The study of isotopes in archaeology provides powerful tools to investigate fundamental aspects of ancient life. Isotope analyses enable the reconstruction of, for example, dietary regimes, mobility patterns and the (agricultural) use of landscape, as well as environmental conditions and patterns in husbandry. In addition, isotopic approaches allow for the chronological contextualization of archaeological findings. Isotope studies of inorganic materials, on the other hand, provide insight into connectivity and exchange networks, illuminating the diverse ways in which ancient communities acquired a variety of goods.

This lecture explores the potential of lead isotope analysis and examines both site-specific and regional exchange patterns through three archaeometallurgical case studies in Bronze Age Upper Mesopotamia, south-east Arabia and the Iranian highlands. Upper Mesopotamia, for example, lacks local metal resources, yet its communities are well known for their rich assemblages of metal artefacts, raising questions about trade networks and resource procurement strategies. The site Saruq al-Hadid is located on northern edge of the Rub’ al-Khali desert and likewise relied on ore sources at a greater distance. In contrast to Upper Mesopotamia, however, the site provides evidence for nearly the entire chaîne opératoire of copper-base artifacts but also evidences episodic occupations by different groups from the Iron Age though to the Islamic periods. This context allows us to ask whether lead isotope analysis can distinguish between individual production techniques, to what extent recycling obscures such patterns, and whether access to specific ore deposits can be traced diachronically. In contrast, Tappah Sialk in the Iranian Highlands is located in a region rich in copper deposits with numerous mining and smelting sites. However, the co-occurrence of mining and smelting at a single location remains rare in Iran, and smelting sites are known to have processed ores from multiple sources.

 

This raises the question of whether it is possible to identify a specific mining source that supplied the local communities at Tappah Sialk. The lecture also considers the role of tin bronzes in these studies and highlights the broader potential of interdisciplinary analytical approaches for reconstructing ancient production and exchange systems.

 

 

Kristina A. Franke, M.A., MSc, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Institute of Archaeological Studies, and an associate of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum and the University of New England, Australia. She received her doctorate in archaeology and archaeometallurgy, and her MSc in material studies at UCL, Institute of Archaeology, having studied Near Eastern Archaeology, Semitic Languages, and Prehistory and Early History at LMU.

 

Her major interests are prehistoric pyrotechnologies and production processes, modes and patterns of exchange, daily life in prehistory and the significance of craft in ancient societies, methods in archaeometry and archaeological theories. Her research focuses predominantly on ancient southwest Asia.

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