PRIFYSGOL CYMRU ABERTAWE,
UNIVERSITY OF WALES SWANSEA.
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New Kingdom Copper Smelting, Refining and Casting Experiments.
John Merkel
Experiments with copper
smelting based upon archaeometallurgical evidence from Timna, a New Kingdom
Egyptian site excavated by B. Rothenberg in southern Israel, were started by R.F.
Tylecote and several of his students at Newcastle University.
Simulation, reconstruction and laboratory experiments were continued by
J. Merkel at the Institute of Archaeology, London, as well as by M. Bamberger
and P. Wincierz at the Department of Materials Engineering, Institute of
Technology, Haifa. Since publication
in 1990, these experimental results have contributed toward further
understanding of metallurgical remains at other archaeological sites.
This presentation will
review some of the relevant archaemetallurgical evidence for New Kingdom copper
production. Metallic iron was
produced as a by-product in the copper smelting experiments, and then removed
from the black copper in subsequent refining experiments to produce plano-convex
copper ingots. New evidence
for New Kingdom Egyptian iron production at Timna will also be included. Differences
with published Hittite iron/steel artefacts from Kaman-Kalehoyuk in central
Turkey will be assessed.
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