Work

Prehistoric gold from Lake Sevan Basin? New research on Armenian gold deposits and objects

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: The article gives an overview of the results of an Armenian-German joint project in the area of today's open-pit gold mine of Sotk in Eastern Armenia. Special attention is paid to the preliminary results of the gold analysis. Interdisciplinary studies on regional natural gold deposits - especially the Sotk and Tsarasar deposits - and their archaeological context are presented together with the analytical results of 43 gold and 4 silver objects from 5 different sites in Armenia. The data obtained by LA-ICP-MS are discussed with regard to their alloy and trace element composition. They provide information on the use of raw material sources, intentional alloy formation and the preferred use of these alloys. The archaeometric investigations show that the gold objects were mostly made of secondary placer gold. However, on one object, the oldest object investigated in this study, the use of primary rock gold could not be excluded. Furthermore, the data provide information about the serial production of typologically identical types found at different sites, which indicates that these objects were probably traded over long distances.

Source: Journal of Archaeological Science Reports

DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104267