The smelting quarter of Valencina de la Concepcio´n (Seville, Spain

Transcripción

Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 717e732
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas
The smelting quarter of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain): the
specialised copper industry in a political centre of the Guadalquivir
Valley during the Third millennium BC (2750e2500 BC)
F. Nocete a,*, G. Queipo b, R. Sáez c, J.M. Nieto c, N. Inácio a, M.R. Bayona a, A. Peramo a,
J.M. Vargas d, R. Cruz-Au~
nón e, J.I. Gil-Ibarguchi f, J.F. Santos f
a
Departamento de Historia I, Universidad de Huelva, Avda. de las Fuerzas Armadas s/n, 21071 Huelva, Spain
b
FACTUM NOVEM, Sevilla, Spain
c
Departamento de Geologı́a, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain
d
Servicio de Arqueologı́a, Ayuntamiento de Valencina de la Concepción, Sevilla, Spain
e
Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueologı́a, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
f
Departamento de Departamento de Mineralogı́a y Petrologı́a, Universidad del Paı́s Vasco, Bilbao, Spain
Received 17 January 2007; accepted 30 May 2007
Abstract
The first specialized copper industry of the Iberian Peninsula was developed at the start of the Third millennium BC with the appearance of
mining-metallurgical settlements in its main mining district (the Pyrite Belt of the south-western). Between 2750 and 2500 BC, however, and
right at the centre of the Guadalquivir Valley, the great farming settlements that ranked the territory developed a new level of metallurgic intensification with the creation of the first industrial quarters. As a way of explaining this new situation, we present the results of the systematic
research (microspatial analysis; radiocarbon dating; petrologic, geochemical, metallographic and isotopic study of minerals, slag and products, .)
carried out in one of them, the one developed in the main and largest political centre of the Guadalquivir Valley during the first half of the Third
millennium BC: Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain).
Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Spain; Third millennium BC; Copper metallurgy; Smelting quarter; Furnaces; Slags; Lead isotopes; Metallographic and geochemical study
1. Introduction
The concept of Western Europe’s prehistoric metallurgy, its
chronology, technological and social development, and its effects on the environment and social relationships, have radically changed in the last decade after the publication of the
results of the research projects ODIEL IeII and PIGMALIOM
1,2,3 developed in the south-west of Spain by ‘‘Group Midas’’
(University of Huelva). By recognizing the existence, at the
start of the Third millennium BC, of an industrial activity of
complex technology (Nocete, 2004; Sáez et al., 2003), high
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 959 219 491; fax: þ34 959 219 100.
E-mail address: [email protected] (F. Nocete).
0305-4403/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.05.019
degree of social organization (Nocete, 2001, 2006) and a volume of activity which brought with it the first environmental
impact on a regional scale (Nocete et al., 2005b, 2006), the
disciplinary paradigm which anchored this activity to a domestic sphere and of scarce technological development (Chapman,
1990, 2003; Delibes and Fernández, 1993; Gilman, 1991;
Montero, 1993; Rothemberg, 1990; Rovira, 2002) until the incorporation of the Iberian Peninsula into the orbit of the eastern Mediterranean intersocial networks of the First millennium
BC (Gills, 1995; Gills and Frank, 1993), has been overcome.
A specialized and dependent mining and metallurgical settlement was identified following the systematic excavation in
1995 of the settlement of Cabezo Juré (Nocete et al., 1999,
2000), located at the centre of one of the most important
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F. Nocete et al. / Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008) 717e732
mining districts on Earth (south-western Pyrite Belt) (Sáez
et al., 1996). Its activity was governed by a high and unknown
degree of technical complexity (Sáez et al., 2003), a rigid spatial division of labour (Nocete, 2004), and an optimised industrial production (Nocete, 2006), which contributed, together
with other similar settlements (Nocete, 2005), to a strong process of deforestation and pollution from heavy metals on a local and regional scale throughout the first half of the Third
millennium BC (Nocete et al., 2005b, 2006). In Cabezo
Juré, an elite group with no direct link to the mining and metallurgical activities guaranteed, through an exclusive control
of the means of destruction (fortifications and weapons), storage (water cistern and grain containers) and social reproduction (exotic products, .) the specialized and dependent
metallurgic activity and the circulation of its products in an intersocial structure of core/periphery relationships which affected the entire South of the Iberian Peninsula (Nocete,
2001, 2004, 2006; Nocete et al., 2005a).
However, this system of specialized mining-smelting settlements in the copper mineral source areas was not the one that
governed the first specialized metallurgy of the south-western.
At the centre of the Guadalquivir Valley, more than 30 kilometres away from any source of copper mineral supply, the
great political centres that hierarchised the territorial network
implemented a new episode of greater technical and social
complexity, as well as of greater impact on the environment
and in the intersocial relationships.
This new system, identified in 1999 thanks to the systematic analysis of archaeological remains from diverse hierarchical centres of the territory along the Guadalquivir Valley of the
third millennium, such as Valencina (Seville), Amarguillo
(Seville), Carmona (Seville), Marroquı́es (Jaén) and Úbeda
(Jaén) (Cabrero, 1997; Conlin, 2003; Nocete, 2001), has found
its explanation following the integral analysis of a smelting
quarter in the largest and most important of these centres: Valencina de la Concepción (Seville) (Fig. 1).
