The provenance of raw materials and finished objects is one of the most intriguing problems in archaeology. It is significant for the discussion of inter-regional cultural communication. Many of the methods used to determine provenance employed by archaeologists are shared with geologists or geochemists, among which the use of lead isotopes is probably one of the best-known. However, geologists and archaeologists do not always ask the same questions. Because of many and various human choices, it is not always possible to apply geological methods directly to archaeological objects. Specifically, the potential existence of mixing and recycling of metals challenges all the provenance studies of metal objects. In this paper, using Bronze Age China as an example, we suggest that by using geochemical techniques such as lead isotopic analysis and trace-element analysis of bronzes, but by asking slightly different questions, one can throw new light on the way in which important resources were managed by consumers of different social status within early dynastic China.

The Great Orme Bronze Age copper mine in Wales is one of Europe's largest, although its size has been attributed to a small-scale, seasonal labour force working for nearly a millennium. Here, the authors report the results of interdisciplinary research that provides evidence that Great Orme was the focus of Britain's first mining boom, c. 1600–1400 BC, probably involving a full-time mining community and the wide distribution of metalwork from Brittany to Sweden. This new interpretation suggests greater integration than previously suspected of Great Orme metal into the European Bronze Age trade/exchange networks, as well as more complex local and regional socio-economic interactions.

The Hill goldfield, NSW, Australia, is an example of a syntectonic, slate-belt gold deposit formed in a multiply deformed, Late Silurian slate-metagreywacke turbidite sequence. Gold is confined to bedding-parallel veins and discordant leader veins composed of as many as four generations of quartz, accompanied by phyllosilicates, carbonates and minor sulphides. Vein formation and gold deposition was apparently synchronous with Early Carboniferous metamorphism and deformation. Homogenisation temperatures (Th) for fluid inclusions in vein quartz demonstrate five groupings in the temperature intervals 350-280°C 280-250°C 250-190°C 190-150°C and 150-110°C corresponding to a variety of primary and secondary inclusions developed during four periods of vein quartz deposition under a generally declining temperature regime. Inclusion fluids are characterised by a low salinity of around 0.1 to 3.6 wt. % NaCl equivalent. The dominant gas phase present in the inclusion fluids varies from N2 in the early stages of the paragenesis, through CH 4 during the main episode of gold deposition, to CO2- rich fluids associated with late-stage mineralisation. δ18O values for vein quartz (range 15.1-17.1‰) and vein carbonate (range 11.3-13.4‰) are typical of metamorphic mineralisation. δD composition of hydrous minerals and inclusion fluids (range −53 to −138‰) suggest an influx of meteoric water in the later mineralising fluids. This conclusion is supported by δ13C data for vein calcite (range −2.5 to −9.7%0). δ34S composition of vein pyrrhotite and pyrite ranges from 6.9 to 7.8‰ early in the paragenesis, to lighter values (around 4.2 to 5.8%0) accompanying late gold deposition from more oxidising fluids. Sulphur isotope data imply a sulphur source from underlying turbidites and an increase in fluid oxidation state during mineralisation . Lead isotope measurements on vein pyrite, arseno py rite, galena and gold are characterised by two isotope populations with 207Pb/206Pb ratios of 0.862 and 0.860, which define two discrete mineralising events during vein formation. Consistency between data from vein minerals and lead isotope signatures for potential source rocks indicate that lead was derived from the sedimentary pile.

Three voluminous Quaternary phonolitic pumice fall deposits erupted from the compositionally-zoned Tenerife magma chamber exhibit variability in Sr and Pb isotope ratios. It has been previously argued that the Sr isotope variations are due to syn-eruptive interaction between magma and hydrothermal fluids (Palacz and Wolff, 1989). Pb compositions are not correlated with Sr, and are believed to reflect magmatic values. Pb isotope ratios exhibit regular variation with degree of fractionation, and one zoned deposit is heterogeneous in Pb. The highest values seem to characterize the most fractionated upper parts of the zoned system. This is unlikely to be a consequence of magmatic recharge. Isotopic and trace element behaviour is instead consistent with combined assimilation and fractional crystalliza- tion, involving the recycling of material containing relatively radiogenic Pb, from within the volcanic edifice. Assimilation of sediment intercalated within the submarine portion of the pile is ruled out by the isotopic data. The most probable contaminant is a felsic igneous rock. Early trachytes reported by Sun (1980) have the required Pb isotope compositions and may approximately represent the assimilant.

