Journal of Journal of Mining and Metallurgy 45 (2) B (2009) 143 - 148 Mining and Metallurgy

BEGINNING OF THE METAL AGE IN THE CENTRAL BALKANS ACCORDING TO THE RESULTS OF THE ARCHEOMETALLURGY

B. Jovanović#

Corresponding Member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, (Received 02 December 2008; accepted 29 January 2009)

Abstract

The gradual development of the primary copper metallurgy in Balkans starts with production of small jewelry pieces and ends with the serial production of massive tools and weapons. It is confirmed that this metallurgy depended on the contemporary mining, i.e. the available sources of the raw materials. It is also corroborated by the discovery of two Early Eneolithic copper mines: in Eastern Serbia and Ai- Bunar in Bulgaria /first half and the middle of the 5th millennium BC/. These mines are also the evidence for the local exploitation of the carbonate copper minerals – malachite and azurite. The technology employed is close to the former flint mining in the Late Neolithic; massive pebbles obtained from the neighboring alluvial deposits were used as mining hammers. Identical technology was employed in the mines dating from the later periods /Rudnik, Central Serbia, Jarmovac, Priboj na Limu/. The Vinča culture of the central Balkan followed all metallurgical phases of introduction of metal and use of the carbonate ores /Gradac I – III phase/. This long process of including the metal in wider use lasted generally from the middle of the 5th millennium BC to the end of the 4th millennium BC, i.e. to the appearance of the Bronze Age.

Keywords: Eneolithic; Primary mining; Archaeometallurgy; Malachite; Rudna Glava; Mali Šturac, Jarmovac

1. Introduction engaged in speculations in solving certain complex events important for appearance /or The archaeology was based on collecting disappearance/ of ancient cultures and their material remains of the former /ancient/ fundamental achievements. civilizations but did not always stick to this The emergence of the first use of metal in basic prerequisite of its relatively late the Eneolithic/Copper Age/ of the Balkans appearance among the historical sciences. It was explained, on the base of the low has been dealing with hypotheses and was absolute chronology, as a consequence of the

#Corresponding author: [email protected]

