Archaeometrical study of paleometallurgical materials from the archaeological site “Cerro de las Balsas — Chinchorro” (La Albufereta, Alacant, Spain)

An Iberian archaeological site located in the east of Spain is one of the most important cupellation centers found in the 4th century b.c. Different metallurgical materials were found in the archaeological site as minerals, cast slags, forged slags, metallic lead, cupella fragments and bronzes. Also was found reverbs remains used for cupper-based materials and cupellation procedure, and hearth forge remains for obtained iron material. The recuperated samples were studied by comparing samples of the same type of material by macroanalysis and microanalysis. The microanalysis and quantitation of the different archaeological materials was carried out by SEM/EDX. The information provides about the knowledge of a metallurgic process such as that of silver production by lead cupellation. The microanalysis results reflect the variety of elements that constitute the slags and other materials, and that come from the forge of the worked metallic materials. Also, the process cupellation was confirmed by the identification of lead and silver. The presence of forge slag corroborates the use of the great amount of recovered heart forges in the excavation like metallurgical structures for the iron work.