Books by Benjamin Roberts
This is the first catalogue of Bronze Age gold objects from Britain, Ireland and continental Euro... more This is the first catalogue of Bronze Age gold objects from Britain, Ireland and continental Europe in the British Museum collection (c. 2500–700 BC). With 386 objects as of November 2013, this is the largest collection of Bronze Age gold in the United Kingdom and encompasses virtually all of the main object types, including famous individual pieces such as the Mold Gold Cape, the Ringlemere Cup and the Sintra Collar. This catalogue does not include objects from Greece or Italy as these Bronze Age collections are curated together with the classical collections in the Department of Greece and Rome.
It is published online at
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_research_catalogues/bag/bronze_age_gold.aspx
Since the early 20th century, archaeologists across the world have defined archaeological culture... more Since the early 20th century, archaeologists across the world have defined archaeological cultures based on distinct similarities in burials, settlements, technology or objects in space and time. Archaeology has thus many accepted definitions of 'archaeological cultures' but these have all come into question. Yet, archaeological cultures remain the framework for global prehistory.
This volume brings together 17 international case-studies exploring archaeological cultures for regions around the globe and from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age and beyond. Taking lessons and overarching themes from these studies, the contributors draw important conclusions about cultural transmission, technological innovation, and cultural development.
The result is a comprehensive approach to 'archaeological cultures' addressing specific regions throughout Asia, Europe, North and South America and Africa. This work will be valuable to all archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, particularly those studying material culture.
Papers by Benjamin Roberts
Investigating Archaeological Cultures, 2011
The definition of an archaeological culture and its subsequent application throughout Europe duri... more The definition of an archaeological culture and its subsequent application throughout Europe during the first half of the twentieth century tends to be presented as a straightforward process. Scholars in each country simply adopted ideas advocated by Gustaf Kossinna ...
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2022
Since the mid-1970s a Bronze Age assemblage of metal objects has been recovered from the seabed o... more Since the mid-1970s a Bronze Age assemblage of metal objects has been recovered from the seabed off the south Devon coast at Salcombe, southwest England. The assemblage spans two suspected shipwreck events and comprises nearly 400 pieces of raw materials and finished artefacts, primarily in copper, tin, bronze and gold. Among these are 280 copper and 40 tin ingots, by far the largest discovery of Bronze Age ingots in either metal from northwestern Europe. Research in recent years revealed the microstructural and chemical nature of the ingots and enabled some preliminary conclusions on the metals trade in Europe in the Later Bronze Age. The present study aims to extend this knowledge by determining the tin, copper and lead isotopic compositions of the ingots using HR-MC-ICP-MS. In addition, bronze artefacts (swords, rapiers, palstaves and weights) from the Salcombe site are included in the multi-proxy approach in order to investigate their history and the possible relationships between finished products and ingots. In combination with the available chemical data of previous studies, the current results of the tin metal show that most likely two tin sources in southwest Britain supplied the ore for their production. This also sheds light on Late Bronze Age tin ingots from Israel that share the same geochemical characteristics with one group of the finds from Salcombe. Although the tin in the bronzes is similar to the tin in the ingots, it is not certain that the latter were used to make the bronzes. Correlations of copper and tin isotopes and trace elements of the bronzes point to a mixing or even recycling of copper-tin alloys rather than the alloying of individual components of copper and tin. However, the copper ingots from the assemblage could have been an additional component in the mixing process given their impurity pattern and isotopic composition. At the same time, a close relationship between swords of the Rosnoën type and palstaves from the cargo is disclosed. Lead isotope ratios for their part suggest Sardinian and/or south Spanish copper ores as a source for both the copper ingots and the copper of the bronzes. This would mean long-distance metal trade in the Later Bronze Age in both cases and would provide new insights into the interpretation of the prehistoric networks in Europe.