In this paper, we will present an assessment of the initial
results of its characterization, as well as of the analyses oriented towards defining the chronological and technical variables of the metallurgic production process developed within.
2. The identification of a specialized smelting quarter in
the largest settlement of the Guadalquivir Valley during
the Third millennium BC: Valencina de la Concepción
The archaeological site of Valencina has been a benchmark
in the prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula since the end of the
19th Century of our era, due to the magnitude of its prehistoric
tombs, the richness of its products and the innumerable interventions carried out in it (Murillo, 2006). However, the absence of both an integrated research program of the same
and of a comparative analysis of its records, in a diachronic
and regional frame, has not allowed, up until this last decade,
to recognize the existence of differentiated functional areas in
its interior nor that we were facing the main political centre of
the first hierarchised intersocial structure of Western Europe
(Nocete, 2001; Nocete et al., 2005b).
With over 400 hectares of archaeological surface (Vargas,
2003), the settlement represents not only the most extensive
one of the Recent Prehistory of the south of the Iberian
Peninsula, but also the head of a primed and hierarchised territorial network in the Guadalquivir Valley of the
Third millennium BC (Nocete, 2001). Additionally, its peripheral position to the system it hierarchised, its location
next to the maritime exit and the presence in it of products
coming from all the geographic ambits of the south of the
Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa, turned it into an
entrance/exit door and distribution knot of products from local,
regional, supraregional and transcontinental networks (Nocete
et al., 2005b).
Preventive excavations were carried out between 2002 and
2004 in front of the necropolis zone (Fig. 1), site with the most
monumental tombs of the Third millennium BC of the Iberian
Peninsula, in order to mitigate the effects of the urban growth
of the municipality of Valencina (Matarrubilla-Nueva Valencina Area). The excavations identified a diversion ditch of
500 meters in length with an East-West direction (Fig. 1),
a ‘‘V’’ section, a depth of between 3 and 7 meters and width
between 4.50 and 6.00 meters (Fig. 2). As such, it was defined
not only as the southern boundary of the settlement by accommodating the living structures in its interior, but also, for the
first time, as delimiting the occupied space, separating the settlement from its necropolis area.
Two radiocarbon dates obtained from the base and cover
level of the ditch (Table 1, samples n 1 and 2, MR2) established its chronological sequence and, with it, the period of
maximum extension of the settlement: between 2750 and
2500 BC (4150 50 BP and 4045 50 BP).
On the other hand, the palynological sequence analysis of
the pit within these two chronological values identified
a landscape strongly altered from prolonged agricultural activities where the riverbank forest of the Guadalquivir Valley
had already disappeared. The scarce presence of shrub species (0.25%: Cistus ladanifer, Calluna vulgaris, Rhamnus alternus, Myrtus cumunis, Lavandula stoechas, jasmines, .)
and a faraway and symbolic Mediterranean forest (tree
pollen inferior to 7%: Quercus rotundifolia and Olea europea) resulted in the intensity of farming activities manifested in the supremacy of pastures and cultivated lands
(Brassiaceae, apiaceae, plantago, Poaceae, cerealia, chanopoduim) surrounded by wetlands (Cyperaceae, typha,
concerticystes).
Yet, in spite of this clear agricultural profile, none of the
archaeological records retrieved from the 88,162 m2 of the
living space at the interior of the pit show evidence of tools
associated with an agricultural production, processing or
storage. The strong and recent erosive processes had only
allowed for the preservation of the subterranean elements
of 198 structural units, which had originally been erected
with adobe walls, wood and vegetable fibres and grouped
into four concentrations (Fig. 1: I, II, III and IV Sectors)
separated by similar ditches and perpendicular to the
first, with a North-South layout of around 150 meters in
length.
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Fig. 1. Localization of the archaeological sites of the Guadalquivir Valley (Spain) indicated in the text (1: Cabezo Juré, 2: Valencina de la Concepción, 3: Carmona,
4: Amarguillo, 5: Marroquies, 6: Úbeda), location of the smelting quarter in the archaeological site of Valencina de la Concepción and general plant of the smelting
quarter (structures, pits and sectors).
The morphology of the preserved structures is recurrently
circular. However, their differentiated sizes and material contexts allow us to distinguish 3 different types:
The first, representing 6% of the structures, exhibit a circular format, a mean diameter of 0.70 meters and a depth between 3 and 4 meters. Filled with unrelated dumping
which inform of a garbage use, they respond to a use as
pits inferred from their bottoms coinciding with the clays
of the subterranean (underground) aquifers.
The second, representing 10% of the structures, presents
a polylobular format, a diameter between 3 and 5 meters
and 1 meter in depth. Its contexts reflect areas of multiple
uses with remains of food consumption of domestic fauna
(bos, sus), marine mollusc shells (Tapes decussata), cereal
(Hordeum vulgare) and leguminous seeds (Vicia faba). In
them, the absence of agricultural tools, complete skeletal
bones of the consumed domestic mammals or food storage
containers, are key to disengaging its activity from the process of food production and management and turns them
into dependent units of consumption and/or rest.
