Osmium isotope analysis as an innovative tool for provenancing ancient iron: A systematic approach

PLoS One. 2020 Mar 18;15(3):e0229623. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229623. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The innovation of iron production is often considered one of the greatest technological advances in human history. A reliable provenancing method for iron is instrumental for the reconstruction of economic, social and geo-political aspects of iron production and use in antiquity. Although the potential of osmium isotopes analysis for this purpose has been previously suggested, here we present for the first time the results of osmium isotope analysis of ores, bloom and metal obtained from a set of systematic, bloomery iron-smelting experiments, utilizing selected ores from the Southern Levant. The results show that the 187Os/188Os ratio is preserved from ore to metal, with no isotopic fractionation. In addition, enrichment/depletion of osmium content was observed in the transition from ore to metal and from ore to slag. This observation has potential significance for our ability to differentiate between the various processes and sheds light on the suitability of various production remains for this method, which emerges as a robust and promising tool for the provenancing of archaeological ferrous metals.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Archaeology
  • History, Ancient
  • Humans
  • Iron / history*
  • Iron / isolation & purification
  • Isotopes / analysis*
  • Israel
  • Metallurgy / history
  • Osmium / analysis*

Substances

  • Isotopes
  • Osmium-187
  • Osmium-188
  • Osmium
  • Iron

Grants and funding

I hereby state that we received the following fund support for this project: Israel Science Foundation, ISF grant no, 1047/17 to A.E.B. https://www.isf.org.il/#/ Postdoc fellowship to I.S is also supported by the ISF funding and Ariel University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Mr. Lee Sauder is employed by his own company Germinal Ironworks. Germinal Ironworks did not have any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author is articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.”