Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2019 Copper smelting slag from the Oberalbstein (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland). Methodological considerations on typology and morphology Reitmaier-Naef, Leandra Abstract: Mining archaeologists and archaeometallurgists have attempted to decipher the prehistoric multistage process of copper smelting from chalcopyrite for a number of decades. For this purpose, various examinations of archaeological remains, historical and ethnographical comparisons and archaeological experiments have been carried out. Apart from archaeological structures such as furnaces, very little if any of the original raw materials (copper ore) or final products (matte/raw copper) remain from which the process could be reconstructed. Only smelting slag is usually available in vast quantities. By conducting geochemical and mineralogical analyses of this by-product, information can be gained concerning the raw material, charge composition, process temperature, furnace atmosphere and even the resulting (intermediate) product. Despite these efforts, a number of questions remain unsolved, e.g. the much-debated association of different slag types with different process steps or reactors. Froman archaeological point of view, this is due in part to the fact that slag samples are usually described and discussed in insufficient detail, if at all. They are often generally classified as one of only two tentatively defined types: “slag cakes” and “plate slags”. This paper aims to demonstrate the additional valueof a detailed archaeological evaluation of macroscopic characteristics of smelting slag using finds from the Oberhalbstein region (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland) as an example. The typology and morphology of smelting slag must be taken into account in addition to, and not instead of, further investigations, particularly of geochemical and mineralogical analyses. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-185009 Book Section Published Version Originally published at: Reitmaier-Naef, Leandra (2019). Copper smelting slag from the Oberalbstein (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland). Methodological considerations on typology and morphology. In: Turck, Rouven; Stöll- ner, Thomas; Goldenberg, Gert. Alpine copper II : new results and perspectives on prehistoric copper production = Alpenkupfer II = Rame delle Alpi II = Cuivre des Alpes II. Bochum: VML Verlag Marie Leidorf, 229-244. Alpine Copper II – Alpenkupfer II – Rame delle Alpi II – Cuivre des Alpes II New Results and Perspectives Prehistoric Copper Production Herausgeber: Rouven Turck, Thomas Stöllner, Gert Goldenberg VML Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH Bochum 2019 Montanhistorische Zeitschrift Der ANSCHNITT. Beiheft 42 = Veröffentlichungen aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Nr. 236 Funded by Cover Image Mine Bauernzeche near Schwaz (photo: D. Brandner); excavation of sluice box 5 at the Troiboden, Mitterberg (photo: Peter Thomas); Val Faller, Plaz, furnace 2 (photo: Mirco D-A-CH-project funded by Conference and project Brunner); background: Bottom surface of a massive slag organized by fragment (rim) with negative (ascending) bubbles and a step (photo: Leandra Reitmaier-Naef) Frontispiece The beneficiation dumps at the Kelchalm (Kitzbühel) during the workshop’s excursion on 25th of September 2016 (photo: Gert Goldenberg, University of Innsbruck) In Kommission bei VML Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden/Westf. Geschäftsführer: Dr. Bert Wiegel Stellerloh 65 · D-32369 Rahden/Westf. Tel: +49/(0)5771/ 9510-74 Fax: +49/(0)5771/ 9510-75 eMail: [email protected] Homepage: www.vml.de Bibliografische Informationen der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http/dnd.ddb.de abrufbar. Editing Peer-reviewed by Dr. Petra Eisenach, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Bartelheim and 35 other colleagues Univ.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Stöllner, Ruhr-University Bochum/ (see list page 455-457). Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum Dr. Rouven Turck, University of Zürich, Institute of Archaeology, Department Prehistoric Archaeology Assoz.-Prof. Dr. Gert Goldenberg, University of Innsbruck Typesetting, Layout, Cover Design Printing Dipl.-Ing. Angelika Wiebe-Friedrich, Straßenhaus druckhaus köthen GmbH & Co. KG, Köthen Dr. Petra Eisenach, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum ISBN 978-3-86757-034-3 Univ.