The third, representing 84% of the structures, is of circular, oval or geminated form, diameters between 0.90 and
1.30 meters, depths between 0.40 and 0.60 meters and
strongly thermally altered walls and bases. Its contexts
are reduced to the presence of minerals and copper slag
as well as remains of tools related to metallurgical activities (tuyères, crucibles, padles, flat-based stone hammers,
mills, metallurgical products in the elaboration stage, .)
and smelting furnaces for mineral reduction.
Although this particular spatial and economic configuration
signals copper metallurgy as the only productive sector of this
area of the settlement, including the elaboration of the
720
previously recorded in Cabezo Juré (Nocete, 2004, 2006),
designed to take advantage of the dominant winds (SWNE components) ratifying, thereby, a functional optimisation
and degree of planning according to the specialization of
the work and volume of activity. It was oriented, additionally, towards isolating the levels of pollution from the living
space.
3. The direct chronology of the smelting activity
The radiocarbon dates of the diversion ditch which isolates
this quarter ensures a concrete and precise time frame in the
chronological sequence of Valencina (the second half of
the Third millennium BC: Table 1 MR2, samples 1 and 2).
However, in order to set the metallurgic production itself
with greater precision and evaluate the synchronic relationship
between the different production areas of this quarter, an additional radiocarbon dating program was necessary.
For this purpose, we implemented a quadruple level of sample selection:
Fig. 2. Section of the ditch in Sector I of the smelting quarter.
necessary instruments for the maintenance of this activity
(manufacturing of furnaces, crucibles, .), its specialization,
subsistent dependency and spatial delimitation through the
use of pits allows us to infer its design as a large artisan quarter.
This evaluation was verified during the archaeological excavations of 2006 carried out 200 meters north of this area.
The records reflect a dense and continuous living network
with units of consumption, storage, burials and the presence
of other artisan and agricultural activities, animal quarters, .,
under an uninterrupted chronology from the Fourth millennium BC to mid-Second millennium BC (Fig. 3). Not only
did these new records corroborate the interpretation and identification of this craft quarter, but also signalled its position in
the history of the settlement as well as marking the first half of
the Third millennium BC as the period of greatest extension
and complexity of the same.
The location of this smelting quarter in the southern peripheral border of the settlement seems to follow a pattern
Samples of organic material of a same species, in proportions which would define a short range of life expectancy:
branches of oak (Quercus).
Equivalent samples in the four sectors of the quarter: I, II,
III and IV.
Samples coming exclusively from smelting contexts:
structures type 3: reduction furnaces with the presence
of mineral and slag.
Samples coming from the productive process itself: taken
from the interior of slag.
The AMS evaluation of this samples (Table 1) allows us to
arrive at three conclusions: (1) the four registered areas of this
quarter began the metallurgic activity in unison at the start of
2750 BC, with a time oscillation between 2747 94 BC and
2718 109 BC. (2) This quarter maintained its size and production uninterruptedly, until mid-Third millennium BC
(2525 117 BC). (3) At the end of this millennium, the metallurgic activity was substantially reduced to the IV Sector, to
later disappear.
Table 1
C14 calibration in the smelting quarter form Valencina (Cal Pal 2005 (www.calpal-online.de) B. Weninger, O. Jörisch & U. Danzeglocke)
Sample
Sector
Number
and
context
Ref.
Laboratory
Age
BP
Calendar
Age BP
68% range
Cal BP
Calendar
Age Cal
BC
System
Charcoal
tree-specie
Metallurgic context
1
I
Ua 19475
4150 50
4697 94
4602e4791
2747 94
AMS
Oak
First smelting rubbish dump
2
I
Ua 19474
4045 50
4554 93
4461e4647
2604 93
AMS
Oak
Last smelting rubbish dump
3
4
5
6
7
8
IV
V
III
II
IV
IV
MR 2 Base
level of the ditch
MR 2 Cover
level of the ditch
NV 99 Furnace
IES 14 Furnace
NV 182 Furnace
NV 18 Furnace
NV 540 Furnace
NV 104 Furnace
Ua
Ua
Ua
Ua
Ua
Ua
4135 45
4120 40
4104 40
4050 45
3995 75
3620 55
4686 99
4680 100
4668 109
4552 87
4475 117
3954 82
4587e4785
4579e4780
4558e4777
4464e4639
4358e4592
3872e4036
2736 99
2730 100
2718 109
2602 87
2525 117
2004 82
AMS
AMS
AMS
AMS
AMS
AMS
Oak
Oak
Oak
Oak
Oak
Oak
Interior
Interior
Interior
Interior
Interior
Interior
24557
32885
32042
22813
24558
32043
of
of
of
of
of
of
a
a
a
a
a
a
furnace’s
furnace’s
furnace’s
furnace’s
furnace’s
furnace’s
slag
slag
slag
slag
slag
slag
721
metallic products). Their segregated spatial distribution situate
Valencina’s metallurgy together with that of Cabezo Juré’s, in
an autonomous, original and exemplary scale of a more complex industrial production than what has been documented in
the classical contexts of the Third millennium BC of Western
Europe such as Chapelle du Buorn (Ambert, 2003) and of the
Near East such as Feinam, Timna (Rothemberg, 1990), Shiquim (Golden et al., 2001) and Abu Matar (Perrot, 1955).
