Prehistoric copper metallurgy in the Italian Eastern Alps: recent results

The University of Padova has developed a geochemical database for the Alpine copper mines which contains lead isotope data for most of the copper deposits in the Western Alps and Italian Eastern Alps, besides a number of other geochemical tracers for selected deposits. The database fills an existing gap in available reference data and provides information for the geochemical interpretation of the mineral deposits. It is of course also an important reference for archaeometric purposes, to provenance the mineral source of slags and metal objects. Several Alpine copper deposits may now be successfully discriminated from those of other European and Mediterranean mining areas. The results obtained on a number of Copper Age and Bronze Age metal objects are presented. A few objects made with copper ores of South-East Alpine origin have been positively identified for the first time, though the data also indicate a wide circulation of copper metal possibly originating from ore sources outside the Alps.