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Stöllner, Ruhr-University Bochum/ ISSN 1616-9212 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum Contents Rouven Turck, Thomas Stöllner, Gert Goldenberg Preface 7 Mining landscapes Thomas Stöllner Enmeshment within resource-scapes – Eastern Alpine copper production of the Bronze and Early Iron Age 13 Thomas Koch Waldner Bronze Age copper production in Kitzbühel, Tyrol 31 Susanne Klemm Prehistoric copper production in Lower Austria – A new assessment 47 Gerald Hiebel, Gert Goldenberg, Caroline Grutsch, Klaus Hanke, Markus Staudt A methodology to integrate information in prehistoric mining archaeology research 57 Prehistoric mines and their ores Bernard Moulin, Eric Thirault, Joël Vital Early Bronze Age copper extraction(s) in the Grandes Rousses Massif (Isère and Savoy departments, France) 67 Rudolf Klopfer, Astrid Stobbe, Rüdiger Krause Prehistoric mining in a small medieval mining district in Montafon, Vorarlberg (Austria) 87 Caroline O. Grutsch, Klaus-Peter Martinek, Peter Tropper, Joachim Lutz Prospecting for copper - Mineralogical and first mining archaeological surveys in western North Tyrol, Austria 103 Markus Staudt, Gert Goldenberg, Manuel Scherer-Windisch, Kurt Nicolussi, Thomas Pichler Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age fahlore mining in the Lower Inn Valley (North Tyrol, Austria) 115 Peter Tropper, Gert Goldenberg, Matthias Krismer, Daniel Bechter, Martin Steiner, Hans-Peter Viertler, Franz Vavtar Mineral-chemical characterisation of chalcopyrites and fahlore-group minerals from selected Cu-ore deposits in the Eastern Alps 143 Beneficiation: Understanding a missing link? Thomas Stöllner Between mining and smelting in the Bronze Age – Beneficiation processes in an Alpine copper producing district. Results of 2008 to 2017 excavations at the “Sulzbach-Moos”-bog at the Mitterberg (Salzburg, Austria) 165 Simon Timberlake Some provisional results of experiments undertaken using a reconstructed sluice box: an attempt to try and reproduce the methods of washing and concentrating chalcopyrite at the Middle Bronze Age ore processing site of Troiboden, Mitterberg, Austria 191 5 Contents Smelting and its archaeometallurgical investigation Rouven Turck Organising smelting places. A keynote on Iron Age copper smelting in the Oberhalbstein (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland) 209 Leandra Reitmaier-Naef Copper smelting slag from the Oberhalbstein (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland). Methodological considerations on typology and morphology. 229 Monika Oberhänsli, Mathias Seifert, Niels Bleicher, Werner Schoch, Leandra Reitmaier-Naef, Rouven Turck, Thomas Reitmaier, Philippe Della Casa Dendrochronological dating of charcoal from high-altitude prehistoric copper mining and smelting sites in the Oberhalbstein Valley (Grisons, Switzerland) 245 Elena Silvestri, Paolo Bellintani, Andreas Hauptmann Bronze Age copper ore mining and smelting in Trentino (Italy) 261 Markus Staudt, Gert Goldenberg, Manuel Scherer-Windisch, Caroline Grutsch, Roman Lamprecht, Bianca Zerobin The Late Bronze Age smelting site Rotholz in the Lower Inn Valley (North Tyrol, Austria) 279 Peter Tropper, Markus Staudt, Ulrike Töchterle, Matthias Krismer, Gert Goldenberg Encapsulated industrial processes: slag-tempered ceramics and its implications for prehistoric metallurgy in the lower Inn valley (North Tyrol, Austria) 299 Erica Hanning Slag heap quantification: re-evaluating the Mitterberg smelting sites (Salzburg, Austria) 311 Roland Haubner, Susanne Strobl, Peter Trebsche Metallographic analyses from the late Urnfield period copper mining settlement at Prigglitz-Gasteil in Lower Austria 323 Raw products, metal provenance and metal exchange Caroline O. Grutsch, Joachim Lutz, Gert Goldenberg, Gerald Hiebel Copper and bronze axes from Western Austria reflecting the use of different copper types from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age 335 Joachim Lutz, Sebastian Krutter, Ernst Pernicka Composition and spatial distribution of Bronze Age planoconvex copper ingots from Salzburg, Austria. First results from the “Salzburger Gusskuchenprojekt” 363 Daniel Modl Recording plano-convex ingots (Gusskuchen) from Late Bronze Age Styria and Upper Austria – A short manual for the documentation of morphological and technological features from production and partition 373 Stephan Möslein, Ernst Pernicka The metal analyses of the SSN-project (with catalogue) 399 List of peer-reviewers 455 6 Preface From 2014 to 2018 the trinational research project ing with the dynamics of prehistoric large-scale metal “Prehistoric copper production in the Eastern and Cen- production in the three key-areas and beyond. tral Alps – technical, social and economic dynamics in The fahlore mining district of Schwaz/Brixlegg space and time” was carried out by project partners of played an important role during the Later Copper Age the University of Innsbruck, department of Archaeolo- “Neolithic” and the Early Bronze Age, when “fahlore-cop- gies (A), the German Mining Museum Bochum/Univer- per” became