Lead is a major component of Chinese ritual bronze vessels. Defining its sources and usage is thus highly significant to understanding the metal industries of the Chinese Bronze Age. A new, simplified method has been developed for examining data, thereby providing insight into diachronic change in the origins of lead sources used in artefacts. Application of this method to the existing corpus of lead isotope data from the Erlitou (c. 1600 BC) to the Western Zhou (c. 1045–771 BC) periods reveals changes in the isotope signal over this time frame. These changes clearly reflect shifts in the sourcing of ores and their use in metropolitan foundries. Further data are required to understand these complex developments.

We present the first quantitative attempt at reconciling the source and emplacement of granite erratics in Beacon Valley. The erratics are enigmatic because granite does not crop out in the valley and its nearest subaerial exposure is at least 10 km downstream to the east of the valley. Detailed mapping of the valley shows three types of granite erratics, which are not present in equal amounts and do not show spatial patterns. Pb isotopic and elemental compositions of the erratics eliminate the Metschel Tillite as a source and indicate they derive from the Dry Valley plutons. Our limited study tentatively ties the erratics to suites of plutons, but it does not allow a direct tie of the erratics to specific plutons because of i) the geochemical variability of the plutons and ii) the limited number of erratics that were analysed. Published data suggest the erratics provide evidence of wet-based glaciation, which covered the Dry Valleys and much of Antarctica during the mid-Miocene. Our paper also explains the problems associated with the emplacement of these erratics and the age of the massive ice in Beacon Valley.

Lead isotope analyses of 50 Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age gold artefacts favour a gold source in southern Ireland. However when combined with major element analysis, the artefacts are not consistent with any Irish gold deposit analysed to date. Understanding the lead isotope signatures of ore deposits within a study region allows informed inferences to be drawn regarding the likelihood that an unanalysed ore deposit was exploited in the past. If an Irish gold source is assumed, then the gold is most likely to have originated from deposits hosted by Old Red Sandstone in the Variscan ore field of south-west Ireland. However, based on our current understanding of mineralisation in the region, this scenario is considered unlikely. A non-Irish source for the gold is therefore preferred – a scenario that may favour cosmologically-driven acquisition, ie, the deliberate procurement of a material from distant or esoteric sources. Available geochemical data, combined with current archaeological evidence, favour the alluvial deposits of south-west Britain as the most likely source of the gold.

Bronze Age trade networks across Europe and the Mediterranean are well documented; Baltic amber and bronze metalwork were particularly valued commodities. Here it is argued that demand for copper and tin led to changes in Scandinavian trade routes around 1600 BC, which can be linked to the appearance of figurative rock art images in southern Scandinavia. Images identified as oxhide ingots have been discovered in Sweden and suggest that people from Scandinavia were familiar with this characteristically Mediterranean trading commodity. Using trace element and lead isotope analysis, the authors argue that some bronze tools excavated in Sweden could have been made of Cypriot copper; these two discoveries suggest that Scandinavians were travelling to the Mediterranean, rather than acting through a middle man.

Reservoir sedimentation provides a valuable source of data on sediment flux. This paper assesses the record of sedimentation in the Baldernock Mill dam, a small mill dam in western Scotland. That record is based on the volume of sediment in the dam, and the detailed analysis of a continuously sampled stratigraphic section through the impounded sediment, with a chronology for mill dam construction and subsequent breaching based on historical maps and the impounded sediment’s content of 137Cs and lead isotopes. The mill dam was constructed in c. 1820, was initially partially breached in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century and then fully breached by about the mid 1920s. The dam trapped relatively low volumes of sediment and the correspondingly low rate of sediment flux indicated by the volume of impounded sediment reflects the dam’s very low trap efficiency. The basal Unit 1 in the impounded sediments was deposited between dam construction and the initial breaching of the wall. The unit consists of repeated ‘triplets’ of a basal sand (flood deposit) grading upwards into a mud deposit (post-flood deposition), which is in turn overlain by an organic-rich layer of leaves and twigs (the subsequent autumn leaf fall). Unit 2 is similar to Unit 1 but lacks the organic layer, indicating the lack of ongoing standing water to trap the autumn leaf fall, and Unit 3 was deposited after full breaching of the wall. Mill dams in Scotland generally impound small steep bedrock channels – the latter reflecting a strong glacial legacy in Scotland – and are only small structures designed to ensure water for mills during dry periods in a climate of otherwise generally moderate to high and reliable rainfall. The small sizes of these dams and their low wall heights mean that they trap relatively low volumes of sediment that have minimal to minor downstream impacts if the dams fail.

A new procedure is described in which combined lead and strontium isotope analysis of archaeological human dental tissues can be used to comment on the lifetime movements of individuals. A case study is presented of four Neolithic burials – an adult female and three juveniles – from a shared burial pit excavated at Monkton-up-Wimbourne, Dorset. It is demonstrated that the adult's place of origin was at least 80km to the north-west in the area of the Mendips. It is also shown that all three juveniles moved over significant distances during their lives.