La metal·lurgia del plom durant el període ibèric: treball i ús del plom entre els íbers del nord

Identifier:  TDX:1464

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX1464

Authors:  Morell i Cortes, Nuria

Abstract:
The study of the metallurgy of lead (production processes, uses, trade, social value of the metal) has always occupied a marginal space within the archaeological and archaeometallurgical research, that has especially focused on other metals. However, lead minerals are abundant in nature and the extraction and transformation of galena are known from the earliest stages of metallurgy in many prehistoric societies. But what do we know about the exploitation, processing, circulation, work and use of lead by the late prehistoric populations that inhabited present Catalonia?<br/><br/>The aim of this thesis is to achieve a first general approach to these issues for the Iberian period. The main objective is, then, to present and review, in a critical manner, the available archaeological data about this metallurgy to which very little attention has been paid; to this end, we had to focus especially on finished objects and on the evidence concerning the work and handling of lead, detected in late iron age settlements.<br/><br/>This thesis has been carried out in the framework of the R+D project 'Use of lead and silver in the first millennium BCE: commercial and cultural interaction in Western Mediterranean', coordinated by Prof. Nuria Rafael (University of Lleida).