Radivojević, M., Roberts, B. W., Marić, M., Kuzmanović Cvetković, J., & Rehren, Th. (Eds.). (2021). The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans. Oxford: Archaeopress. by Miljana Radivojević, Thilo Rehren, Benjamin Roberts, Neda Mirković-Marić, Patrick Mertl, Milica Rajicic, Silvia Amicone, Vidan Dimic, Dragana Filipovic, Jelena Bulatović, Marko Porčić, Enrica Bonato, and Ernst Pernicka The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans, 2021
The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project a... more The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project aimed to trace the invention and innovation of metallurgy in the Balkans. It combined targeted excavations and surveys with extensive scientific analyses at two Neolithic-Chalcolithic copper production and consumption sites, Belovode and Pločnik, in Serbia. At Belovode, the project revealed chronologically and contextually secure evidence for copper smelting in the 49th century BC. This confirms the earlier interpretation of c. 7000-year-old metallurgy at the site, making it the earliest record of fully developed metallurgical activity in the world. However, far from being a rare and elite practice, metallurgy at both Belovode and Pločnik is demonstrated to have been a common and communal craft activity.
This monograph reviews the pre-existing scholarship on early metallurgy in the Balkans. It subsequently presents detailed results from the excavations, surveys and scientific analyses conducted at Belovode and Pločnik. These are followed by new and up-to-date regional syntheses by leading specialists on the Neolithic-Chalcolithic material culture, technologies, settlement and subsistence practices in the Central Balkans. Finally, the monograph places the project results in the context of major debates surrounding early metallurgy in Eurasia before proposing a new agenda for global early metallurgy studies.
Open access and fully downloadable from:
https://doi.org/10.32028/9781803270425
Journal of World Prehistory, 2021
This paper analyses and re-evaluates current explanations and interpretations of the origins, dev... more This paper analyses and re-evaluates current explanations and interpretations of the origins, development and societal context of metallurgy in the Balkans (c. 6200-3700 BC). The early metallurgy in this region encompasses the production, distribution and consumption of copper, gold, tin bronze, lead and silver. The paper draws upon a wide range of existing archaeometallurgical and archaeological data, the diversity and depth of which make the Balkans one of the most intensively investigated of all early metallurgical heartlands across the world. We focus specifically on the ongoing debates relating to (1) the independent invention and innovation of different metals and metal production techniques; (2) the analysis and interpretation of early metallurgical production cores and peripheries, and their collapses; and (3) the relationships between metals, metallurgy and society. We argue that metal production in the Balkans throughout this period reflects changes in the organisation of communities and their patterns of cooperation, rather than being the fundamental basis for the emergence of elites in an increasingly hierarchical society.
Le Bronze moyen et l’origine du Bronze final en Europe occidentale, de la Mer du Nord à la Méditerranée (XVIIe-XIIIe siècle avant notre ère). T Lachenal, C Mordant, T Nicolas & C Veber (eds.), Strasbourg, Mémoires d’Archéologie du Grand-Est 1, pp. 269-81, 2017
Bronze ornaments have been recognized for sixty
years as a distinctive feature of the Taunton me... more Bronze ornaments have been recognized for sixty
years as a distinctive feature of the Taunton metal assem-
blage (c. 1400-1250 cal. BC) of the Middle Bronze Age in
south-eastern england. This material is revisited in the light of
three large hoards from Sussex and Wiltshire. Absolute chronology and the wider
European context of these ornaments are also considered.
The Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600–1150 cal BC) in Britain is traditionally understood to represent a... more The Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600–1150 cal BC) in Britain is traditionally understood to represent a major funerary transition. This is a transformation from a heterogeneous funerary rite, largely encompassing inhumations and cremations in burial mounds and often accompanied by grave goods, to a homogeneous and unadorned cremation-based practice. Despite a huge expansion in the number of well excavated, radiocarbon dated, and osteologically analysed sites in the last three decades, current interpretations of Middle Bronze Age cremation burials still rely upon a seminal paper by Ellison (1980), which proposed that they comprise and represent an entire community. This paper analyses 378 cremation sites containing at least 3133 burials which represent all those that can be confidently dated to the Middle Bronze Age in Britain. The new analysis demonstrates that relatively few sites can be characterised as community cemeteries and that there are substantially more contemporary settlement sites, though few contemporary settlements are in close proximity to the cemeteries. The identifiable characteristics of cremation-based funerary practices are consistent across Britain with little evidence for social differentiation at the point of burial. It is also evident that only a minority of the population received a cremation burial. There is a substantial decrease in archaeologically visible funerary activity from the preceding Early Bronze Age (c. 2200–1600 cal BC) and a further decrease in the proceeding Late Bronze Age (c. 1150–800 cal BC) in Britain. This is comparable in form, and partially in sequence, to Bronze Age funerary practices in Ireland and several regions in Northwest Europe.
