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Retracing Magna Graecia's silver: coupling lead isotopes with a multi-standard trace element procedure |
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| Authors: | T. Birch K. J. Westner F. Kemmers S. Klein H. E. Höfer H.-M. Seitz |
| Affiliation: | 1. Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 4230, DK-8270 Højbjerg, Denmark;2. Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Abt. II. Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, D-60621 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;3. Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Archäometallurgie, Am Bergbaumuseum 31, D-44791 Bochum, Germany Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany;4. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Facheinheit Mineralogie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;5. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Facheinheit Mineralogie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | Magna Graecia silver coinage Western Mediterranean lead isotopes trace elements southern Italy Greek |