Leta 2002 so na pobočju Gorjancev v bližini Gorenjega Suhadola naleteli na večji depo bronastih predmetov. Sestavljajo ga napadalno orožje, orodje, nakit, pločevina in ingoti. Časovni razpon ...predmetov sega od srednje bronaste dobe do začetka mlajšega obdobja kulture žarnih grobišč. Primerjave za večino predmetov iz depoja se najdejo v depojih druge stopnje KŽG iz Karpatske kotline in z zahodnega Balkana.
The effect of high-intensity ultrasonic treatment combined with bottom cooling treatment on the refinement of Al-5Cu alloy ingots was studied. The results show that ultrasonic treatment combined with ...forced cooling at the bottom of ingots has a good refining effect, and the best refining effect can be obtained at 2000 W and after 120 s. The cross-section of an ingot exhibits almost 100 % refined equiaxed grains and no porosity. The method of combining ultrasonic treatment and forced cooling at the bottom of ingots not only influences the ingot refinement, but also decreases the porosity of the ingots with an increase in the ultrasonic duration. The ultrasonic degassing effect is due to the release of hydrogen in biofilms, which expand and grow gradually; finally, they burst on the melt surface, achieving the effect of degassing.
Regionalni muzej v Doboju hrani z ledine Krčevina iz Paležnice Donje depo 64 bronastih predmetov v skupni teži 7115 g. Sestavljajo ga napadalno orožje (sulična ost, bodalo, sekira), orodje (srpi) in ...odlomki ingotov, med katerimi izstopa robni del ingota oxhide. S svojo sestavo se depo navezuje na panonsko-karpatski žarnogrobiščnodobni delavniški krog, časovno pa se uvršča v stopnjo Ha A1 oz. v drugo stopnjo žarnogrobiščnodobnih depojev Bosne in Hercegovine po kronologiji Petra Königa.
Prispevek obravnava zgodnjesrednjeveške zaklade železnih predmetov s slovenskega ozemlja s podrobnejšo predstavitvijo štirih najdb (Camberk nad Cerovim Logom, Stari grad nad Uncem, Ljubična nad ...Zbelovsko Goro, Zidani gaber nad Mihovim). Predmeti so bili po prvotnem namenu povezani s tremi dejavnostmi – s poljedelstvom, obrtjo in bojevanjem. Po uporabnosti se delijo na poljedelsko orodje, orodje za obdelavo lesa, kovaško orodje, konjeniško in konjsko opravo, orožje, na predmete za raznovrstno rabo ter ingote in surovo železo. Po sestavi zakladne najdbe lahko razvrstimo v tri skupine, v zaklade z orodjem, zaklade z opravo za konja in konjenika ter zaklade z raznovrstnimi predmeti. Pomembna kriterija sta še ohranjenost predmetov (celi in poškodovani predmeti) in okoliščine najdbe (v naselbini, ob poteh). Presoja vseh teh lastnosti in dobre primerjave, predvsem na Slovaškem in Češkem, omogočajo umestitev zgodnjesrednjeveških zakladov iz Slovenije v širši prostor jugovzhodne in dela srednje Evrope od konca 8. do prve polovice 10. stoletja.
V letih 1997 in 1998 sta bila na Gobavici odkrita dva depoja mešane sestave. Vsebujeta v glavnem odlomke bronastodobnih sekir, med katerimi prevladujejo uhate. Poleg sekir so v obeh depojih še ...odlomki obročastega nakita in fibul. Sekire iz depojev so datirane v čas med 10. in 8. st. pr. n. št., obročasti nakit in fibule pa v halštatsko obdobje, delno celo v mladohalštatski čas, kamor datiramo zaključek odlaganja v depoja. Glede na primerjave sta depoja z Gobavice nad Mengšem primerljiva z depoji Šempeter, Gradišče nad Gornjo Košano, Kranj in Dragomelj II.
Au début de l’année 2014 un ensemble d’objets métalliques a été découvert de manière fortuite dans un bois au nord de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte dans la Manche. Une fouille de contrôle a été réalisée ...en février 2015 afin de vérifier s’il restait d’autres éléments métalliques mais également pour documenter le contexte d’enfouissement. Ce sont au total 18 lingots et fragments de lingots plano-convexes qui ont été mis au jour dans ce dépôt qui était situé au pied d’un bloc de grès offrant trois faces d’arrachement et dressé verticalement avec un dispositif de calage à son pied faisant ainsi clairement office de marqueur spatial. Les premières observations indiquent qu’il s’agit là d’éléments issus de la fin de la chaîne opératoire de la métallurgie extractive, c’est-à-dire la réduction de minerai de cuivre. Afin de confirmer l’hypothèse qu’il s’agit bien de produits de première réduction et non pas d’alliages, la totalité des éléments a été analysée via la méthode ICP-AES. Il s’agit dans tous les cas de cuivres assez purs, entre 98,09% et 99,74% avec des proportions variables des éléments en trace.