The seabed site of a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe in southwest England... more The seabed site of a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe in southwest England was explored between 1977 and 1982 and from 2004 onwards. Nearly 400 objects including copper and tin ingots, bronze artefacts/fragments and gold ornaments were found, typologically dating either to c. 1300–1150 BC or 1000–800 BC. The 280 copper and 40 tin plano-convex ingots and ingot fragments represent the largest discovery , measured by total weight as well as by quantity, of plano-convex or bun ingots in northwest Europe. The Salcombe copper ingots provided a wonderful opportunity for the technical study of copper ingots in a probable shipwreck context, as opposed to terrestrial contexts of deliberate deposition. The chemical composition of 25 plano-convex copper ingots was determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Two artefacts from the site were also analysed for comparison with the ingots. Following the compositional analysis, a microstructural study was carried out on ten Salcombe copper ingots selected to cover those with different sizes, shapes and variable impurity levels using metallography and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS). All the analysed copper ingots are of unalloyed copper with low levels of impurities. Sulphide inclusions are present in all samples and bulk sulphur contents are of 0.32–0.79% in the ingots but lower in the artefacts. The Salcombe ingots were found to have a quite similar impurity pattern to the Hertford Heath (England) ingots (except for iron content). They are distinctly different from the Uluburun ingots, and, to a lesser degree, from Sardinian ingots. The results are inconclusive as to how the Salcombe ingots were made. On the one hand, the very low concentration of iron and the absence of cuprite inclusions suggest that the ingots were primary smelting products of the primitive smelting process rather than produced from re-melting or refining of primary smelting lumps. On the other hand, the dense metal with very low porosity suggests the product of refining and re-casting operations under reducing conditions. However, the small ingots are not likely to have resulted from breaking of large ingots. The chemical compositions of the Salcombe ingots point to British or Western European sources although the connection with other regions cannot be excluded for some of the ingots. Further studies including lead isotope analysis are needed to address the question of provenance of the copper ingots, which would contribute to the re-emerging debates surrounding the European Bronze Age metal trade.
Journal of Archaeological Research, , 2018
Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeologi... more Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeo-metallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal stock have received much attention. Also, discussions of the value and perception of bronze, both as individual objects and as hoarded material, continue to be the focus of scholarly debate. Here, we bring together the sometimes-diverging views of several research groups on these topics in an attempt to find common ground and set out the major directions of the debate, for the benefit of future research. The paper discusses how to determine and interpret the geological provenance of new metal entering the system; the circulation of extant metal across time and space, and how this is seen in changing compositional signatures; and some economic aspects of metal production. These include the role of metal-producing communities within larger economic settings, quantifying the amount of metal present at any one time within a society, and aspects of hoarding, a distinctive European phenomenon that is less prevalent in the Middle Eastern and Asian Bronze Age societies.
O’Connor, B., Roberts, B.W. & Wilkin, N. (2017). The Ornament Horizon revisited: new and old find... more O’Connor, B., Roberts, B.W. & Wilkin, N. (2017). The Ornament Horizon revisited: new and old finds of Middle Bronze Age ornaments in southern England. In Le Bronze moyen et l'origine du Bronze final en Europe occidentale, de la Mer du Nord à la Méditerranée (XVIIe-XIIIe siècle avant notre ère). Lachenal T.,, Mordant C., Nicolas T., & Véber C Mémoires d’Archéologie du Grand-Est 1. 267-282.
