Linking metal hoarding practices and palaeopollution records in Atlantic European prehistory

23rd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA)

Maastricht. Netherlands
Conference. 2017

The hoarding of metals was a widespread phenomenon in later prehistoric Europe and particularly intense in the Atlantic façade of the continent. The nature and scale of this phenomenon varies depending on chronology and geographic area, but the suitability of hoards for periodisation and quantification offers an opportunity to link the cycles of metal hoarding to the palaeoenvironmental records of atmospheric pollution caused by mining and metallurgical activities. While palaeopollution studies using peats and other environmental archives are making a substantial contribution to our understanding of the chronology and intensity of ancient mining and metallurgical activities, their connection to the hoarding cycles has never before been explored. The aim of this paper is to assess the potential and limitations of such an approach on the basis of 1) a critical review of research on prehistoric metal pollution and metal hoards in Atlantic Europe; and 2) a pilot study of a selected área in the Atlantic façade of NW Iberia.

To this end, we will quantify the variable scale of prehistoric metal hoarding over time and will cross this information with the sequences of metal pollution as recorded in the peats from Xistral Mountains (Galicia) and Alto de la Espina (La Molina mire, Asturias). In addition, we will explore for posible correlations between the isotopic signatures of the archaeological and environmental samples. A recent study of La Molina mire shows the highest levels of prehistoric atmospheric metal pollution in NW Iberia during the Late Bronze Age, concurrent with an increase in metal hoarding. However, the first episodes of atmospheric pollution from mining and metallurgical activities are recorded at the end of the fourth millennium BC or the beginning of the third, which raises questions about the archaeological visibility of early metal smelting in the region.

Archaeometallurgy. Palaeoenvironment. Metal hoards.