Malgré l’absence d’objets mis en forme, le dépôt du bois de l’Enfer a été attribué au Bronze final atlantique 3 (BFIIIb), par comparaison avec des ensembles équivalents. La localisation du dépôt dans un petit bois isolé a contribué à préserver in situ le bloc de grès au pied duquel le dépôt était enterré, et qui devait le marquer dans le paysage. De tels aménagements sont connus dans la littérature pour les dépôts de l’âge du Bronze, mais sans synthèse diachronique au niveau de la France. L’exercice a été tenté ici, et on constate que la présence de pierres ou d’autres marqueurs spatiaux au-dessus des dépôts de l’âge du Bronze n’est finalement pas anecdotique, marquant ainsi une volonté de signaler au moins certains dépôts visuellement dans le paysage. Ceci apporte en retour de nouveaux éléments de réflexion quant à la signification de ces dépôts et au concept de tabou qui leur était peut-être attaché.
At the beginning of 2014, a set of massive metal objects was fortuitously discovered in a wood north of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, Manche, Normandy. The find is located along the eastern edge of the bois de l’Enfer, on a small terrace just below a sandstone cliff along a north-south axis. The cliff is less than thirty meters away from the river Ouve that flows through the village. Two of the authors (H.G. & C.M.) received the recovered artefacts for identification. The artefacts were exclusively bun shaped ingots and fragments of ingots, probably from a hoard.
A small excavation undertaken in February 2015 aimed to check for other objects and to document the context of the deposit. The dating of the probable hoard remains difficult, as no other objects were found during the initial discovery and the purpose of the excavation was also to recover any other objects in order to ensure a reliable dating. The hoard was located just under a small standing stone with three detachment surfaces and a blocking device consisting of small stones at its base. The sandstone block originally a marker or a landmark probably came from the nearby cliff. However, because of the very numerous bioturbations (mainly roots), no pit limits were identified during the excavation. For the same reason, it was not possible to interpret the position of the remaining metal artifacts under the standing stone, as some underlying roots had very likely disturbed the objects.
Eighteen metal elements were discovered in this hoard, eleven in the first instance, the remaining objects during the excavation. A small element was found on the surface near the sandstone block, one in the field between the cliff and the river (most likely lost by the inventor), and finally five underneath the standing stone. Unfortunately, no other objects were unearthed, the entire hoard consisting only of ingots and ingot fragments. The size and weight of these objects vary as the heaviest ingot weighs 3,356 kg, and the lightest ingot fragment only 66 g. All the artifacts found in the hoard have common characteristics: irregular and wrinkled surfaces as well as a general appearance of great porosity, with many deep holes and hollows being visible on the complete ingots. These first observations clearly indicate that the objects come from the final stage of the extractive metallurgy chaîne opératoire, in other words: the smelting of copper ore. It should also be noted that there is no possible refitting between objects.
In order to support the hypothesis that these objects are the result of a smelting process and not alloys from a later stage of the metallurgy chaîne opératoire, all the elements were analyzed using the ICP-AES (Inductively Coupled Plasma – Atomic Emission Spectroscopy) method at the University of Rennes 1 to determine their elemental composition. It was found that in all cases the artifacts were made of copper of between 98.09% and 99.74% purity, the proportions in trace elements varying from one object to another. The fact that all the artifacts are copper ore smelting products makes it possible to overcome all the difficulties associated with the combining of copper / copper alloys from different origins or with recycled metal. It is this type of artifact that is closest to the original copper ores and thus to the mines, an important factor when considering the metal artifacts of the Atlantic Bronze Age in France.
As there were no other manufactured objects providing a clear typology, the dating of the hoard has not been straightforward. However, similar hoards containing only copper ingots or ingot fragments have been found elsewhere, mainly in the south of the Armorican peninsula, making the bois de l’Enfer hoard, the northernmost manifestation of the phenomenon. A recent excavation in a field in Kergaradec, Gouesnac’h, Finistère, Brittany, has led to the discovery of 3 hoards, one of them containing only ingots and ingot fragments. The other two hoards, as well as another found in the 19th century again in the same field also contained the same ingots and fragments as the ones from Normandy. The manufactured objects in these hoards date to the final stage of the Late Bronze Age, providing a dating for the ingots-only hoards.
