Early Metal Mining and Production by Paul T. Craddock

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 751 suggestion that pre-13th-century cobalt blue glass involved a reuse of Roman materials is an interesting indicator of how late it was that medieval Europe cast off its ancient moorings. Also with several col­ leagues, Jean-Noël Barandon uses chemical analysis to quantify the importance of Potosi silver and Brazilian gold in the coinages of early modern Europe; for example, nine of eleven coins minted in Spain under Philip II (1556-98) contain silver from Potosi, while an estimated 61 percent of the gold in British coins of the first half of the 18th century came from Brazil. The macroeconomic implica­ tions of these data will be explored in a later study. In a study by P. T. Craddock and D. R. Hook, chemical analysis is used to shed some light on the provenance of copper used in largely undated West African bronze artifacts; local origin is indicated for the 9th to 11th centuries, and the composition of sample external copper sources comes from a trans-Saharan caravan that came to grief in the 12th century and from a Portuguese shipwreck of 1527. Here there is, however, a rare glitch in coverage of the historical record: Hungarian copper came to Antwerp not “across Europe” or down the Rhine, but by way of the Vistula, the Baltic, and the Low Coun­ tries’ inland waterways. Archaeology can be especially valuable in regard to the smaller trades that helped stitch trade networks together without leaving much trace in the documentary record. Here, for traffic between Europe and China in the 18th century, Mark Redknap and two col­ leagues show by chemical analysis of little-known glass ingots from a shipwrecked East Indiaman that this material was evidently prized by Chinese glaziers, while Brian Gilmour and Eldon Worrall show how European metal craftsmen had a similar interest in Chinese nickel brass (“patkong”), until local forges began production of the alloy early in the 19th century. In general, the scholars represented here are careful to check their findings against the historical record; this collection is a useful indication of what is to be gained if historians of trade would begin doing the same for the archaeological record. James D. Tracy Dr. Tracy teaches in the Department of History at the University of Minnesota. His books include studies ofErasmus and the political history of the Low Countries, and edited volumes on world trade. Early Metal Mining and Production. By Paul T. Craddock. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. Pp. xix+363; illustra­ tions, figures, tables, bibliography, index. $59.00 (cloth). Fifteen years ago no more than a dozen or so scientists and engi­ neers working in their spare time carried on most of the world’s 752 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE research in archaeometallurgy. They published altogether a few pa­ pers each year and the occasional book. In 1995, however, scholars, many with full-time support from museums, from research institu­ tions, and, in Europe, from several corporations, produced well over a thousand pages in conference volumes and research papers on archaeological and historical metallurgy. Some of this research was driven by national pride and some by the display opportunities that museum designers find in earlyjewelry and weapons. A more impor­ tant reason was the archaeologists’ and historians’ realization that metals retain within them much information about how they were made and used, information not otherwise available, that can shed light on past peoples’ cultures. Synthesis of the plethora of research results from the past decade is a daunting task that Paul T. Craddock is particularly well qualified to undertake because of his research at many important mining and metalworking localities in the Old World, and because of the work of the archaeometallurgy laboratory he directs at the British Mu­ seum. He brings to his writing a thorough knowledge of the exten­ sive, widely scattered literature of archaeometallurgy coupled with a remarkable ability to accurately explain the basic principles under­ lying metallurgical processes in terms that will be accessible to most readers. Craddock has given us a succinct, worldwide overview ofthe results of archaeometallurgical research. Early Metal Mining and Production covers metallurgy from earliest times through...