Apports et limites des méthodes isotopiques pour restituer la circulation des métaux aux périodes anciennes

Abstract

The understanding of the exchange modalities of raw materials (ores) and produced metals gives a clue to write the economic and technical history of ancient civilizations. To solve these problems, the archaeologists and the historians need archaeometrical contributions. In the case of non-ferrous and ferrous metals, the developments or the adaptability of analytical methods necessary to address these questionings come from physico-chemical and Earth Sciences. We shall speak here about source tracing which constitutes one of the most useful tools to recover the metal circulation during ancient times. The principle is based on the identification of elementary and isotopic chemical elements within archaeological materials throughout the various chaîne opératoire of the metals. These elements constitute the so-called “provenance tracers” which are transmitted by the ore to the object. This article suggests exploring briefly the various available isotopic tracers but also drawing up a balance sheet of current developments.

Keywords

• trade
• isotopic tracers
• raw materials
• metals
• archaeology