The copper road
For the first time in human experience, a substance could be melted and converted into something new. If you set off by car from the Volga River to Hungary, you will have to drive for 32 hours and cover a…
copper
The mineral wealth of pharaonic Egypt
Colin Reader shows how ancient Egypt’s geology led to wealth, power, and influence.
Oldest bow drill
A joint British-Austrian team has identified Egypt’s oldest known rotary tool. The small metal drill was found at Badari more than 100 years ago, and had attracted little attention until now. The tool, measuring 63mm (2.5in) in length and weighing…
19th-century industrial heritage uncovered near Swansea
Excavations at the former Hafod–Morfa Copperworks have revealed rare evidence of copper-processing techniques used in the Lower Swansea Valley during the 19th century which, at its peak, accounted for an extraordinary amount of the world’s copper production. The Hafod Copperworks…
Semiyarka: a special steppe site
Archaeologists are exploring a unique Bronze Age settlement in the heart of Kazakhstan’s grasslands.
Community, Technology and Tradition: a social prehistory of the Great Orme Mine
REVIEW BY PAUL T CRADDOCK This is a very thorough description of every aspect of the prehistoric copper mines on the Great Orme at Llandudno. It is also an attempt to recreate and describe an ancient community/activity not just from…
Qarn al-Harf: Exploring a Bronze Age refuge
Around 2000 BC, a successful and prosperous Bronze Age culture in Southeast Arabia suddenly collapsed. Traditions and settlements that had developed over centuries disappeared, apart from in one small enclave towards the north of their former territory. Derek Kennet told Matthew Symonds how attempts to hold on to the past ushered in a new era.
Isotope analysis reveals origins of Uluburun shipwreck cargo
Researchers have successfully traced the origin of tin ingots found aboard the shipwreck to ore deposits in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Going underground: echoes of Napoleonic-era mining found at Alderley Edge
Alderley Edge’s rich mineral resources have attracted the attention of miners as far back as the Bronze Age. Now, though, recent investigations have revealed traces of rather more modern activity, as Carly Hilts reports.
Rise of the elites
... you can peer down into a deep square where Bronze Age burials are left in the ground following an earlier Thai excavation. Your eyes alight on the grave of a man accompanied by a remarkable number of pottery vessels and a socketed copper-base axe.
The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids
Review by Miroslav Bárta. The Old Kingdom papyri count among the rarest of finds. For several decades, the Abusir papyri archives from the pyramid complexes of the Fifth Dynasty kings Neferirkare and Nyuserre and queen-mother Khentkaus were among the earliest…
World’s oldest-known coin mint identified in China
The findings indicate the mint began operating between c. 640 and 550 BC.
Ancient Russian battle-axes discovered
This is a significant event for Russian archaeology, since no similar site has been uncovered for the past quarter-century.