It takes quite a long times until the samples we produced in summer 2018 became data. Soon after the experiments it was clear, which of the four experimental series we want to sample. Then it took over half a year until all the analyses of the more than 100 samples were conducted (believe us, we were not lazy). And a few more months to make sense out of the data and to wrap it up in a nice publication.
But now it is done, since today the results are published! And they were worth all the effort, we think. We were right with our original hypotheses. Well, partly. The copper isotope compostition does not change on the way from the ore to the metal and that’s actually good: we can continue to use copper isotopes to reconstruct the exploitation history of ore depostis using metals produced from their ores. But beware the slag. As soon as slags are involved things are starting to become messy. Or if other material are added. This happened to us when the high temperatured melted the clay of the furnace wall and the tuyères (nozzles from the bellows). This opens up new ways to think about what they could tell us about the smelting process what we cannot know from other methods.
Because we produced really a lot of data and the details of the experiments are exceeding the scope of traditional publications by far, we provide an additional data publication. Beside the tables with all the analytical data you find here a catalogue with detailed information about the samples experiments. And you can also learn how much effort and time it actually takes to analyse copper isotopes.
Enjoy reading!
- Our article: “Evaluating copper isotope fractionation in the metallurgical operational chain: An experimental approach“, published in the scientific journal “Archaeometry”
- And the data publication: “Copper isotope fractionation during prehistoric smelting of copper sulfides: experimental and analytical data“
