This volume examines prehistoric copper mining in Europe, from the first use of the metal
eight thousand years ago in the Balkans to its widespread adoption during the Bronze Age …

The knowledge of metallurgy, first developed in the Near East, spread to most parts of
Europe by 2000 BC. The birth of this new technology coincided with a pivotal moment in the …

„The Varna graves offer for us what may be the earliest preserved evidence from any site in
the world... of a prominently ranked society.... The broader significance of these finds lies …

The quest for the 'when'and 'where'of the world's earliest metallurgy has been dominating
scholarly research on this topic for decades. This paper looks beyond the question of origins …

In recent years archaeological finds and scientific analyses have provided increasing
evidence for a very early beginning of copper production in the rich mining area of the …

The beginnings of extractive metallurgy in Eurasia are contentious. The first cast copper
objects in this region emerge c. 7000 years ago, and their production has been tentatively …

The extraction and processing of metal ores, particularly those of copper and tin, are
regarded as among the principal motors of Bronze Age society. The skills and risks of mining …

The relationships between copper ore and metal, as deduced from physico-chemical
considerations and data; smelting experiments in the laboratory; and well-defined …

Over the last decade, our understanding of the first copper-smelting processes has
considerably evolved, thanks mostly to a dramatic increase in available archaeological and …

This paper integrates archaeological, material, microstructural and compositional data of c.
7,000 years old metallurgical production evidence with the aim to address the knowledge of …