4.1. Supply of raw materials, first stage in the smelting
production process
Fig. 3. Structures preserved at the interior of the pit of Valencina (residential
areas, kilns, .).
4. Archaeological indicators to evaluate the production
process in the smelting quarter of Valencina de la
Concepción: analysis of Sector IV
The spatial and chronological analyses revealed that the most
complete evaluation of the smelting process had to be carried
out on Sector IV of the quarter since it is defined as a spatially
differentiated unit (delimited by ditches) and has a more useful
time frame for fulfilling a complete diachronic exploration.
Sector IV of the smelting quarter has a surface of 17,349 m2
with a distribution of 49 structures grouped into 32 units
(Fig. 1). These follow a pattern of concentrated occupational
density, with a ratio of 0.001 (242 m2 per structure) much inferior to the one defined by the occupational sites of the habitat
of Valencina, where the distribution is disperse and the occupational density 0.04 (22.82 m2 per structure). Hence, the distribution and density pattern of Sector IV dictated both the
efficiency of the artisan activity (concentrated) and the specialization and isolation of a highly contaminating activity
(low density and isolation). Therefore, while in the external
limits of Sector IV there is a scarce distribution of consumption units and water wells, its centre bears a concentration of
smelting sites and combustion structures, with the exclusive
presence of minerals, slags, mallets, grinders, tuyères, crucibles, products in the process of manufacturing, ..
By studying the nature of these indicators, and fundamentally, of its contextual and chronological values, we can infer
a complex chain of five technical conducts which cover the entire production process from supplying of prime sources to
manufacturing of products (supply and storage of raw materials, mechanical reduction of the mineral, thermal reduction
of the mineral, copper refinement and manufacturing of
According with the geological framework around the Valencina town, the nearest ore deposits, that could be a source
for copper metallurgy, occur at a minimum distance of 30 kilometres. However, Sector IV of the smelting quarter contains
a record of 14,224 grams of copper minerals, providing evidence for the articulation of a long-distance system of circulation of raw material which, contrary to prehistoric copper
mining sites of the Middle East, was unknown in the south
of the Iberian Peninsula during these chronologies.
The minerals documented in Sector IV are associated to
three differentiated archaeological sites:
Exclusive presence of large and irregular mineral forms
(between 2000 and 200 grams) in containers dug in the
ground: Storage sites for prime materials.
Presence of both large and small irregular mineral forms
(between 2000 and 10 grams) associated to mills and
grinding instruments, in the open and at the centre of Sector IV: Sites of grinding and reduction of prime material.
Presence of thermally altered mineral with small and regular
forms (10 grams) associated to slag and to the interior of
the combustion structures: Sites of reduction furnaces.
The mineralogical analysis, through the macroscopic and
microscopic evaluation of polished thin-sections of forty-six
samples, and its study using Scanning Electron Microscope
equipped with energy dispersive analysis spectrometers
(EDAX) and ZAF-corrections, has provided the tool for identifying three types of raw materials (Fig. 4):
Minerals related to the supergene enrichment zone of massive sulphide mineralizations within the Iberian Pyrite
Belt: iron oxides and hydroxides (goethite, hematite), secondary copper minerals, including malachite, chalcocite,
covellite, tenorite, bornite, and, in some cases, cuprite.
Primary sulphide ore minerals, including chalcopyrite,
pyrite and galena, whose petrographic and geochemical
features suggest it to be related with late-Variscan hydrothermal venis.
Impregnations of carbonates and copper oxides in
sandstones.
A lead isotope systematic analysis was applied over sixteen
mineral samples in order to specify potential source areas
(Fig. 5). The samples were representative of the three types
722
Fig. 4. Reflected light microscope (A, B and C) and scanning electron microscope-backscattered electron (SEM-BSE) (D, E and F) images showing representative
mineralogy of the raw materials. Mineral abbreviations: cp ¼ chalcopyrite; cc ¼ chalcocite; cv ¼ covellite; mal ¼ malachite; hm ¼ hematite-goethite; car: Fe-Cu
carbonates; te ¼ tenorite; bn ¼ bornite. (A) Massive chalcopyrite partially altered to covellite and iron oxides and hydroxides. (B) Massive chalcopyrite almost
totally altered to chalcocite, covellite, malachite and iron oxides and hydroxides. (C) Massive covellite corroded by iron oxides and hydroxides along cracks.
(D) Nodules of Fe-Cu carbonates surrounded by iron oxides and hydroxides. (E) Massive bornite transformed to covellite, malachite and Fe-Cu carbonates.
(F) Chalcopyrite relicts in chalcocite crystals later transformed into tenorite and malachite. The width of the reflected light microscope images is approximately
1 mm. across.
723
18.20 identifies the settlements of massive sulphides of
the Iberian Pyrite Belt located northwest of Valencina at
a distance between 20 and 30 kilometres (Marcoux,
1998; Sáez et al., 1989). The second group of minerals,
with values for 206Pb/204Pb relationship around 18.35
identifies an ensemble of mineral sites, similar to the
late Variscan vein mineralizations of the South Portuguese
Zone, situated north of the settlement and at a distance of
30 kilometres (Marcoux and Sáez, 1994). The third group,
with more radiogenic isotope values (206Pb/204Pb 18.50e
18.90), despite their origin not being identified with precision, would be found at a distance over 30 kilometres with
respect to Valencina (Nocete, 2004, 2005).