DOI:10.2298/JMMB0902143J 14 4 B. Jovanović / JMM 45 (2) B (2009) 135 - 140 visits of the ‘protectors’ of the Aegean and hammer-axes has been recognized rather Bronze Age. They were the imagined early on the basis of the archaeological finds. professional metallurgists sent in these areas Thus has indirectly been confirmed the to look for the new sources of the raw independence of the primary copper materials for the advanced civilizations of metallurgy, which could be followed from the East Mediterranean or even the Near East the simplest forms of the objects for [1]. However, the real evidence for such everyday use to the implements of assumed expeditions, which brought to the substantial weight cast in the one-piece Balkans the first knowledge about copper moulds. mining and processing of this earliest As a result we came to conclusion that the prehistoric metal, has never been provided. initial phase of the Early Eneolithic In its way was also standing the fact that metallurgy could be better explained only on ‘protectors’ of the Mediterranean Bronze the basis of evidence concerning Age could not have transferred the contemporary mining. The interdependence knowledge concerning first metallurgical of the metallurgical tradition and available experience because it would have been very sources of raw material is in that way distant past for them and thus unknown /as permanently present in production of the primeval/ as for the autochthonous cultures metal artifacts in prehistory. The knowledge in the Balkans that had not experienced that of technology employed in the earliest past. It turned out, however, that remains of copper mines in the Balkans as well as the the earliest mining in the Balkans are very discovery of the Early Eneolithic cultures as sporadic and as a rule destroyed by later bearers of the mining activities are necessary exploitation from the prehistoric to the for the understanding of the origin of the modern times. primary copper use. By the discovery of two Therefore, the first archeometallurgical more mines in the Central Balkans /Rudna analyses relied directly on the existing Glava/ and in the Eastern Balkans /Ai-Bunar/ museum collections of copper artifacts [2] in the 1960s, these two basic elements of according to principle – how much metal the copper use during Early Eneolithic have finds so much metallurgy. Their scarcity was finally been joined into unique production hence taken as evidence that primary entity. These mines, which have been metallurgy had no significant impact on the archaeologically investigated to a evolution of the Early Eneolithic cultures in considerable extent, are dated in the Early the region. It was also emphasized that there Eneolithic, i.e. the Early Copper Age: Ai- are no information for copper ore smelting, Bunar corresponds with cultures Karanovo so more attention was paid to collecting the VI /Karanovo V in the south Thrace dating native copper and the contemporaneous from the first half and the middle of the 5th technique of cold working. The gradual millennium BC [3] while Rudna Glava was development of the copper metallurgy in the active during the Gradac phase of the Vinča eastern and central Balkans starting with culture and its date is similar [4]. These simple jewelry and small implements (the mines are the evidence for local exploitation phase of cylindrical beads and wire of carbonate copper minerals – malachite bracelets) and reaching to the massive tools and azurite. The massive pebbles of volcanic B. Jovanović / JMM 45 (2) B (2009) 143 - 148 14 5 origin had been obtained from the obtaining of the metal in the early phases of neighboring river deposits and used as heavy its use in the Central Balkans are mining hammers. The technology employed insufficiently documented from the at Rudna Glava is very similar to the former technological aspect. Thus an often asked mining of flint in the Early Neolithic or in question where had been the smelteries or at even earlier phases of this period throughout least the individual smelting or casting the continent. furnaces remains generally unanswered. Similar technology but this time of higher An attempt to explain the first mines as level, judging by the various types of sources of materials used for pigments: pebbles-hammers, was used in the copper azurite for blue pigment, malachite for the mines at Mali Šturac /Rudnik, Central green one is not based on the existing Serbia/ and particularly in Jarmovac /Priboj evidence. Even M. M. Vasić, the first na Limu/. The first mine had been exploited investigator of the Vinča culture came to in the Bronze Age or the later periods while conclusion that there is no evidence for the the other one had been exploited during the use of ‘carbonate’ pigments in the settlement Eneolithic but its exploitation continued until Vinča-Belo Brdo despite the presence of the modern times [5]. amorphous malachite in the later /Gradac/ By comparing the technology employed phase of the settlement. in the earliest copper mines in Thrace and The cold working of the native copper is Eastern Serbia as well as the similar usually not accepted as distinct examples in other regions the striking archeometallurgical phase although it is not similarity could be encountered. The use of clear what it could be in that case. The pebble-hammers with transversal groove is sporadic use of malachite as decorative identical; the veins of copper ore were mineral is not unexpected but it has no followed to the border of the oxidation zone metallurgical significance as it was the at the exploited deposit and generally using question of mechanical treatment. The same technology in the quest for malachite, transition to the obtaining of copper from azurite and native copper. The introduction malachite is illustrated by cylindrical beads of copper, therefore, implies identical or very made of thin sheet metal and worn side by similar exploitation of the carbonate or oxide side on the same necklace with beads of ores regardless of the geographic location malachite (mineral). The bracelet made of but there is a considerable difference in the copper of high purity comes from the Vinča absolute chronology [6]. culture (Gradac II phase) settlement Divostin Similar evidence suggests that use of the near Kragujevac where the amorphous metal in the Eneolithic metallurgy depends malachite was also found in a considerable directly on the sources of raw materials quantity. This bracelet belongs to the well- within given territory. Thus very early use of known ‘Pločnik’ type represented by one silver prevails in the Aegean, particularly in specimen in hoard 3 from the eponymous the Cyclades [7] while the copper metallurgy site / Gradac III phase /. The smelting of of large scale along with the first bronze carbonate ores for production of jewelry and alloys prevails besides gold, in the small tools was introduced at the Vinča continental Balkans. The processing and culture settlement Gornja Tuzla / Gradac I-II 146 B. Jovanović / JMM 45 (2) B (2009) 143 - 148 phase/. There has also been found the speaks rather in favor of the ‘revolution of amorphous malachite [8]. mining’ than the ‘revolution of metallurgy’, It has been known for a long time that it is which concerns more the technology of not simple to determine the composition of alloys and the serial production of the bronze the metal used for the earliest massive tools artifacts. in the Early Eneolithic – whether it is the The south region of the Vinča culture native copper or the copper obtained by provides different archeometallurgical smelting carbonate ore because of the evidence to a certain degree. The most exceptional purity of metal in both instances. interesting among the larger Vinča The finding circumstances of the earliest settlements existing along the south edge of metal artifacts have the important role in the zone with the richest ore deposits in drawing conclusions about the primary Eastern Serbia / – Rudna Glava – metallurgy. There has also been introduced Bor/ is the settlement Belovode near the term ‘metallurgy of necropoles’ denoting Petrovac na Mlavi. This settlement existed the origin of the most of early copper during Gradac I – II phase; according to the artifacts. They are the grave goods as the division of the Early Eneolithic culture into compulsory offerings in the funerary ritual Gradac I – III phases it relates generally to its observed in the Early Eneolithic south area and is based on the corresponding communities in the Middle Danube basin archeometallurgical development. The most and in the Carpathian basin. The valuable important result of such relatively contribution to the classification and chronological division is the sharp archeometry of the copper jewelry and tools distinction between the south and north of the Eneolithic period are various hoards region of the Vinča culture. While the former containing the finished copper products or enters the final stages of the Early Eneolithic the ‘founder’s waste’ prepared for melting through the Gradac III phase, the latter is down. The magnificent grave goods of exposed to pressure and partial destruction copper and gold from the famous Varna by the cultures of the Pannonian Early and necropolis radically changed the Later Eneolithic [10]. assumptions concerning the metallurgy of It turned out that processing of malachite the Late Eneolithic in the Eastern Balkans / during Gradac I – II phase was, regardless of Gumelniţa – Karanovo VI culture/ [9]. The the technical and production level, just the high technological level of the Late local production. According to the existing Eneolithic in the Balkans when massive evidence we should not expect any distinct copper tools had been produced in series is center during the first stage of metallurgy in evident. the Vinča culture. The situation with smiths The Vinča culture followed all the stages and smelters gathered in small artisan of gradual introduction of the metals in the communities is more probable for the Gradac Central Balkans. The most acceptable is the III phase because the serial production of conclusion that metallurgical production massive tools and weapons has only been became possible only simultaneously with possible on the basis of the considerable primary copper mining – mostly concerning increase of the available quantity of copper the carbonate and oxide ores. This fact obtained from the carbonate copper B. Jovanović / JMM 45 (2) B (2009) 143 - 148 14 7 minerals. The early production centers have well as by applying the analytic method been confirmed so far only in the Baden insufficiently adjusted to the distinctive culture /Eastern Slavonija/ at the site Saloš – conditions of the site situated on the strip Donja Vrba near Slavonski Brod and this mine of the modern magnetite mine [13]. points to the Alpine zone in the northwest Therefore, the different levels of abounding in the sulphides copper ores [11]. development of metallurgy within the It is not difficult to imagine the countless contemporaneous cultures of the Early ways of circulation of the first metal, from Eneolithic in this region are understandable. the commercial exchange to plundering. Thus, the Tiszapolgar culture, which was Therefore it is impossible to distinguish, closer to the sources of the Carpathian using classic archaeological methods, how copper yielded considerable number of many artifacts had been produced of the massive hammer-axes (mostly grave goods) copper from one or many sources of the raw while geographically close Sopot culture did materials that could also be rather distant not yield the data about its own production of from each other. the copper artifacts. The investigations concerning the origin The metallurgy in the Balkans repeats the of malachite in the Vinča settlements in the primary mining technology and copper Morava valley in relation to Rudna Glava processing independently of the /Gradac I phase/ did not yield the expected chronological and geographical differences. results. The analyses of the radioactive This was possible to achieve because the isotopes of lead in some samples were initial knowledge about metals was in the hampered by the increased radioactivity of the copper ore from Rudna Glava [12] as

