Antimony as a raw material for making metal and vitreous materials from the Bronze Age to the Roman period

Antimony has a long history of use in multiple materials, as it is a raw material both in metallurgy as well as in glass making. Still, several questions concerning the exact raw material used and its geographical origin remain unanswered. The first Cu-Sb alloys date to the 5th millennium BC (e.g. Nahal Mhismar), and this alloy occurs more frequently from 3500 BC onwards. The use of metallic Sb in objects in Mesopotamia is rare but does exist (e.g. Tello, Tell Leilan, Assur, Hasanlu, Carchemish). Antimony objects are most abundant in the southern Caucasus (e.g Chambarak). Glass production shares with metallurgy the use of high temperatures and uncommon elements such as antimony as opacifiers or decolourant. Sb was widely used as an opacifier in glass (Sb content >1%) from the late Bronze Age onwards, until Sn-based opacifiers were introduced around the 4th century AD. This research will look at the origin and use of Sb in the past 5000 years, both as a metal as well as glass opacifier. The first aim is to compare the technology and raw materials used in early metalworking and early glass making, as to identify the primary origin of the Sb. Recently, the use of Sb isotopic analysis as a novel tool for provenancing Sb-containing colourants has been developed. Therefore Sb isotopic analysis is a potential tool for indentifying the origin of antimony in the oldest metal and glass objects. Secondly, comparing the origin of mineral resources used for the glass craft with the development of metallurgy might reveal the interrelation of these industries. Consequently the routes the material followed can be mapped diachronically and with the information of where inventions happened and how they spread, an archaeological-historical framework for this time-area might be constructed.

Jaar van publicatie:2020

Toegankelijkheid:Open