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Retracing Magna Graecia's silver: coupling lead isotopes with a multi‐standard trace element procedure
Author(s) -
Birch T.,
Westner K. J.,
Kemmers F.,
Klein S.,
Höfer H. E.,
Seitz H.M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
archaeometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-4754
pISSN - 0003-813X
DOI - 10.1111/arcm.12499
Subject(s) - trace element , inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry , laser ablation , trace (psycholinguistics) , isotope , chemistry , geology , environmental chemistry , geochemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , mass spectrometry , laser , physics , nuclear physics , chromatography , philosophy , linguistics , optics
This study presents the results of compositional and lead isotopic analysis of coinage issued by the Greek colonies of Syracuse, Metapontum, Taras and Thurium in the fifth to third centuries bce . The data suggest that each colony in Magna Graecia, regardless of its motherland roots and despite ongoing conflicts between the cities, had access to the same silver, and that this supply was stable overall throughout their period of minting and issuing coinage. The paper retraces the silver sources of the colonies and points out a potential supply route for the metal. It includes a method development for a multi‐standard quantification approach for laser ablation‐inductively coupled‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) analysis of silver.