Copper shaft-hole axes and early metallurgy in south-eastern Europe : : an integrated approach / / Julia Heeb.

• Superior document: Archaeopress archaeology
• VerfasserIn: Heeb, Julia,
• Place / Publishing House: Oxford : : Archaeopress,, [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Archaeopress archaeology.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (302 pages) :; illustrations.

Although the copper axes with central shaft-hole from south-eastern Europe have a long history of research, they have not been studied on a transnational basis since the 1960s. What has also been missing, is trying to use as many methods as possible to better understand their production, use and con...

Table of Contents

• COVER
• Title
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1.1 The invention of metallurgy in the Old World
• 1.2 The copper axes with central shaft-hole
• 2 Methodology
• 2.1 Background
• 2.2 Terminology
• 2.3 The collection of data
• 2.4 Experiments
• 2.5 Metallography
• 2.6 Typology
• 2.7 Database/GIS
• 2.8 Summary and conclusion
• 3 Theoretical Perspectives
• 3.1 Social technologies
• 3.2 Overcoming dichotomies
• 3.3 Change, invention and innovation
• 3.4 Conclusion
• 4 Context and Background of the Copper Hammer-Axes and Axe-Adzes from South-Eastern Europe
• 4.1 Climate and topography
• Fig. 1: Physical map of the study area (source: Author)
• 4.2 Vegetation, plants, animals and natural resources of the Copper Age in south-eastern Europe
• Fig. 2: The seven regions defined using the topography as well as the archaeological groups (thanks go to M. Kacner)
• 4.3 Copper Age groups of south-eastern Europe - where, when and how they lived and died
• Fig. 3:Simplified summary of the chronology of the cultural groups in south-eastern Europe between 6000 and 3000 cal BC (source: Author)
• 4.4 Summary and conclusion
• 5 History of Research
• 5.1 The 'discovery' of the Copper Age
• 5.2 The origin and meaning of the copper axes
• 5.3 Typology, production and provenance
• 5.4 The creation of catalogues and scientific analysis
• Fig. 4: The different metal groups according to the SAM project (source: Junghans et al. 1968a, p. 2, Fig. 1)
• 5.5 Summary
• 6 Copper Age Metallurgy and Shaft-Hole Axes from South-Eastern Europe - Evidence, Problems and Potential
• 6.1 Ore deposits and Copper Age mines
• 6.2 Smelting
• 6.3 The production and use of metal artefacts
• Fig. 5: Conical vessel from Belovode, which was interpreted as a 'furnace chimney' (source: Radivojević 2007, p. 40, Fig. 29).
• Fig. 6: A hammer-axe and an axe-adze (source: Author)
• Fig. 7: Number and proportion of different axe forms (source: Author)
• Fig. 8: The spatial distribution of axe-adzes (source: Author)
• Fig. 9: The spatial distribution of hammer-axes (source: Author)
• Fig. 10: Two tuyères, described as phalli in the original publication (4, 6), a crucible (7) and an unidentified clay object (5) (source: Cucoş 1999, Fig. 67)
• Fig. 11: A mould for an axe-adze from Tepe Ghabristan, Iran (source: Boroffka 2009, p. 253, Fig. 6)
• Fig. 12: Drawing of the re-discovered axe 'blank' from the Museum für Vor-und Frühgeschichte Berlin (drawing: D. Greinert)
• Fig. 13: Elongated grain boundaries along the shaft-hole (source: Pittioni 1957, Fig. 15)
• Fig. 14: A fragmented axe-adze with potential traces of a chisel on the shaft-hole walls (source: Author)
• Fig. 15: Coghlan's proposed method of copper axe production (source: Coghlan 1961, Fig. 14)
• 6.4 Conclusion
• 7 The Experiments
• 7.1 Experimental Archaeology - history, definition and scope
• 7.2 Actualistic outdoor casting
• Fig. 16: The finished furnace, tuyère, pipes and bellow (source: Author)
• Fig. 17: The partly filled mould after casting session 1 (source: Author)
• Fig. 18: The cast from session 1 (source: Author)
• Fig. 19: The partly vitrified tuyère (source: Author)
• Fig. 20: The cast from session 2 (source: Author)
• 7.3 Shaft-hole experiments
• Fig. 21: The cast from session 3 (source: Author)
• Fig. 22: The gas fired furnace (source: Author)
• Fig. 23: Sand moulds for the clay core series
• Fig. 24: The bow drill being used on one of the copper axe blanks (source: Author)
• 7.4 Macromorphological results and observations
• Fig. 25: Attempt at drilling the shaft-hole using a wooden drill point in an electric drill (source: Author).
• Fig. 26: The different materials used as drill points. A: sedimentary rock, B: igneous rock, C: antler, D: wood, E: copper (source: Author)
• Fig. 27: Experimentally cast axe from the clay core series (source: Author)
• Fig. 28: Archaeological axe of the Jászladány type (source: Author)
• 7.5 Summary and conclusion
• Fig. 29: An experimental axe from the clay core series (A and D) and an archaeological axe of the Pločnik type (B and C) (source: Author)
• Fig. 30: An experimental axe from the punching series (B and C) and an archaeological axe of the Szendrő type (A and D) (source: Author)
• 8 Metallography
• 8.1 Actualistic outdoor casts
