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FOURTH MILLENNIUM BC SILVER FROM TELL ESH‐SHUNA, JORDAN: ARCHAEOMETALLURGICAL INVESTIGATION AND SOME THOUGHTS ON CERAMIC SKEUOMORPHS
Author(s) -
PHILIP GRAHAM,
REHREN THILO
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0092.1996.tb00080.x
Subject(s) - archaeology , bronze , palestine , copper alloy , ancient history , imitation , bronze age , history , geology , metallurgy , copper , materials science , psychology , social psychology
Summary. Analytical and contextual details are given for a piece of silver sheet recovered by dry‐sieving from a fourth millennium B.C. deposit at Tell esh‐Shuna in the north Jordan Valley. Analysis proved that the fragment was composed of a silver‐gold‐copper alloy. The possible origin of such aurian silver artefacts is considered in the light of current geological evidence, and alternative mechanisms for their appearance reviewed, taking into consideration recent data pertaining to the use of ‘non‐utilitarian’ metals in the southern Levant during the fifth and fourth millennia B.C. Reasons are given for believing that silver artefacts are under‐represented in the archaeological record, and the imitation of silver vessels is suggested as a possible explanation for the appearance in Palestine of the distinctive Grey Burnished ceramics at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age.