The hoard of the bois de l’Enfer is a particularly interesting set in more than one way. Firstly, with more than 13 kg of copper, it represents the largest set of “foundry remains” uncovered in the Manche department. The fact that it is a hoard made up solely of bun-shaped ingots and ingots fragments is also to be noted, this type of set being particularly rare. Further analyses of the ingots that focus mainly on lead isotopes, could match their signature with known ores from ancient mining districts.
The hoard was located in a small isolated wood on a terrace between a sandstone cliff and a marshy field. The field had not been ploughed which helped to preserve the sandstone block marker in situ. These markers have been recorded from time to time; however, there is no diachronic overview for France. In a study undertaken for this paper, it seems that stones or other markers placed near the hoards are far from anecdotal, and visually mark the position of some hoards within the landscape. This in turn provides new data for considering the meaning of these hoards and for reexamining their taboo status.
Au regard « de l’absence » des sols d’occupation néolithiques, les recherches sur l’habitat dans le Nord de la France sont basées sur des plans de bâtiment à partir de l’organisation des trous de ...poteau. Pourtant la présence dans le Sud-Ouest du Bassin parisien de sites peu stratifiés à concentration de mobilier suggérerait la préservation de sols d’occupation. En questionnant la relation entre le sédiment et l’artefact, la démarche géoarchéologique, fondée sur la micromorphologie, vise à déterminer les processus de formation de ces sites pour interroger la préservation des sols d’occupation ainsi que la nature des activités humaines qu’ils enregistrent. Cinq sites à concentrations de mobilier (Gas, Sours, Poupry, Pussigny et Maillé) découverts en Beauce et en Touraine ont été étudiés. La stratégie d’échantillonnage établie sur le terrain est double : stratigraphique, en intégrant la transition avec le substrat, et spatiale entre coeur et périphérie des concentrations de mobilier.
L’élaboration d’un modèle qualitatif du sol néolithique, exprimé par une classification de micro-ethnofaciès d’aménagement et de fonctionnement a permis d’identifier sa nature. L’analyse microstragraphique contribue à restituer la partition de l’espace selon la nature des activités et de retracer son évolution dans le temps.
Le site « les Grands Noyers » à Gas permet d’illustrer le potentiel de l’approche géoarchéologique engagée sur le sol néolithique et de proposer une reconstitution de l’histoire fonctionnelle de ce site : construction d’un bâtiment aux bases de mur en terre massive après terrassement et nivellement du terrain, puis aménagement et fonctionnement des sols intérieurs domestiques et extérieurs qualifiés de cour.
Les résultats acquis confirment la préservation, au sein des sols d’occupation néolithiques, des gestes et des pratiques humaines. Ainsi, le paradigme du « sol néolithique disparu » s’estompe ouvrant de riches perspectives d’ordre palethnographique pour l’habitat néolithique.
The sedentary lifestyle of Neolithic societies places the settlement at the heart of archaeological issues. In northern France, research has mainly focused on sites with negative structures, whereas the frequent presence of clusters of artefacts was not considered as a potential element of the settlement structuration. However, the archaeological floor carrying essential data does approach this research question. Historically, at the beginning of the research on early Neolithic settlements in the Aisne Valley and throughout Eastern Europe, the soil, as an archaeological entity, was not identified. Also, it was considered, except for a few isolated cases, as not preserved. Since then, this observation has been challenged and the lack of detecting floors has limited our understanding of Neolithic settlements.
The south-west of the Paris basin provides a relevant framework to investigate Neolithic soils and to question their absence. The end of the Neolithic in this region is still poorly culturally defined and building plans are largely unknown: buildings on posts of small modules and one monumental building. Nevertheless, numerous sites not stratified with artefact clusters (35 among the 79 sites identified) are discovered. In this context, where settlements are largely still poorly documented, it seems necessary to test if the cluster of artefacts constitutes a witness to the floor. We engaged an original geoarchaeological approach based on soil micromorphology to examine the sediment that contains these artefacts and thus characterise the formation processes of these archaeological layers. These elements then allow us to question ourselves on:
— the nature of the Neolithic floor and its variability to document the construction and functioning of inhabited spaces?
— the way in which they contribute to characterising the dynamics of occupation of sites at the end of the Neolithic period?