The minerals of these three supply sources were used for
the metallurgic production of the products found in Sector
IV of the quarter; evidence found in the correlation and coincidence of its values with those coming from the isotope
analysis of seven slag samples and of the totality of the
twenty-four (thirteen from Sector IV and nineteen from
the remaining sectors) copper products registered in the
area investigated.
The isotope values of the minerals recorded in the copper
furnace production sites and in the structures for storing
mineral reveal the systematic mixture from, at least, two
different supply sources (Fig. 5).
The correlation of the isotope values with respect to the
chronometry of the context signal that this process of
long distance supply of raw materials was based on the initial exploitation of the four supply sources, at the start of
the Third millennium BC. Later, in mid-Third millennium
BC, only one of them was chosen from among the four,
the closest one and the one whose mineralizations provided the possibility of a systematic exploitation at larger
volumes: the sites of massive sulphides of the Iberian
Pyrite Belt situated northeast of Valencina.
4.2. The mechanic reduction of copper minerals, second
stage of the smelting production
Fig. 5. Graphs of the lead isotope relationships in Valencina.
of raw materials taken from six carbon-dated sites of Sector IV
and from the overspill of the large diversion ditch (Table 1).
From this evaluation we can propose four conclusions:
A clear discrimination of the three supply sources and an
equally differentiated origin (Fig. 5): The first group of
minerals, with values of 206Pb/204Pb relationship around
The copper production process was initiated with a mechanical task of mineral grinding. This process took place in the
open air, in a site situated at the centre of Sector IV around
which were located the combustion units.
The grinding activity was organized around vast flat mills
(around 50 centimetres long of active surface) manufactured
in gabbros and diabases coming from the same geological sites
as the minerals. This fact endorses the complex system of foreign resource supply and allows us to recognize the existence
of six processing units in which, contrary to the storage areas,
the copper minerals present an oscillation of very variable volumes, with weights ranging from 2350 to 8 grams (Fig. 6).
Given that at the interior of the furnaces there are no records of mineral units weighing over 10 grams, we can infer
that a standardized mineral mass reduction process was executed in these grinding areas which, in some cases, entailed
up to 400%. The objective of this mechanical reduction was
724
Fig. 6. Process of mechanical reduction of the copper minerals in structure 182 of Sector IV (non-transformed mineral, mills and grinders, load of ground mineral
recovered from the interior of a furnace).
to facilitate the subsequent thermal reduction of the mineral by
reducing its mass by increasing its surface.
4.3. The thermal reduction of copper minerals, third
phase of the smelting production process
Following grinding of the mineral, a process of thermal reduction took place at the interior of closed combustion structures (furnaces) similar to the ones implemented during this
same chronology in phase 2 of the Cabezo Juré settlement
(Sáez et al., 2003). This defines one of the distinctive characteristics of the intensified metallurgy of the southwest of
the Iberian Peninsula of the Third millennium BC (Nocete,
2004, 2005, 2006).
The furnaces were constructed under a very standardized
format. These consist of structures with circular morphology
excavated in the ground, with diameters varying between
0.90 and 1.30 meters and a depth between 0.40 and 0.60 metres. Even though they hold great resemblance with the ‘‘bowl
furnace’’ (Tylecote, 1976), these are actually prototypes of
greater size, even superior to those known in the prehistoric
copper metallurgy of the Third millennium BC in Chapelle
du Bourn (Ambert, 2003), in France, Ayia Varrara-Almiras
(Fasnacht et al., 2002) in the Near East, and even superior to
those documented during the Second millennium BC in Cyprus, in the site of Politico-Phorades (Hein et al., 2006).
Inside these combustion structures, and next to thermally
altered walls, there are records of infill formed by thermally
altered minerals and slags. Next to them, the residues of thermally altered clay fronts point to the existence of an overhead
structure constructed with clay and vegetable fibres to increase
porosity, reduce the transference of heat and increase the heat
resisting properties that guarantee a slower combustion at
a higher temperature.
In the quarter’s initial chronologies, at the start of 2750 BC,
the most recurrent form of these furnaces was one with a bilobe
shape consisting of two chambers, similar to the furnace Z of the
area New Kingdom in Timna (Rothemberg, 1990), although of
larger size (Fig. 7). However, the unequal height of the two
chambers of the furnaces of Valencina and the size and disposition of the slag at its interior (only present in the lower chamber)
tell both of a sophisticated system of combustion using forced
ventilation and a possible incipient tapping system.
Other open combustion artefacts were incorporated around
2500 BC, keeping a similar diameter, although more complex.
These were constructed with adobes, thermal alteration residues of which enable us to infer the construction of pyrotechnical sites destined to a greater efficacy and duration (Fig. 8).
725
Fig. 7. Excavation process and details of the thermally altered bed of the furnace IES 14.
