Veröffentlichungen aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum / Silver, Copper and Bronze in Early Dynastic Ur, Mesopotamia

The excavations of the Royal Tombs of Ur by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s to 30s provided a great wealth of precious metal artefacts, which must have travelled a long way due to their location in the metal-poor alluvial plains of the Euphrates. Where did you come from? Ur had a strategically important position on the shores of the Persian Gulf in the Early Bronze Age connecting to a long-distance trade network. The University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archeology and Anthropology provided a collection of silver, copper, and bronze samples for provenance studies. They were analysed using state-of-the-art scientific methods. The results gave interesting information about the silver and copper sources. In addition, detailed methodological evaluation of the in situ analysis could be achieved, as well as a large-scale compilation of the old mining regions in the Near and Middle East, which was compiled by means of GIS applications. Die Ausgrabungen der Königsgräber von Ur durch Leonard Woolley in den 1920er bis 30er Jahren brachten einen großen Fundreichtum von wertvollen Metallartefakten zu Tage, die aufgrund ihrer Lage im metallarmen Schwemmland des Euphrat eine weite Reise hinter sich haben mussten. Wo kamen sie her? Ur hatte in der Frühbronzezeit eine strategisch bedeutende Position am Ufer des Persischen Golfes mit Anbindung an ein weites Fernhandelsnetz. Das University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology stellte eine Sammlung von Silberproben, Kupferproben und Bronzeproben für Provenienzstudien zur Verfügung. Sie wurden mittels modernster naturwissenschaftlicher Methoden analysiert. Die Ergebnisse ergaben interessante Informationen zu den Silberquellen und Kupferquellen. Außerdem konnten detaillierte methodische Auswertungen der in situ Analytik erzielt werden, sowie eine großräumige Zusammenstellung der alten Bergbauregionen im Nahen und Mittleren Osten, die mittels GIS-Anwendungen kompiliert wurde.

The excavations of the Royal Tombs of Ur by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s to 30s provided a great wealth of precious metal artefacts, which must have travelled a long way due to their location in the metal-poor alluvial plains of the Euphrates. Where did you come from? Ur had a strategically important position on the shores of the Persian Gulf in the Early Bronze Age connecting to a long-distance trade network. The University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archeology and Anthropology provided a collection of silver, copper, and bronze samples for provenance studies. They were analysed using state-of-the-art scientific methods. The results gave interesting information about the silver and copper sources. In addition, detailed methodological evaluation of the in situ analysis could be achieved, as well as a large-scale compilation of the old mining regions in the Near and Middle East, which was compiled by means of GIS applications.