Early metallurgy of the Persian Gulf : : technology, trade, and the Bronze Age World / / Lloyd R. Weeks.

• Superior document: American School of Prehistoric Research monograph series ; Volume 2
• VerfasserIn: Weeks, Lloyd R., 1970-
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : Brill Academic Publishers,, [2004]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: American School of Prehistoric Research monograph series ; Volume 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xviii, 249 p. ); ill., 1 map
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

This volume examines the earliest production and exchange of copper and its alloys in the Persian Gulf, a major metal supply route for the Bronze Age societies of Western Asia. Weeks addresses the geological and technological background to copper production in southeastern Arabia and contextualizes evidence for major fluctuations in prehistoric copper production. The core of the volume contists of compositional and isotopic analyses. The relationship between specialized copper production, exchange, and the development of social complexity in early Arabia is examined, and the author addresses the broader archaeological issue of the Bronze Age tin trade, which linked vast areas of Western Asia, from the Indo-Iranian borderlands to the Aegean, in the third millennium BC.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Preliminary Material / Lloyd R. Weeks -- Foreword / C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky -- Preface / Lloyd R. Weeks -- Acknowledgments / Lloyd R. Weeks -- List of Figures / Lloyd R. Weeks -- List of Tables / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 1 Introduction / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 2 Geology and Early Exploitation of Copper Deposits in Southeastern Arabia / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 3 Analyzed Artifacts: Contexts and Chronology / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 4 Results of Compositional Analyses / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 5 Discussion of Compositional Results / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 6 Lead Isotope Analysis in Archaeology / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 7 Lead Isotope Data from the Gulf / Authors: L. R. Weeks and K. D. Collerson -- 8 Tin and Tin-Bronze in Early Western Asia / Lloyd R. Weeks -- 9 Summary and Conclusion / Lloyd R. Weeks -- Back Matter -- Appendix 1 Analytical Techniques and Data Treatment / Lloyd R. Weeks -- References / Lloyd R. Weeks -- Index / Lloyd R. Weeks.