

Geological and mineral resources have played a key role in the development of civilizations, both ancient and modern. No one would deny that there have been many benefits from this exploitation of the earth’s resources, but there have been some negative ones as well. This is a matter which concerns us here. We wish to underscore that the fast-gr...

This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the beginnings of tin and bronze metallurgy in Central Asia by investigating a hitherto unique piece of a bronze slag. The object was originally discovered as a stray find only 4 km away from the large copper-tin deposit of Mušiston in Tajikistan. It contains many prills of bronze and cop...

Since the mid-1970s a Bronze Age assemblage of metal objects has been recovered from the seabed off the south Devon coast at Salcombe, southwest England. The assemblage spans two suspected shipwreck events and comprises nearly 400 pieces of raw materials and finished artefacts, primarily in copper, tin, bronze and gold. Among these are 280 copper a...

'The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia' is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project aimed to trace the invention and innovation of metallurgy in the Balkans. It combined targeted excavations and surveys with extensive scientific analyses at two Neolithic-Chalcolithic copper production and consumption sites, Belovode and Pločnik, in Se...

The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project aimed to trace the invention and innovation of metallurgy in the Balkans. It combined targeted excavations and surveys with extensive scientific analyses at two Neolithic-Chalcolithic copper production and consumption sites, Belovode and Pločnik, in Serb...

The bronze cup found in Dohnsen (Lower Saxony, northern Germany) in the 1950s is an enigmatic artefact that bears striking similarities with the metalwork of the Late Aegean Bronze Age. We provide an accurate review of the primary sources of information on the cup’s find history and context, and we present the results of previously unpublished chem...

The Arisman ancient metallurgical site is located in western Central Iran. This site hosts hugemetallurgical remains from the late 4th to early 3rdmillennium BCE, which attest to an extensiveproduction of arsenical copper and silver at the same time. Despite the archaeometallurgicalinvestigations that have so far been carried out at Arisman, some q...

This pilot study addresses the analytical characterisation of 26 well‐known bronze objects of the Early and Middle Bronze Age of Central and Northern Europe. Besides swords and axes of the hoards from Apa, Téglás and Hajdúsámson, the investigation includes the famous Sky Disc and its accompanying finds from the Nebra hoard and several full‐hilted s...

In Prague-Miškovice, a cemetery of the Únětice culture (UC) with a total of 44 graves was excavated between 1999 und 2001. The C14 dates range across the entire course of Central Europe’s Early Bronze Age – from the proto-Únětice phase to the “post-classical” phase of the UC. The high point of the mortuary activities occurred between 2000 and 1750...

Gold parting enabled the production of very pure gold for various purposes from the sixth century BC onwards, but analytical proof of this pyrotechnical process is difficult. We describe a new analytical approach for the identification of purified gold combining silver and copper isotopic with trace element analyses. Parting experiments were perfor...

The tin beads from the Early Bronze Age (BzA1) graves in Schwabmünchen, district Augsburg, and Buxheim, district Eichstätt are strong candidates for scientific examination as the metal is in a rare unalloyed form. In the foreground are questions regarding their composition and origin. However, the finds are also interesting in terms of how they wer...

Based on 550 metal analyses, this study sheds decisive light on how the Nordic Bronze Age was founded on metal imports from shifting ore sources associated with altered trade routes. On-and-off presence of copper characterised the Neolithic. At 2100–2000 BC, a continuous rise in the flow of metals to southern Scandinavia begins. First to arrive via...

Jahresschrift für Mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte 98, 2021, 9-62. Abstract Why the Nebra Sky Disc Dates to the Early Bronze Age. An Overview of the Interdisciplinary Research Results It is not unusual that archaeological finds come under renewed scrutiny. This is an important part in the progress of scientific research. All the more so when importan...

A women’s burial of the Early Bronze Age that was uncovered near Ammerbuch-Reusten, Tübingen district in autumn 2020 shows clear relations to burial rites of the Final Neolithic in central Europe. The only grave good was in the rear of the burial. A small spiral ring made of gold wire at the left side of the burial at hip level, which can be consid...

