The new Late Bronze Age hoard find from Kobbelbude (former Eastern Prussia, district Fischhausen) and the first results of its archaeometallurgical investigations

Abstract

This article deals with a new discovered Late Bronze Age hoard find from former Kobbelbude (district Fischhausen, Eastern Prussia, now district Kaliningrad, Russian Federation). The hoard find is of special importance because it is the first time that metallurgical investigations were carried out on its artefacts. Archaeometallurgical analysis is, apart from few exceptions, still a desideratum of research in the eastern Baltic region. Also, for the first time, lead isotope ratios were determined. The results of the isotopic composition of the lead show a first hint towards a possible Eastern Alpine origin of the used ores. Former archaeometallurgical research of Bronze Age metal finds from the eastern Baltic region suggested a more abstract assumption about the origin of the ores from Middle Europe. Moreover, with the analysis of the chemical composition of the artefacts from Kobbelbude, a material classification to the type “dilute” fahlore copper with nickel, which we know from Late Bronze Age Middle Europe, was drawn. The results presented in this paper are a first step in the field of archaeometallurgical research in the eastern Baltic region and open a new perspective on Bronze Age metallurgy in relation to cultural history.