The Production of Copper Alloys in Iron Age Britain

Abstract

This paper presents a selection of compositional analyses of Iron Age copper alloy artefacts from northern Britain. The results were obtained as part of a larger project which examined Iron Age and Roman copper alloys in northern Britain (the region from the Trent-Mersey to the Forth-Clyde). The quantitative analyses were carried out using EDXRF on drilled or polished samples. Comparisons are made with results from the late Bronze Age and early Roman period in northern Britain. The results are also compared with those already published from a range of Iron Age sites in southern England. The large total number of copper alloy analyses from the British Iron Age has made possible a synthesis of the data which has largely been assembled piecemeal. It is now clear that a tin bronze was the principal copper alloy for much of the Iron Age. The composition of this alloy is distinct from the alloys used in the Late Bronze Age and during the Roman period although there is considerable ‘blurring’ at the transitions. A brief outline of the analytical method employed and the analytical results are included.