Retracing Magna Graecia's silver: coupling lead isotopes with a multi‐standard trace element procedure

Abstract

This study presents the results of compositional and lead isotopic analysis of coinage issued by the Greek colonies of Syracuse, Metapontum, Taras and Thurium in the fifth to third centuries bce. The data suggest that each colony in Magna Graecia, regardless of its motherland roots and despite ongoing conflicts between the cities, had access to the same silver, and that this supply was stable overall throughout their period of minting and issuing coinage. The paper retraces the silver sources of the colonies and points out a potential supply route for the metal. It includes a method development for a multi‐standard quantification approach for laser ablation‐inductively coupled‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) analysis of silver.