Bronze Age copper production and exchange between the Mediterranean and Scandinavia

The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental archaeology invites you to a seminar with Serena Sabatini, "Bronze Age copper production, consumption and exchange between the Mediterranean and Scandinavia: New results from Sardinia and the "Missing Link" project".

Abstract

A growing body of archaeological evidence suggests that Nuragic Sardinia may have played a significant role in metal trade and exchange between Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe, and the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. Material culture of Nuragic origin outside the island sheds light on likely trading routes both towards the eastern Mediterranean and towards the west; detailed attention to the chronology of such exchanges indicates that networking patterns developed and changed over time. Provenance studies based on lead isotope and chemical analyses of copper-based, and to a minor extent lead, artefacts from various European and Mediterranean regions corroborate such picture and strongly suggest that minerals and metals of Sardinian origin were exported and used in different and far apart regions.

Despite abundant evidence for contact and exchange, doubts arise as to the possibility that Nuragic communities were trading metal, due to the lack of archaeological record for Bronze Age mining. Sardinia is rich in mineral resources; lead, silver and copper are abundant in several districts both in the south and in the north of the island. Traces of mining are known from the first millennium BCE and onwards until modern time; and perhaps long-lasting post-Nuragic mining has obliterated any prehistoric work.

During the past four years, the Missing Link project has carried out surveys and investigated the isotopic and chemical composition of both Bronze Age metal artefacts from the island and of ore samples from several districts. The aim of the paper is to present the rich archaeological evidence from island and discuss obtained results and their implications for our understanding of the Bronze Age metal trade across Europe and the Mediterranean.

Link to the lecturers profile page: https://www.gu.se/en/about/find-staff/serenasabatini

About the seminar series

The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology presents and discusses current research in archaeology and environmental archaeology.
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