In structure 182 of the Sector IV, the concentration of nonthermally altered mineral at the interior of a furnace which did
not arrive at initiating its combustion, allows us to specify that
the average mineral filler of a reduction cast was situated at
around 2000 grams of mineral. Furthermore, that it was
formed by units of standard weight, never superior to 10 grams
(Fig. 6).
In the structure of furnace 14, where the process culminated
(Fig. 7), we can evaluate the efficiency of this reduction
technique. Over an average estimate of initial mineral fillers
of 2000 grams, the presence of 468 grams of partially reduced
mineral enables us to estimate a reduction capacity superior to
75%.
The analysis of the 16,395 grams of massive slag collected
from the sites at the interior of the furnaces of the Sector IV
allows us to specify the systematic and exclusive use of
high-temperature woods such as the oak (quercus) and oleaster
(wild olive tree), which required a complex and faraway
Fig. 8. Archaeological drawing of the pyrotechnical structure 18 and photograph of the process of thermal alteration in the section of its walls.
726
system of transport, given the volume of wood necessary to
maintain all the furnaces of this quarter and the distance of
the forest signalled by the pollen information.
Fourteen samples of slag were analysed, sited and dated
through a macro- and microscopic evaluation using Scanning
Electron Microscope equipped with energy dispersive analysis
spectrometers (EDAX) and electronic correctness (ZAF)
(Fig. 9). The results show that they contain free silica and
are characterized by the abundance of non-processed copper
samples in the form of primary oxides (cuprite, delafossite)
or also as balls of metallic copper transformed into oxides
(tenorite) and copper chlorides. In them, the silica, present
in the shape of non-cast quartz remains or as newly formed
grains associated to magnetite and fayalite, show dendritic
growths characteristic of the stages occurring following the
rapid cooling of the melt (Faure et al., 2003). This, together
with its association to quartz, mark conditions of fO2 buffered
by QFM and signal approximate temperatures of 1200 C,
similar to those recorded in Cabezo Juré (Nocete, 2004;
Sáez et al., 2003).
However, the type of pyrotechnical installation and the
characteristics of the slag reveal a level of efficiency, which
could only have been attained through the sophisticated grinding process of the recorded mineral, the constant volume of
identified high-temperature wood, and a complex system of
forced ventilation.
In this sense, and outside the residues of walls of furnaces
with tuyère installation orifices, the context of the MR2 structure, with its seven tuyères (Table 1, sample 2: 4045 50 BP)
and the context of the 18 structure, with its seven tuyères
(Table 1, sample 6: 4050 45 BP), allows us to contrast the
importance, characteristics and magnitude of the system of
forced ventilation for maintaining the internal combustion
of the furnaces (Fig. 10). Here, we identify one more of the
distinctive features of the complex metallurgy of the third
millennium in the South-west of the Iberian Peninsula. The
ventilation of furnaces using tuyères, recurrent in the metallurgical contexts of the first half of the Third millennium BC in
the Iberian Peninsula, such as Cabezo Juré, Amarguillo and
now, Valencina (Nocete, 2004, 2005, 2006), has no precedent
in the early contexts (Third millennium BC) of copper metallurgy of the Near East (Adams, 2002; Rothemberg, 1990) nor
in those of Western Europe (Ambert, 2003; Montero, 1993;
Rovira, 2002), given that it has only been verified in metallurgic sites of the Second millennium BC such as Pe~
nalosa (Contreras, 2000), at the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula or
Politico-Phorades (Hein et al., 2006) in Cyprus.
The tuyères of Valencina (Fig. 10) display a very standardized morphology and a very careful process of manufacturing
(clay and vegetable fibres to increase porosity, reduce the
transference of heat and increase the thermal shock resistance)
to continuously withstand combustion temperatures set at
around 1200 C and which provoked successive layers of thermal alteration, hydration, and vitrification of its walls. Its design was oriented towards an elevated and potent flow of air,
such as is confirmed by the relationship existing between the
air entrance and exit diameters (situated at around 3
centimetres) and the diameter of the interior throttling of the
conduct (situated at around 1.5 centimetres) which, situated
at its centre, doubled the potency of the flow. The presence
in some tuyères of multiple and perpendicular openings to
the conduct, informs us of an additional system of controlled
and dispersed air projections perpendicular to the main flow
for increasing combustion at the interior of the furnaces.
Together with these technical characteristics of the tuyères,
clearly oriented towards increasing productivity, we must add
its possible relationship to a mechanical system of air induction (possibly of hand bellows) as could be derived from its
standardized and large dimensions (average height situated between 10 and 13 centimetres and maximum exterior diameters
between 5 and 7 centimetres), as well as for the existence of
intermediate ceramic structures oriented towards a conduction
of air external to the furnace itself.
Finally, and from a spatial point of view, we must mention
that from the start of the smelting activity in this quarter, the
reduction furnaces were distributed following a modular and
equidistant pattern of groupings, in which we can distinguish
sixteen units of production.
4.4. Copper refinement, fourth phase of the smelting
production
As in Cabezo Juré, there was a stage of copper refinement,
which took place between the first level of copper production,
through the reduction of minerals in furnaces, and the beginning of the manufacturing of products over moulds (Nocete,
2004, 2006; Sáez et al., 2003).
