MINERALOGICAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL DATA REGARDING THE BRONZES FROM SOME ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES FROM ROMANIA - Carpathian Journal of Earth And Environmental Sciences

This study investigates bronze from archaeological sites from Arad area (RO), Șpălnaca archeological site (Alba County, RO) and Drajna de Jos (Prahova County, RO) and tries to make a link with geological sources of raw material. The samples referred to in this article are from two museums located in Romania. This study presents results of a quantitative analysis carried out with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) combined with optical observations made on the artifact’s alloy. In addition, the analytical data from the ”SAM” project - Germany, 1968 and previous isotopic analyses of stable lead isotope aided in this research also. Romania has no proven exploitable occurrences of tin and previous research has demonstrated that foreign material - tin (possibly from Erzgebirge-Germany) was used to manufacture the bronze alloy in the Bronze Age. The current study tries to establish that material from local sources has been added to the alloy. Our research showed that the Romanian archaeo-bronzes (bronzes found in archaeological sites) are considered complex tin bronzes with cadmium, lead, silicon, iron, nickel, arsenic, antimony, presenting a notable heterogeneity. Local sources of the copper could have been Apuseni Mountains, Banatitic area, Mehedinți Mountains, Leaota Mountains and East Făgăraș area. Beside Cu and Sn, the archaeo - bronzes from the Arad area contain Cd, Pb and Ni and rarely Cr, Si, As, Fe, Sb, Co, Al and those from Drajna archaeological site have Cd, Sb, Ni, As and Pb. For the first area the source may be considered Apuseni Mts. (Brusturi – Luncșoara, Băița Bihor and Highiș District) and for the second one Leaota Mts. and Eastern Făgărași Mts. (Nimaia – Bârsa Fierului Metallogenetic Sector).