Archaeometallurgical studies of bronze age objects from the romanian cultural heritage

This paper reports the chemical composition of some ancient metallic objects dated to the Bronze Age period and found on Romanian territory.Preliminary ED-XRF measurements were performed on cleaned areas of artefacts, while the nuclear microprobe experiments were conducted on tiny fragments detached from the same zones. The identified trace-elements led to some speculations about the employed metallurgical procedures and raw materials. Thus, the chemical composition of the Early Bronze Age dagger found at Ocniţa suggests its manufacturing by smelting a mixture of copper and arsenic ores, while the Late Bronze Age artefacts have compositional patterns supporting the idea of connections and exchanges between the ancient populations living along the Danube river.