Iron-Age bronze statuettes in Southern Portugal: combining archaeological data with EDXRF and BSEM + EDS to assess provenance and production technology

A simple, fast, and nondestructive analytical methodology combining X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) and Back-scattered Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (BSEM+EDS) has been applied to characterize the alloy’s composition of ex-votos metal statuettes of unknown provenance and age stored in the Museum of Évora in Southern Portugal, and to compare it with Iron-Age artefacts of similar typology recovered from the well-known Phoenician settlement (7th century BC) of Alcàcer do Sal located about 50 km W of Évora. The aim of the study was two-fold: (a) to confirm the age and provenance of the bronzes from the Alcàcer settlement; (b) to assess whether the combined archaeometric approach could shed light on the interaction between local (Iberian peninsula) and allochtonous (Phoenician) technological know-how and on how the “Orientalizing” Phoenician influence had been modulated locally in the making of metal artifacts. In this respect, for comparative purposes, selected bronze statuettes displaying “Orientalizing” features of inferred Phoenician origin from the Nuragic collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Cagliari and the G.A. Sanna Museum of Sassari, Sardinia, were also analyzed by EDXRF. Results indicate that all statuettes are made of an alloy of Cu/Sn or Cu/Sn/Pb with variable Sn and Pb content. The presence and content of Pb and of Fe (the latter always >0.05 %) in the alloy suggest a production technology involving the smelting of ferrous minerals and/or the use of reducing firing conditions with locally available Pb intentionally added as fluxing agent. The alloy’s compositional data is consistent with a provenance of the Évora statuettes from the known Phoenician settlement of Alcàcer do Sal in Southern Portugal.