Copper Beads Research Articles

Swiss Neolithic copper beads: Currency, ornament or prestige items?

Abstract The Cortaillod culture, settled around the lakes of west Switzerland, is the only culture in this part of Europe of its time (mid‐fourth millennium B.C.) known to have accumulated copper beads, although it did not itself work copper, unlike the contemporaneous Pfyn culture of nothern Switzerland. The possibility that these beads were a form of currency or basis of exchange is examined in the light of several ethnographic examples. Using the detailed excavation results from the settlement at Burgäschisee‐Süd, a model of the economic relationships of the Cortaillod village is proposed in which the beads might have been used for social exchange or functioned as a special purpose money.

Some measurements of particle velocity autocorrelation functions in a turbulent flow

Particle velocity autocorrelations of single spherical beads (46·5 μhollow glass, 87 μ glass, 87 μ corn pollen, and 46·5 μ copper) were measured in a grid-generated turbulence. The hollow glass beads were small and light enough to behave like fluid points; the other types had significant inertia and ‘crossing trajectories’ effects. The autocorrelations decreased much faster for heavier particles, in contradiction to previous experimental results. The integral scale for the copper beads was 1/3 of that for the hollow glass beads. The particle velocity correlations and the Eulerian spatial correlation were coincident within experimental error when the separation was non-dimensionalized by the respective integral scale. The data generated by the hollow glass beads can be used to estimate Lagrangian fluid properities. The Lagrangian time integral scale is approximated byL/u′, whereLis the Eulerian integral scale andu′ is the turbulence intensity.

A Metallurgical Expedition through the Persian Desert

An archaeological and metallurgical investigation was made in the Central Persian desert where diversified mineral deposits occur, the most prominent being gold, lead-silver, copper, iron, antimony, zinc, nickel and chromite. Evidence of heating copper in crucibles in the 5th millenium B.C. Has been found at Tal-i-Iblis in Kerman (the ancient Carmania) province, which also yields old mines and slag heaps. The more easily available cerussite (PbCO 3 ) was used as lead ore before the more deeply located and less readily smelted galena (PbS). The lead mines were a source of Pb and Ag in ancient times and some are mined today for Zn, which was formerly considered an impurity. Fumes of zinc oxide as by-product of lend smelting furnaces in this area were mentioned by Marco Polo who used the early name tutiya. The hypothesis that the use of iron ore in smelting lead was a factor in the discovery of iron still has not been proved. The copper-stained crucibles found at Iblis were probably used for casting rather than smelting; the crucible melted in an experiment in which a temperature of more than 1200°C was reached over a charcoal fire in forming a copper bead.

Archaeological Evidence for the use of Atlatl Weights in the Northwest

AbstractWilson Duff's tentative identification of several lower Fraser River artifacts as atlatl weights led the authors to examine 104 whole and fragmentary probable weights from the Northwest. They classify them on the basis of lashing grooves, notches, holes, or scars into three main types, each of which has variants. The weights are found in the lower Columbia and lower Fraser river valleys with a concentration in the Dalles-Deschutes region and range in time from the late Middle to the early Late periods of the Dalles Reservoir sequence, about 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Metallurgical analysis of a hollow copper bead found with two weights indicates that it is prehistoric and suggests connections to the east. The weights are often found paired in burials. Although ethnographic comparisons are disappointing, archaeological comparisons reveal possible relationships between the Northwest and California, the Great Basin and the Southwest, especially during Basketmaker II, and the eastern Woodlands. The possibility that the Northwest atlatl weights may be derived from eastern forms reinforces the previously presented idea that the Northwest participated in certain continent-wide developments.