Smelting crucibles to reduce copper minerals in the Iberian Peninsula and in southern France

Abstract

As was shown in Spain by the end of the 1980s, the use of common earthenware vessels as containers for prehistoric copper metallurgy has also been discovered in France. The authors propose in this article a synthesis of the knowledge concerning the use of this technology in Spain, its chronological and geographical frameworks and the more relevant mineralogical and metallurgical features. All this allows us to show the effectiveness and simplicity of the resources used to practice this early metallurgy. The finds in France are more modest and rarely have been analysed properly in the laboratory. However, the review of the archaeological record suggests that specific research informed by the results presented in the article would provide evidence of the impact of this technology through the Copper and Bronze Ages.