**Archaeometallurgy of Copper Alloys**

150 Copper Alloys – Early Applications and Current Performance – Enhancing Processes

Wei W., Chen G. Microstructure and tensile properties of ultrafine grained copper processed by equal-channel angular pressing. Rare Metals. 2006;25(6): 697-704. Xu C., Wang Q., Zheng M., Li J., Huang M., Jia Q., Zhu J., Kunz L., Buksa M. Fatigue

Zhai T., Wilkinson A.J., Martin J.W. A crystallographic mechanism for fatigue crack propagation through grain boundaries. Acta Mater. 2000;48:4917-4927.

2008;475(1-2):249-256.

behavior and damage characteristic of ultra-fine grain low-purity copper processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP). Mater Sci Eng A.

**7** 

*2Germany 1,3Iran* 

**Bronze in Archaeology: A Review of the** 

*1Faculty of Conservation, Art University of Isfahan,* 

*2Institut fur Bau- und Werkstoffchemie, Universitaet Siegen,* 

**Archaeometallurgy of Bronze in Ancient Iran** 

Omid Oudbashi1, S. Mohammadamin Emami1,2 and Parviz Davami3

*3Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Sharif University of Technology,* 

The history of metals and metallurgy is rooted in the history of civilizations as the "Archaeometallurgy" and has been a subject of great interest for over a century. Due to the relatively good preservation of metallic goods and the modern values related to metals, metal artefact typologies often served as the very basis for prehistoric sequences during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In many ways, it was V. Gordon Childe who placed metallurgical technology at the front, arguing as he did for the roles of "itinerant metal smiths" and bronze production in the rise of social elites and complex societies. Childe was also one of the first to systematically argue for the transmission of metallurgy from the Near East to the Eurasia (Thornton & Roberts, 2009). On the other hand, many of the artefacts which excavated, as well as some of the metallurgical talent being practiced are standing examples that depict the superior metallurgical skills used by human. Archaeometallurgical investigations can provide evidence about both the nature and level of mining, smelting and metalworking trades, and support understanding about structural and technical evidences. Such evidence can be essential in understanding the economy of a settlement, the nature of the industry and craft, the technological capabilities of its craftsmen as well as their cultural relations. In order to achieve such data, it is obvious that archaeometallurgical discipline has considered at each stage of archaeological and historical investigations in the field of ancient

The development of metallurgy on the Iranian Plateau has been a topic of interest to both archaeologists and scientists for many years because of the remarkable history of the metallurgical activities in Iran (such as usage of native copper in the 7th millennium BCE and smelting of copper ores by the late 6th millennium BCE) and concerned the wide variety of the technologies, compositions, etc. Indeed, the rich and old history of the Iranian Plateau and the huge metallurgical and metal working remnants spread in various forms and different parts of this region have been an important source for archaeological and archaeometallurgical studies for many years, especially during the last decade (e.g., Arab &

Rehren, 2004; Pleiner, 2004; Thornton & Rehren, 2007).

**1. Introduction** 

metal working.