Fig. 1. Massive copper tools and weapons, Fig. 2. Massive copper tools and weapons, Eneolithic period Eneolithic period 1. Central Balkans; 2 Western Balkans 1-2. Eastern Balkan; 3. Lower Danube basin 148 B. Jovanović / JMM 45 (2) B (2009) 143 - 148

Balkan-Aegean area rather early but the XXXVIII-XXXIX (1994-1995) 9-17. prerequisites for its intensification were very 5. B. Jovanović, Ref. 2, p.78. different. 6. B. Jovanović, Continuity of the prehistoric Bearing in mind the early occurrence of mining in the Central Balkans,Ancient mining and small number of copper objects within the metallurgy in Southeast Europe, P. Petrović, S. Neolithic cultures in the Balkans and their Djurdjekanović, Eds., Bor - Beograd, 1995, p.29. diverse dating as well as the absence of 7. B. Jovanović, Silver in the Early Praehistory of reliable evidence concerning the very the Central Balkans, Silver Workshops and mints, beginning of the metallurgical processing of I.Popović, T. Cvjetičanin, B.Borić – Brešković, malachite – there still remains, however, the Belgrade, 1995, 31-37. (in Serbian) primary mining of carbonate copper 8. B. Čović, Prehistoric mining and metallurgy in minerals, determined chronologically and Bosnia and Herzegovina – state and investigation problems, Annual XXII, Center for balkanological geographically. Therefore, the Gradac I research, 20 (1984) 111-144. (in Serbian) phase of the Vinča culture /Rudna Glava/ and 9. H. Todorova, Chronologie, horizontale Karanovo V-VI /Ai-Bunar/ denote according Stratigraphie und Befunde, Durankulak, Bd. II, Teil1, to our present knowledge the beginning of herausg., H. Todorova, Sofia, 2002, p.35-52. the metallurgical activity in the Balkans. The 10. B. Jovanović, Gradac Phase of the Vinča use of gold from the river deposits was culture: Origin of a typological innovation Homage to probably of a later date as it is suggested by Milutin Garašanin, N.Tasić, C. Grozdanov Eds., the necropolis in Varna /Black Sea coast/. Belgrade 2006, 221-233; The long process of including the metal in 11. D. Šljivar, The Eariest Copper Metalurgy in the regular use lasted from the middle or the end Central Balkans, Metalurgija, Guest-Editor D. of the 5th millennium BC until the end of the Živković, 12 (2-3) (2006) 93-104. th 4 century BC. The quoted dates are also 12. J. Lozuk, A problem of the Baden group confirmation of gradual / and independent / Metallurgy at the site of Saloš, Donja Vrba near improvement of the metallurgical knowledge Slavonski Brod, Ancient mining and metallurgy in in the Eneolithic period of the Balkans. Southeast Europe, P.Petrović, S. Djurdjekanović, Eds., Bor-Beograd, 1995, p. 55-58.

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