To answer these questions, the study material comes from five sites located in the Beauce (Sours, Gas and Poupry) and Touraine (Pussigny and Maillé) regions. The methodological approach is related to the geoarchaeology using soil micromorphology as a toolset. The strategy of sampling is twofold: stratigraphic sampling integrating all the thickness of the stratigraphy and the transition with the substrate and associated with a spatial sampling (37 sedimentary sequences). The study of thin sections allow to identify sedimentary organisations defined as ‘micro-ethnofacies’. Resuming the patterns introduced since the 1990s and according to the constants observed, a first qualitative model of the Neolithic floor expressed by a classification of micro-ethnofacies is proposed according to layout and functioning. Then, the phasing of the set of micro-ethnofaciès sequence from microstratigraphy analyses allows to restitute the partition of space according to the nature of the activities and trace its evolution depending on time.
To illustrate the potential of the geaoarchaeological study, we rely on the example of the ‘les Grands Noyers’ site at Gas with a thin stratigraphy which allows to propose a reconstitution of its functional history. The establishment of the settlement is characterised by extensive earthworks activities and levelling of the field beforehand to the construction of a building whose architectural foundations are in cob. The floors of the building are regularly spread screeds and recorded a high trampling. A courtyard floor develops on the outside above a slab of earth that creates a platform. Courtyard floors are sometimes maintained which underlines a rotation in the functioning of the activities that are dedicated to it. Once the space has been abandoned, the earthen architecture, subject to temperate climatic conditions, breaks up and ended up in its collapse.
These original results confirm the preservation of human acts and practices in Neolithic floors. The identification of floors, constructed or not, and of their division in the space testifies, on the contrary, of the well conservation of the recorded information. According to the first observations, this is probably related in large part to the collapses of the cob construction or to rapid overlays such as colluvium. These results also contribute to highlight the informative potential of these thin stratified sites with clusters of artefacts which are a settlement with cob buildings and structured outdoor spaces of the courtyard type.
Soil analysis demonstrates that Neolithic settlements had a though-out project involving earthworks and levelling activities. The floors are in most cases built according to several construction techniques. The relationship between the bases of the walls and the cluster of artefacts leads to the formation of wall effects (internal and external) and the walls can therefore be considered as structuring elements of occupying grounds. The sedimentary archives are true cultural documents and the results obtained bring new palethnographic data. They emphasise an important variability between the soils which belong to a partition of the space where the floor is characterised according to the nature, the time and the organisation of the activities. For the inner space, the typical floor is a very heavily used (intense trampling) constructed floor. However, the absence in most cases of microartefacts does not make it possible to specify the nature of the activities practised, perhaps because of conservation problems or waste management. These soils are distinguished by the maintenance they show as they are regularly maintained. The typical outer floors are courtyard floors where the cluster of artefacts reflects a space frequented and maintained at an irregular pace. Here again, the rarity of microartefacts tends to limit the identification of the activities practised. The paradigm of the ‘disappeared Neolithic soil’ is fading away, opening up rich palethnographic perspectives.
The paper presents the results of the lead isotope analyses (LIA) made on various material and artefacts (ore, washing sediments, litharge) uncovered on the recent excavations carried on an ore ...washing plant in the Roman silver mining district of Carthago Nova. The aim of such analyses was to precise the isotopic signature of the washing plant so that it could be possible to contextualize it in the whole district. Combined with archaeological and epigraphical data, the LIA can contribute to better know the organisation of Roman mining and metallurgical activity in Cartagena.
Se presentan los resultados de estudios arqueométricos realizados sobre diversos materiales (mineral, sedimentos de lavado, litargirio) recogidos en las recientes excavaciones de un complejo de talleres de época tardorrepublicana vinculado a la producción de plata y plomo en el distrito de Carthago Nova. Además de permitir la determinación de la signatura isotópica del complejo arqueológico, los isótopos de plomo contribuyen, conjuntamente con la arqueología y la epigrafía, a una mejor comprensión de la organización de la actividad minera y metalúrgica en la Cartagena romana.
Cet article présente les résultats d’analyses isotopiques du plomb (LIA) réalisées sur divers matériaux et objets archéologiques (minerais, sédiments de lavage, litharges) découverts dans le cadre de récentes fouilles archéologiques conduites sur une installation de lavage au sein du district minier d’argent de Carthagène, durant l’époque romaine. Le but de telles analyses était d’affiner la signature isotopique de la laverie de manière à la situer dans ce vaste district. Combinées aux données de l’archéologie et de l’épigraphie, les LIA peuvent contribuer à mieux connaître et comprendre l’organisation de l’activité minière et métallurgique de Carthagène.