The seabed site of a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe in southwest England... more The seabed site of a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe in southwest England was explored between 1977 and 2013. Nearly 400 objects including copper and tin ingots, bronze artefacts/ fragments and gold ornaments were found. The Salcombe tin ingots provided a wonderful opportunity for the technical study of prehistoric tin, which has been scarce. The chemical compositions of all the tin ingots were analysed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Following the compositional analysis, micro-structural study was carried out on eight Salcombe ingots selected to cover those with different sizes, shapes and variable impurity levels and also on the two Erme Estuary ingots using metallography and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS). An extensive overview of archaeological tin in Europe is also provided. All the Salcombe tin ingots analysed appeared to be quite pure with little variation in composition between them. Only two samples were found to contain over 0.1% iron and one contains over 0.1% copper. The compositions of the Salcombe tin ingots have been compared to the very few compositional analyses of tin objects found elsewhere such as the Late Bronze Age shipwreck of Uluburun but do not seem to have any connection between them. Further studies including lead and tin isotope analysis are needed to answer the question of provenance of the tin ingots, so as to contribute to the study of metal trading.
Journal of Archaeological Research, 2018
Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeologi... more Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeo-metallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal stock have received much attention. Also, discussions of the value and perception of bronze, both as individual objects and as hoarded material, continue to be the focus of scholarly debate. Here, we bring together the sometimes-diverging views of several research groups on these topics in an attempt to find common ground and set out the major directions of the debate, for the benefit of future research. The paper discusses how to determine and interpret the geological provenance of new metal entering the system; the circulation of extant metal across time and space, and how this is seen in changing compositional signatures; and some economic aspects of metal production. These include the role of metal-producing communities within larger economic settings, quantifying the amount of metal present at any one time within a society, and aspects of hoarding, a distinctive European phenomenon that is less prevalent in the Middle Eastern and Asian Bronze Age societies.
Melton, N., Montgomery, J., Roberts, B.W., Cook, G. & Harris, S. (2016). On the curious date of the Rylstone log-coffin burial. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 82: 383-392., 2016
Radiocarbon dates have been obtained from a log-coffin burial excavated in 1864 by Canon William ... more Radiocarbon dates have been obtained from a log-coffin burial excavated in 1864 by Canon William Greenwell from a ditched round barrow at Scale House, near Rylstone, North Yorkshire. The oak tree-trunk coffin had contained an extended body wrapped in a wool textile. The body had entirely decayed and there were no other extant grave goods. In the absence of other grave goods, Greenwell attributed the burial to the Bronze Age because it lay under a ditched round barrow and had similarities with log-coffin burials from Britain and Denmark. This attribution has not been questioned since 1864 despite a number of early medieval log-coffin burials subsequently being found in northern Britain. Crucially, the example excavated near Quernmore, Lancashire in 1973, was published as Bronze Age but subsequently radiocarbon dated to ad 430–970. The Rylstone coffin and textile were radiocarbon dated to confirm that the burial was Early Bronze Age and not an early medieval coffin inserted into an earlier funerary monument. Unexpectedly, the dates were neither Early Bronze Age nor early medieval but c. 800 bc, the cusp of the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Britain. The burial at Rylstone is, therefore, one of only two sites in Britain, and is unparalleled elsewhere in north-western Europe at a time when disposal of the dead was primarily through dispersed cremated or unburnt disarticulated remains.
Benjamin W. Roberts and Miljana Radivojević (2015). Invention as a Process: Pyrotechnologies in Early Societies. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 25, 299-306, 2015
The identification and analysis of invention is fundamental to understanding early societies. Ye... more The identification and analysis of invention is fundamental to understanding early societies. Yet invention tends to be only sporadically addressed by archaeologists, and then usually only within broader studies of innovation. Doubts concerning the ability of the archaeological
record to yield data of sufficient quality to investigate invention, together with the perception that the concept leads inevitably to nineteenth-century societal narratives of technological progress, remain widespread. This paper reviews the theoretical approaches
to invention in early societies with a particular focus on pyrotechnologies. It highlights the papers within this special section, which demonstrate the capacity of an integrated approach incorporating materials science, archaeology and archaeological theory to understand the processes of both invention and innovation underlying the appearance of pyrotechnologies and their relationships to early societies throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. It is argued that the importance of historical and contemporary debates on inventions, innovations and societies across the world continues to increase—and will do so with or without the active contribution of archaeologists.
