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The oldest metallurgy in western Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Arturo Ruiz-Taboada  and
Ignacio Montero-Ruiz
Arturo Ruiz-Taboada
Affiliation:
Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, Pza de Padilla 4, 45071 Toledo, Spain. taboada@arrakis.es
Ignacio Montero-Ruiz
Affiliation:
Dpt de Prehistoria (CEH/CSIC), C/ Serrano 13, 28001 Madrid, Spain. imontero@ceh.csic.es
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Abstract

Recent excavations at the Neolithic site of Cerro Virtud (Almería, southeast Spain) have produced new information about the development of metallurgy that may change ongoing research not only in the Iberian Peninsula but also in the rest of western Europe. The discovery of metallurgy in this region in the first half of the 5th millennium BC poses serious challenges to the interpretation of how this industry developed and spread, given that the nearest European region with similar evidence is the Balkans. This study presents the archaeological context of the discovery and the various analytical techniques (XRF, SEM, 14C) that have been applied to it.

Keywords

NeolithicmetallurgySpainCerro Virtud14C datingXRFSEM
Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 73 , Issue 282 , December 1999 , pp. 897 - 903
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1999

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