L’amélioration de la solidification de lingots d’acier industriels de plusieurs tonnes demeure un défi scientifique. Lors de cette étape cruciale, des hétérogénéités chimiques – à l’échelle du mètre ...– peuvent se développer. Le mouvement des grains solides qui se forment et se déplacent dans le bain liquide est un des leviers d’action sur la macroségrégation. L’inoculation permet d’agir sur le nombre, la taille et la morphologie de ces grains via des ajouts dans le métal liquide. Dans ce travail, les nuances 42CrMo4 et 34Cr4 ont été inoculées pour plusieurs formats de lingots. Des techniques de caractérisation (2D et 3D) ont été développées pour la comparaison des structures de solidification dendritiques avant et après inoculation. Une première série de lingotins (50 g) a montré l’effet affinant de poudres à bonne cohérence cristallographique avec la ferrite et l’effet grossissant d’un ferroalliage de cérium. Après une étude à plus grande échelle (8 kg) pour les meilleurs candidats (poudres de TiN, CeO2, Si3N4 et ferroalliage de cérium), un ajout de cérium a été fait dans un lingot industriel de 6,2 t. Le cérium, responsable de la croissance des grains équiaxes pour l’ensemble des lingots caractérisés. Il agit probablement sur les tensions interfaciales solide/liquide et moule/liquide tout en remplaçant les sites de germination nativement présents dans le métal liquide par des inclusions au cérium qui ne servent pas de sites de germination
Improving the solidification of large industrial steel ingots remains a scientific challenge. During casting chemical heterogeneities (macrosegregation), sometimes in the scale of meters, can arise. Solid grain motion is one phenomena responsible for macrosegregation. Inoculation allows the number, size and morphology of these grains to be modified through additions to the liquid metal. In this work 42CrMo4 and 34Cr4 grade steel ingots of several sizes were modified with potential inoculants. Characterization techniques (2D and 3D) were developed to compare dendritic solidification structures before and after inoculation. The first series of small ingots (50 g) showed grain refinement for powder additions with a low lattice misfit between the inoculant and solidifying melt, and a coarsening effect when ferrocerium was added. The best inoculant candidates (TiN, CeO2, Si3N4 powders and cerium ferroalloy) were tested in medium sized ingots, after which the cerium addition was tested with a 6,2 t industrial ingot. Cerium is responsible for coarsening the grain size in all sizes of cast ingots investigated. This is likely due to a modification of the solid/liquid and liquid/mold interfacial energy along with the replacement of existing sites with cerium inclusions which are not active during nucleation
Les lingots de cuivre et les déchets de fonderie sont des objets omniprésents dans les dépôts métalliques terrestres de l'horizon de l'épée à pointe en langue de carpe du Bronze final IIIb (Bronze ...final atlantique 3), en particulier dans les régions proches de la façade atlantique. Et pourtant, ils ont été systématiquement sous-étudiés et même sousréférencés. Après un passage en revue des différentes descriptions de ces objets depuis un siècle, ce travail propose une typologie fine basée sur leurs descriptions morphologiques. Cette étude s'attache à décrire les lingots et les déchets de fonderie des dépôts de l'horizon de l'épée à pointe en langue de carpe de la Bretagne historique (Finistère, Morbihan, Côtes-d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique). Ainsi, sous l'ancienne dénomination « lingots plano-convexes », plusieurs types d'objets sont en réalité décrits : d'une part les déchets de fonderie en bronze que sont les coulures sur le sol, les moulages de creusets et les moulages de fond de poterie qui doivent certainement correspondre à des surplus obtenus au moment de la fonte des objets; et d'autre part les lingots plano-convexes de cuivre qui correspondent à de la matière première importée. Enfin, les masselottes en bronze ont également été considérées. Elles sont parfaitement identifiées, mais le vocabulaire utilisé est si diversifié qu'une reprise rigoureuse de la terminologie s'est avérée indispensable. La description fine des déchets de fonderie est particulièrement pertinente lorsque l'on s'attache à reconstituer les techniques métallurgiques des bronziers de l'époque, notamment la taille et la nature des creusets ou la reconstitution des moules. La description des lingots de cuivre est quant à elle très importante pour tenter de restituer des courants d'échange à travers l'Europe. En effet, les techniques métallurgiques peuvent présenter des spécificités d'une zone de production à une autre et la morphologie des lingots peut subtilement varier. Ainsi, la comparaison des aspects macroscopiques des lingots de cuivre trouvés dans les zones de production et dans celles de consommation, peut apporter des éléments de discussion dans ces problématiques d'échanges. Copper ingots and foundry waste are very common in metallic dry land hoards of the carp's tongue sword horizon of the Late Bronze Age IIIb, especially in the Atlantic area (fig. 1). However, they have been systematically