• Fig. 31: The processes influencing the microstructure of metals
• Fig. 32: The object cast in session I with the two samples taken for metallographic analysis from the cutting edge (sample 1) and the side (sample 2) (source: Author)
• Fig. 33: Micrographs of the three outdoor casts before etching A-casting session I, B-casting session II and C-casting session III (source: Author)
• Fig. 34: Micrographs of the three outdoor casts after etching A-casting session I, B-casting session II and C-casting session III (source: Author)
• 8.2 Shaft-hole experiment
• Fig. 35: The three samples from the shaft-hole experiment, which were punched and water quenched. (A-PWQ1, B-PWQ2, C-PWQ3) (source: Author)
• Fig. 36: The top surface of unetched sample 22 (CCWQ3) (source: Author)
• Fig. 37: Sections along the shaft-hole of the three air cooled samples cast around a clay core (source: Author)
• Fig. 38: Sections along the shaft-hole of the three water quenched samples cast around a clay core (source: Author)
• Fig. 39: Sections along the shaft-hole of the three air cooled samples with punched shaft-holes (source: Author)
• Fig. 41: Sections along the 'shaft-hole' of the drilled sample (source: Author).
• Fig. 40: Sections along the shaft-hole of the three water quenched samples with punched shaft-holes (source: Author)
• 8.3 Archaeological axe
• Fig. 42: The deformation of the as cast structure near the top end of the shaft-hole (A) and the lack of deformation near the bottom end (B) (source: Author)
• Fig. 43: The deformation of the as cast structure near the top of the outer surface (A) and the lack of deformation near the bottom of the outer surface (B) (source: Author)
• Fig. 44: A fragment along the top of the shaft-hole (source: Author)
• Fig. 45: The outer surface of the sample where there is a high copper oxide concentration (source: Author)
• 8.4 The results in their archaeological context
• Fig. 47: Strain lines near the lower half of the outer surface (source: Author)
• Fig. 46: The shaft-hole (A) as well as the outer surface of the sample (B) (source: Author)
• Fig. 48: Oxide enrichment of two archaeological axes (A and C) and one experimental one (B) (source: A-B Authors and C Coghlan 1961, p. 65, Fig. 9)
• 8.5 Summary and conclusion
• Fig. 49: An old micrograph of a shaft-hole surface of an axe-adze (source: Coghlan 1961, p.62, Fig. 6)
• 9 A New Typology for the Copper Hammer-Axes and Axe-Adzes
• 9.1 Previous typologies
• 9.2 The new typology
• Fig. 50: The typology as devised by Schubert (source: Schubert 1965, p. 276, Fig. 1)
• 9.3 Conclusion
• 10 Patterns and Trends in the Copper Axe Assemblage
• 10.1 Distribution and Context
• Fig. 51: The distribution of all Copper Age hammer-axes and axe-adzes with known findspots (source: Author)
• Fig. 52: The main distribution area of the copper axes from south-eastern Europe (source: Author)
• Fig. 53: The proportion of different axe groups, which occur inside and outside a 1km buffer zone around the rivers (source: Author).
• Fig. 54: The proportion of axes occurring within different distances of the rivers (source: Author)
• Fig. 55: The proportion of axes coming from secure, possible and no contexts (source: Author)
• Fig. 56: The number of axes coming from different contexts (source: Author)
• Fig. 57: The proportion of hammer-axes and axe-adzes coming from different contexts (source: Author)
• Fig. 58: Axe-adzes and hammer-axes from three different contexts (source: Author)
• 10.2 Composition
• Fig. 59: The vast majority of axes fall into cluster 2 (Data: Krause 2003, Graph: Author)
• Fig. 60: The number of hammer-axe and axe-adzes in each relevant cluster. The clusters are based on the level of 34 clusters obtained from the complete dataset by Pernicka
• Fig. 61: The distribution of the relevant clusters out of the 34 clusters based on the complete dataset (Data: Krause 2003, Map: Author)
• Fig. 62: The Europe-wide distribution of all copper objects falling into cluster 2
• Fig. 63: The percentages of axes coming from the relevant level 40 clusters
• 10.3 Dimensions
• Fig. 64: Distribution of length values for the hammer-axes and axe-adzes (source: Author)
• Fig. 65: The weight and length values for the hammer-axes and axe-adzes (thanks go to S. Suhrbier)
• Fig. 67: The distribution of Jászladány axes by weight (source: Author)
• Fig. 66: The weight and length values for the different axe types (thanks go to S. Suhrbier)
• 10.4 Axe marks
• Fig. 68: Percentage of hammer-axes and axe-adzes with and without marks (source: Author)
• Fig. 69: Comparing the different styles of markings for Jászladány axe-adzes and Székely-Nádudvar hammer-axes in percentages of the total number of marked axes of both types (source: Author)
• Fig. 70: The percentages of axe types marked with two circles, one on each side of the shaft-hole (code 2a) (source: Author).
• Fig. 71: A Neolithic stone axe belonging to the Salzmünder group from the Museum für Vorgeschichte in Halle, Germany (source: Author).