Black and white images of core segments from the Ries crater - research borehole Nördlingen 1973 (FBN1973)

Black and white images of the core segments (Graded Unit, suevite) from the research borehole Nördlingen 1973, Ries crater (Germany)

RessourcenKulturen 12

The Mălăieștii de Jos hoard was found by chance on April 14th 2015 in the back garden of Grigore Ion Vasile’s house (No. 31 Bisericii Street, Mălăieștii de Jos village, Dumbrăvești Commune, Prahova County, Romania). No ancient cultural layer has been found at the place of discovery. It may be stated that the hoard was not buried in a funerary conte...

This volume presents the results of research on pre-industrial mining in the region along the south-eastern Bulgarian Black Sea coast. During rescue excavations some prehistoric settlements with traces of early copper processing were uncovered. This initiated a thorough investigation of the copper ore deposits of Burgas, Rosen and Medni Rid that we...

It is not unusual that archaeological finds come under renewed scrutiny. This is actually an important part in the progress of scientific research. All the more so when important and ground-breaking discoveries are involved, like the Nebra Sky Disc, which is listed among the UNESCO “Memory of the World”. However, in most cases a new assessment is b...

This short chapter of a catalogue (in German) to the Museum Exhibition "Die Welt der Himmelsscheibe von Nebra - Neue Horizonte" (4. June 2021 to 9. January 2022 at the Museum für Vorschichte in Halle, Germany) gives a brief summary of the provenance of the gold of the Sky Disk from Cornwall. The illustrations show natural gold nuggets from Cornwall...

The complex detailed analysis and publication of archaeological and anthropological data and the results of numerous science analyses of archaeological and anthropological material (palaeopathology, epigenetics, isotope analysis, 14C, analyses of metal, amber, stone tools, Sr, O, C and N isotopy etc.) form an essential foundation of the first-rate,...

Grave 50 contained three simple annular tin rings with open ends, two of which were in fragments (Fig. 279; Chap. 11.2.11). The fragments were analysed using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and afterwards with a multi collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) in order to determine the tin isotope composition. The same proce...

The geochemical analysis of oxhide ingots from Eastern Bulgarian museums is a compulsory step towards a convincing explanation of these objects. Being the hallmark of Late Bronze Age trade in the eastern Mediterranean, oxhide ingots are among the few commodities passing over the economic and cultural confines of the Aegean into continental Europe....

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219574.].

Planoconvex copper ingots (also named "casting cakes" and "bun ingots") were found in huge amounts in the Salzach and Saalach valley, but also at the Mitterberg and in the Saalfelden district. 103 of these ingots (partly fragments) were analysed chemically and about 50 complete or nearly complete ingots were classified by means of their shapes and...

Although scientific methods are frequently applied in archaeology and are often considered as indispensable, their results do not always agree with archaeological expectations. This can usually be resolved by detailed discussions and by acknowledging the potentials and limitations of the different approaches. To do this it is necessary to accept th...

Aus Salzburg, Tirol und dem südlichen Bayern sind eine große Zahl prähistorischer Rohkupferfragmente und plankonvexer Kupfergusskuchen bekannt, wovon knapp 300 im Rahmen verschiedener Analyseprojekte in den letzten 15 Jahren chemisch analysiert werden konnten. Im Zuge einer Studie in Salzburg (Salzburger Gusskuchenprojekt) konnte auf Basis von rund...

Ancient DNA informs on past cultures Archaeology has used analysis of the artifacts and remains of people to uncover their past behaviors and to infer their cultural practices. However, establishing genetic relationships has only recently become possible. Mittnik et al. examined the kinship and inheritance of the remains of people from the German L...

The origin of Bronze Age tin has long been one of the greatest mysteries of archaeological research. Although the metal in the form of bronze already appeared in the late 4th and 3rd centuries in Anatolia, the Aegean and the Middle East, the sources of supply are still practically unknown. This is mainly due to the fact that there are no rich tin d...

The paper focuses on isotopic data of bronzes from the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. The sample sets comprise bronzes from hoards, graves, and settlements from Central and Southeastern Europe as well as the Aegean and Mesopotamia. The analytical determination of tin isotopic compositions and a possible use of tin from different ore sources between the...