To browse Academia. Copper, gold and lead objects occur in northern and western Europe during the fourth and third millennia BC. Their contexts of use and deposition are comparable to contemporary amber and polished stone axes. All share properties such as lustre, brilliance, distinctive colour, and non-local or hard-to-access points of origin.
When metal production did occur, it required specialist expertise, but was only applied on a small-scale and sporadic basis with little innovation or intensification. Whilst metal objects were evidently desirable for adornment, their appearance did not herald a revolution nor cause major social change. The earliest metallurgy in Western Europe tends to be investigated through comparing the exploitation of different ore sources and the presence of specific production techniques.
However, this approach does not address why the earliest metal occurred in the form that it did and how this relates to the dynamics of the prehistoric communities involved Exploring the processes through which the earliest metallurgical traditions are created involves examining the broader spatial and temporal patterning in the available choices and identifiable actions that influence the production, circulation and deposition of metal objects.
It can be shown that, despite common origins, metal reflects the distinctive, variable and changing standards of the communities during the later fourth and third millennia BC. Evidence of gold processing in the fortified site of Bruszczewo Poland is the first testimony of the production of gold artefacts in a domestic Early Bronze Age site of Central Europe.
This paper highlights the potential of macrolithic tool ensembles as a key element for the recognition of metallurgical work processes. Moreover, it presents an optimised methodological approach to tackle the application of stone tools in metallurgical production, based on technological characterisation, use-wear analysis, portable X-ray fluorescence, transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Finally, the absence of gold sources in Central Europe raises the question about the origin of the metal, constituting an especially striking issue, as gold was a raw material of restricted access.