under-studied and even under-referenced. After an analysis of the various descriptions over time, this study proposes an accurate typology based on morphological descriptions. The main purpose of this work is to identify different types of copper ingots in order to determine if one or several copper origins could have been used to supply bronze artisans' workshops at the same time in Western Europe and most particularly in the west of France. In 2009, the number of Late Bronze IIIb hoards known in the west of France was about sixty nine (Boulud & Fily, 2009). Following this inventory, it can be noted that almost all these hoards contained foundry waste or/and ingots. This configuration is specific to western France, because in the rest of the country hoards are few, for example in the south of France (Guilaine, 1972; Gomez de Soto & Milcent, 2000), or they did not contain foundry waste, for example in the north of France (Blanchet, 1984), or only very little, as in Burgundy (Mordant, 2001) or in the Alps (Fischer, 2012). Previous publications clearly show that for several decades these objects were neglected, and that today it is still difficult to have precise information regarding their descriptions. The aim of this paper is to propose a new typology with appropriate terminology, so it could be used for all future studies to describe these objects with a single identification process. This work describes ingots and foundry waste from carp's tongue sword horizon hoards in historical Brittany (Finistère, Morbihan, Côtes-d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique). Thus, several types of objects are actually described under the old name of "plano-convex ingots": on the one hand, bronze foundry waste such as ground flows, crucible castings, and casts of the bottom of ceramic containers which must certainly be an overflow created during the casting of objects; and on the other hand the plano-convex copper ingots which correspond to the imported raw material. Lastly, bronze "masselottes" have also been considered in the study. They are clearly identified, but the vocabulary used is so diverse that a rigorous terminology is now indispensable. Ground flows have an overall plano-convex profile. The form of these bronze flows depends on the geometry of the cavity in which the metal is flowing. The upper surface is generally smooth but sometimes wrinkled, the lower slightly irregular and moulds the roughness of the ground. There is no porosity (fig. 2). Crucible castings also have a plano-convex profile. The upper surface is smooth as is the lower, which moulds the inner wall of the crucible. These bronze objects also lack porosity (fig.3). Almost identical casts have been found in Devon (Needham 1980). Casts of the bottom of ceramic containers have an overall plano-convex profile. The upper surface is slightly rough or bumpy. The lower surface is smooth and corresponds to the imprint of the bottom and part of the sides of the ceramic object. These bronze objects have no porosity (fig. 4). 'Masselottes' correspond to the excess metal remaining in the funnel above objects cast in a mould. They are formed by an upper reservoir corresponding to the funnel itself, and by one or several pouring streams (fig. 5). The plano-convex copper ingots generally have a circular or slightly oval shape with an average diameter of twenty centimetres (fig. 6). Porosity can be low but is usually very high. A large number of these ingots are fragmented and some are partially melted (fig. 7). Unlike the previous objects, ingots are not produced in local bronze artisans' workshops, but are imported from producing areas. Western France has insufficient resources for the manufacture of such a large number of objects. It is very important to describe the ingots because some differences could appear. For example some smaller ingots, maybe from another production area, could exist (fig. 8). It is nevertheless certain that other forms of ingots exist for the same period in France, as shown by the example of the biscuit-shaped ingots from the hoard of Saint-Jean-aux-Bois, Oise. European comparisons show that plano-convex ingots present in large numbers in the west of France have a morphology very strongly resembling that found in England (Roberts & Veysey, 2011). Plano-convex ingots found in Spain are smaller (Gomez Ramos, 1993; Montero-Ruiz et al., 2011) while ingot axes are known in the east of the Iberian Peninsula (Renzi, 2010). In conclusion, an accurate description of foundry waste is extremely pertinent for our knowledge of the ancient artisans' metallurgical technology, especially concerning the size and form of crucibles or the reconstitution of moulds. The description of copper ingots is very important for trying to identify trade routes through Europe. Indeed, metallurgical techniques can present specificities from one production area to another and ingots could be morphologically different, even if only slightly. The comparison of macroscopic aspects of copper ingots found in production areas with those of consumption areas can contribute to discussion about trade and exchange questions.
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