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Isotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass making

Patrick Degryse, Andrew J. Shortland, Sarah Dillis, Alicia van Ham-Meert, Frank Vanhaecke (UGent) and Peter Leeming
(2020) JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 120.
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Abstract
Antimony (Sb) is considered a rare material in the archaeological record, found only in unusual circumstances. Nevertheless, antimony minerals were an important resource for several millennia, used in metallurgy and to opacify or decolour glass and glazes. In this way, Sb spread throughout the known world from the Chalcolithic onward. In glassmaking, stibnite was the only available resource that could provide in any measure the very pure Sb evident from trace element analyses of the earliest glass. Sb isotopic analysis has allowed Late Bronze Age Egyptian and Mesopotamian glass vessels and Caucasian Sb metallic beads to be compared to the possible ancient ore sources. The only known matches for the isotopic composition of the glass are stibnite ores from the Racha-Lechkumi district in the Caucasus (present-day Georgia), near the Zopkhito Au-Sb deposits, mined from the 17th century BCE. Conversely, the Sb metal beads represent several isotopic and trace element compositional groups, only one of which matches the Racha-Lechkumi stibnite. Sb extraction for glassmaking was likely unrelated to copper metallurgy, and may have been associated with the mining of precious metals.
Keywords
Archaeology, History, Antimony, Caucasus, Glass, Isotope ratio, Stibnite, ICP-MASS SPECTROMETRY, DISCRIMINANTS, STANDARD, SYSTEMS, ORIGIN, SB

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MLA
Degryse, Patrick, et al. “Isotopic Evidence for the Use of Caucasian Antimony in Late Bronze Age Glass Making.” JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, vol. 120, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2020.105195.
APA
Degryse, P., Shortland, A. J., Dillis, S., van Ham-Meert, A., Vanhaecke, F., & Leeming, P. (2020). Isotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass making. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105195
Chicago author-date
Degryse, Patrick, Andrew J. Shortland, Sarah Dillis, Alicia van Ham-Meert, Frank Vanhaecke, and Peter Leeming. 2020. “Isotopic Evidence for the Use of Caucasian Antimony in Late Bronze Age Glass Making.” JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105195.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Degryse, Patrick, Andrew J. Shortland, Sarah Dillis, Alicia van Ham-Meert, Frank Vanhaecke, and Peter Leeming. 2020. “Isotopic Evidence for the Use of Caucasian Antimony in Late Bronze Age Glass Making.” JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE 120. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2020.105195.
Vancouver
1.
Degryse P, Shortland AJ, Dillis S, van Ham-Meert A, Vanhaecke F, Leeming P. Isotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass making. JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 2020;120.
IEEE
[1]
P. Degryse, A. J. Shortland, S. Dillis, A. van Ham-Meert, F. Vanhaecke, and P. Leeming, “Isotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass making,” JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE, vol. 120, 2020.
@article{8685508,
  abstract     = {{Antimony (Sb) is considered a rare material in the archaeological record, found only in unusual circumstances. Nevertheless, antimony minerals were an important resource for several millennia, used in metallurgy and to opacify or decolour glass and glazes. In this way, Sb spread throughout the known world from the Chalcolithic onward. In glassmaking, stibnite was the only available resource that could provide in any measure the very pure Sb evident from trace element analyses of the earliest glass. Sb isotopic analysis has allowed Late Bronze Age Egyptian and Mesopotamian glass vessels and Caucasian Sb metallic beads to be compared to the possible ancient ore sources. The only known matches for the isotopic composition of the glass are stibnite ores from the Racha-Lechkumi district in the Caucasus (present-day Georgia), near the Zopkhito Au-Sb deposits, mined from the 17th century BCE. Conversely, the Sb metal beads represent several isotopic and trace element compositional groups, only one of which matches the Racha-Lechkumi stibnite. Sb extraction for glassmaking was likely unrelated to copper metallurgy, and may have been associated with the mining of precious metals.}},
  articleno    = {{105195}},
  author       = {{Degryse, Patrick and Shortland, Andrew J. and Dillis, Sarah and van Ham-Meert, Alicia and Vanhaecke, Frank and Leeming, Peter}},
  issn         = {{0305-4403}},
  journal      = {{JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE}},
  keywords     = {{Archaeology,History,Antimony,Caucasus,Glass,Isotope ratio,Stibnite,ICP-MASS SPECTROMETRY,DISCRIMINANTS,STANDARD,SYSTEMS,ORIGIN,SB}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{6}},
  title        = {{Isotopic evidence for the use of Caucasian antimony in Late Bronze Age glass making}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105195}},
  volume       = {{120}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}
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