For this purpose, pyrotechnic conditions were needed of
around 1000 C temperature, as well as open combustion
structures (furnaces), woods from Holm oak and olive tree,
forced ventilation and ceramic crucibles (Fig. 11).
Contrary to the pottery vessels oriented to consumption activities, the pastes of which point to an origin and production
external to the settlement, the 185 crucibles identified (from
a sample of over a thousand fragments) in Valencina’s Sector
IV were manufactured with local clays, similar to those documented in the thermally altered walls of the furnaces and in
the inferior beds of the pits, using, once again agricultural vegetable residues (barley) for shaping them and increasing their
porosity and thermal shock resistance (Fig. 11). Together with
them, the presence of prototypes in the process of manufacturing, determines not only a local production, but also a level of
autonomy of the metallurgic units in the upholding of its
means of production, especially of those whose life expectancy was short consequence of the deterioration brought
about by the high temperatures to which they were submitted
(furnace walls, tuyères, crucibles).
In spite of the standardized form of the crucibles, with only
two models (cylindrical and parallelepipedal, Fig. 11), the
variability of its sizes and capacities (cylinders with diameters
between 5 and 15 centimetres and heights between 3 and 5
centimetres; parallelepipedals with formats of 10 5 centimetres and 20 10 centimetres, and heights between 3 and
5 centimetres) and the technology of moulds for
727
Fig. 9. Scanning electron microscope-backscattered electron (SEM-BSE) images of furnace and crucible slags from the Valencina Metallurgical Quarter, showing
representative phases and textures. Mineral abbreviations: cup ¼ cuprite; CuCl ¼ undetermined copper chloride; df ¼ delaffossite; fa ¼ fayalitic olivine; mt ¼ magnetite; qz ¼ quartz; te ¼ tenorite; gl ¼ silicate glass. (A) Copper prills altered to copper chloride in a quartz e fayalite e magnetite slag. (B) Image of a fayalite-rich
domain from a furnace slags. Fayalite and magnetite laths, showing dendritic texture, grow from the glass matrix in equilibrium with quartz. (C) Fragment of charcoal included in a furnace slag. (D) Idiomorphic fayalite and magnetite crystals growing from the silicate melt. Earlier corroded cuprite grains occur altered to copper
chloride. (E) Idiomorphic delafossite crystals partially altered to tenorite. Delafossite growth seems to occurs impinging a previous fayalite e magnetite paragenesis.
(F) Zoned supergene alteration of a copper prill.
728
Fig. 10. Tuyères of the structures MR2, 18 and slag recovered from the interior of the furnace 99 (slag with remains of oak (quercus) charcoal, slag with adherences
of branches and leaves of oak and internal section of a massive slag).
manufacturing the artefacts, determine a highly diversified
production of products. This fact is correlated with the variety
of the artefacts manufactured, and those in the process of being manufactured, recorded in this Sector IV of the smelting
quarter.
The vitrification of the walls of the crucibles signals a refining temperature situated at around 1100 C and, the evaluation
of the capacity of these 185 crucibles, with over 30,000 cm3,
allow us to estimate a minimum production which surpasses
the ton of copper (estimated on the basis of 3 casts on average
by crucibles and a weight of 8.96 grams/cm3) and over a thousand products (the weight of the products registered in Sector
IV oscillates between 3.41 grams of the punches and 31.03
grams of the knives).
As in Cabezo Juré, large lithic blade tongs (Fig. 11) were
used for their manipulation (Nocete, 2004, 2006). These suffered the same thermal alteration as the crucibles and present
adherences of slag derived from refinement. Fifteen tongs have
been recovered in Sector IV, of which eleven had been
manufactured in silicified oolitic limestone (Nocete et al.,
2006) and five in volcanic rocks (tuffites). In the first case,
the presence of flakes reveals, as other means of productions
(crucibles, furnaces, walls, .), that these artisans manufactured their work instruments on the side due to the specificity
of the same and out of a need to constantly replace and repair
them due to working conditions of immense deterioration
(high temperatures).
Lastly, the microspatial analysis of the sites containing crucibles, moulds, and tongs, points to the existence of twenty
areas of activity, nine of them spatially discriminated from
the rest of the metallurgic activities.
4.5. Manufacturing of metallic products, fifth phase of
the smelting production
Thirteen copper products with forms linked exclusively to
household objects (knives, chisels, punches, needles, hooks,
saws, .) have been recorded in this Sector.
729
Fig. 11. Types of crucibles, tongs and detail of the plant fibres (barley) used in the fabrication of crucibles.
As a means to evaluate the technical manufacturing process, we applied an archaeometric methodology of textural,
compositional and quantificational analysis of its mechanical
properties (Bayona et al., 2003; Nocete, 2004). Polished sections were taken from the totality of the products, which
were then examined using Scanning Electron Microscope, metallographic microscope, following emulsion in iron chloride
(FeCl3) and hydrochloric acid in aqueous solution (HCl)
and/or ammonium persulphate and ammoniac in aqueous solution ((NH4)2S2O8), and were subjected to microhardness measurements (Vickers) (Fig. 12).
The results obtained from this exploration indicate that all
of the products came from a mould casting attached to the
contexts of melting pots and to the copper refining process.
