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Reassessment and new data on the diachronic relationship of Thassos Island with its indigenous metal resources: a review

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Abstract

The extraction of mineral ores and its associated metal production has been a persistent element of the economy on Thassos Island since prehistoric times. As early as the Upper Palaeolithic, around 20,000 years ago, ochre had been mined and used for painting, while early silver extraction is attested during the Final Neolithic (early fourth millennium BC). Copper production and alloying becomes an important activity in the coastal settlements of the island during the third and second millennia. The inception of iron metallurgy has been seen in association with copper smelting as confirmed by analyses on slag found in Early Iron Age upland cemeteries. With the arrival of the Greek colonists around 650 BC, intensification in silver and gold extraction became paramount for further economic expansion. This deep history in the use of Thassian metals is being reviewed based on archaeological findings and archaeometallurgical research of the last three decades, while new analytical data on Early Bronze Age copper smelting at Aghios Antonios are being presented.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the Institute for Aegean Prehistory for generously funding the study of metallurgical residues found at Aghios Antonios, Potos. We should also thank warmly Dr. R. Doonan for his help on pXRF analysis conducted at the University of Sheffield and Dr. Y. Bassiakos for substantial help in SEM/EDS and optical microscopy at N.C.S.R. ‘Demokritos’. Finally we thank the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.

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  1. 31st Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Xanthi, Greece

    N. Nerantzis

  2. 18th Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Kavala, Greece

    S. Papadopoulos

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  1. N. Nerantzis
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Nerantzis, N., Papadopoulos, S. Reassessment and new data on the diachronic relationship of Thassos Island with its indigenous metal resources: a review. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 5, 183–196 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-013-0140-9

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