Manufacturing complex of the Abidnya settlement of the late Roman time: first results of the interdisciplinary research

Abstract

The Abidnya settlement of the Kievskaya archaeological culture, located in the Mogilev Region of Belarus, was earlier considered as a manufacturing centre for the Eastern European enamelled objects. An interdisciplinary research of the evidence for the production metal objects has been carried out in the course of our project. It has included the morphological analysis of the crucibles; the study of the chemical composition of their surface and content with the portable X-ray fluorescence analysis and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy; the surface distribution of the finds, which could be related to the industrial complex – crucibles, smelting landles, casting moulds, beads of red opaque glass – possible raw materials for enamelling, production wastes etc. According to the results of our study, the evidence for the enamelling cannot be attested on the site. All the studied finds are related to the melting (remelting) and casting of the copper-based alloys, containing zinc, tin, lead. Brass, bronze and multicomponent copper alloys could have been among them.