They define, equally, that their distinctive feature was a copper
alloy with an average arsenic rate of 2.1% where the inclusions and stages which make up the metallic alloys are characterized by the presence of copper oxides such as cuprite
(Cu2O), tenorite (CuO), mixite (BiCu6[(OH2)/AsO4]33H2O)/
rooseveltite or tetrarooseveltite (BiAsO4) with Pb, Sn and Sb
impurities, endorsing the identification of their origin in the
geological sites marked by the isotopic analysis of the minerals (Fig. 12).
Likewise, the analyses were conclusive in identifying that,
following the smelting and metallurgic casting, 92% of the
products were subjected to a complex and systematic process
730
Fig. 12. Metalographies and SEM’s micrographs of copper products from the smelting quarter of Valencina del la Concepción.
of four successive levels of thermal and mechanical treatments
(casting, cold forging, full annealing and finish forging) oriented towards obtaining a greater resistance of the final product. This is marked by the arithmetic progression between the
complexity of the mechanical process of manufacturing and
the microhardness values (Hv) of the products.
From a spatial point of view, the sites containing traces of
artefacts in the process of fabrication were key for recognizing
the variability of the stone instruments involved in this process
(forging anvils, flat-base metallurgical hammers, chisels,
sharpeners, .) and the existence of three differentiated areas
of activity next to the furnaces.
5. Final discussion
Even though the archaeological indicators of the smelting
activity of Valencina (and with it that of the Southwest of
the Iberian Peninsula of the Third millennium BC) give it
a level of differentiated and superior regional technological
development to the identified in similar chronological sites
in Europe, such as those of the southeast of Spain (Chapman,
1990, 2003; Delibes and Fernández, 1993; Montero, 1993;
Rovira, 2002), the south of France (Ambert, 2003), Cyprus
(Hein et al., 2006) or the Near East (Adams, 2002; Golden
et al., 2001; Rothemberg, 1990), its greatest difference with respect to these models is found in the possibility for recognizing the territorial and social context in which this activity was
integrated (Nocete, 2001).
The metallurgic activity of Valencina was technologically
developed following a complex and efficient system of copper
production which involved the mechanical reduction of the
mineral through grinding, its consequent thermal reduction
using furnaces with forced ventilation of tuyères reaching
temperatures of 1200 C, and a final moulding using crucibles
with forced ventilation reaching temperatures of 1100 C.
Jointly, another complex and efficient system was developed:
the massive and intensive manufacturing of products using
moulds and the combination of up to four levels of forging
process to increase their quality and hardness. All of this, together with the technical and spatial division of labour and an
inferable full-time dedication of the artisans, indicate a specialized form of production (Gero and Scattolin, 2002) similar to
the scale and intensity of a workshop industry (Van der Leeuw,
1977).
This industry, as that of Cabezo Juré, marks its beginning in
the early Third millennium BC and its crisis and collapse
around 2500 BC, thereby confirming the chronology of the
start and recess of the levels of pollution by heavy metals
marked by the bioindicators of the estuaries of the rivers Tinto,
Odiel (Nocete et al., 2006) and Guadalquivir (Nocete et al.,
2006), in the Gulf of Cadiz.
However, although historically it shared with Cabezo Juré
a framework of specialization, technical and spatial division
of labour, as well as of subsistence dependency, the metallurgic activity in Valencina reflects quite a different model.
This model does not lie solely on the dimension of the activity, this being the space with the largest metallurgic production in the Recent Prehistory of Western Europe, with its
almost nine hectares of surface, or in its larger production
costs with a distant location from the potential sources of
wood and raw ores. This smelting quarter, involved the hierarchical nucleus of a primed network in the Guadalquivir Valley
and the principal gateway for the circulation of Atlantic and
Mediterranean products from the North of Africa and the
South of Europe, in its relationship with the distribution, consumption and property processes of its products, as well as
with the political centralization and reproduction of inequality
which materialized in the Third millennium BC (Nocete,
2001; Nocete et al., 2005a), in its similarity respect to the
framework and spatial distribution of the smelting quarters
into the agrarian and political context of the largest settlements
from the Third millennium BC (Shahr-I Shokta and Shahad) in
Iran (Turanian Basin) (Tosi, 1984), beyond identifying a new
example of ‘‘attached (tributary?) artisan full-time’’ (Brumfiel
and Earle, 1987; Clark, 1995; Clark and Perry, 1990), and of
‘‘retained workshop’’ (Costin, 1991), becomes an exemplary
laboratory for analysing and explaining the social
731
transformations (appearance of new classes at the interior of
the centre of a clear political system) and process of territorial
domination (Core/Periphery Relationships through the production and circulation of craft products) in the formation process
of the state (Costin, 2004; Patterson, 2005; Schortman and
Urban, 2004).
Acknowledgements
This publication has been carried out within the objectives
and the financial framework of the PIGMALIOM 3 Project
(HUM 2005-02841/HIST). We also would like to acknowledge the collaboration of the directors of archaeological excavation and heritage conservation institution from Seville
(Spain): T. Murillo, F. Fernández, C. Sanmartı́.
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The smelting quarter of Valencina de la Concepcio´n (Seville, Spain

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2748 _ copper box