The discovery of 373 intact and broken tin-bronze socketed axes accompanied by 404 fragments in f... more The discovery of 373 intact and broken tin-bronze socketed axes accompanied by 404 fragments in four pits at Langton Matravers collectively represents one of the largest hoards found to date in prehistoric Britain and Ireland. They were very probably never meant to be used as axes as they contain very high levels of tin. Many were poorly finished with the majority still containing their casting cores. The axes are typologically dated to the Llyn Fawr metalwork phase (c. 800-600 BC) and span the Bronze Age/Iron Age transition, when the production, circulation and deposition of bronze appears to have been substantially reduced throughout north-west Europe. By placing the Langton Matravers hoard(s) in a broader metallurgical, material and archaeological context, existing theories for this phenomenon, such as the preference for iron, a collapse in bronze supply, or the sharp devaluation of a social or ritual ‘bronze standard’ are evaluated. It is proposed that the Langton Matravers axes belong to a short phase in the centuries-long processes underlying the changing roles of bronze and iron.
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Books by Benjamin Roberts
It is published online at
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_research_catalogues/bag/bronze_age_gold.aspx
This volume brings together 17 international case-studies exploring archaeological cultures for regions around the globe and from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age and beyond. Taking lessons and overarching themes from these studies, the contributors draw important conclusions about cultural transmission, technological innovation, and cultural development.
The result is a comprehensive approach to 'archaeological cultures' addressing specific regions throughout Asia, Europe, North and South America and Africa. This work will be valuable to all archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, particularly those studying material culture.
Papers by Benjamin Roberts
This monograph reviews the pre-existing scholarship on early metallurgy in the Balkans. It subsequently presents detailed results from the excavations, surveys and scientific analyses conducted at Belovode and Pločnik. These are followed by new and up-to-date regional syntheses by leading specialists on the Neolithic-Chalcolithic material culture, technologies, settlement and subsistence practices in the Central Balkans. Finally, the monograph places the project results in the context of major debates surrounding early metallurgy in Eurasia before proposing a new agenda for global early metallurgy studies.
Open access and fully downloadable from:
https://doi.org/10.32028/9781803270425
years as a distinctive feature of the Taunton metal assem-
blage (c. 1400-1250 cal. BC) of the Middle Bronze Age in
south-eastern england. This material is revisited in the light of
three large hoards from Sussex and Wiltshire. Absolute chronology and the wider
European context of these ornaments are also considered.
record to yield data of sufficient quality to investigate invention, together with the perception that the concept leads inevitably to nineteenth-century societal narratives of technological progress, remain widespread. This paper reviews the theoretical approaches
to invention in early societies with a particular focus on pyrotechnologies. It highlights the papers within this special section, which demonstrate the capacity of an integrated approach incorporating materials science, archaeology and archaeological theory to understand the processes of both invention and innovation underlying the appearance of pyrotechnologies and their relationships to early societies throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. It is argued that the importance of historical and contemporary debates on inventions, innovations and societies across the world continues to increase—and will do so with or without the active contribution of archaeologists.
It is published online at
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_research_catalogues/bag/bronze_age_gold.aspx
This volume brings together 17 international case-studies exploring archaeological cultures for regions around the globe and from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age and beyond. Taking lessons and overarching themes from these studies, the contributors draw important conclusions about cultural transmission, technological innovation, and cultural development.
The result is a comprehensive approach to 'archaeological cultures' addressing specific regions throughout Asia, Europe, North and South America and Africa. This work will be valuable to all archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, particularly those studying material culture.
This monograph reviews the pre-existing scholarship on early metallurgy in the Balkans. It subsequently presents detailed results from the excavations, surveys and scientific analyses conducted at Belovode and Pločnik. These are followed by new and up-to-date regional syntheses by leading specialists on the Neolithic-Chalcolithic material culture, technologies, settlement and subsistence practices in the Central Balkans. Finally, the monograph places the project results in the context of major debates surrounding early metallurgy in Eurasia before proposing a new agenda for global early metallurgy studies.
Open access and fully downloadable from:
https://doi.org/10.32028/9781803270425
years as a distinctive feature of the Taunton metal assem-
blage (c. 1400-1250 cal. BC) of the Middle Bronze Age in
south-eastern england. This material is revisited in the light of
three large hoards from Sussex and Wiltshire. Absolute chronology and the wider
European context of these ornaments are also considered.
record to yield data of sufficient quality to investigate invention, together with the perception that the concept leads inevitably to nineteenth-century societal narratives of technological progress, remain widespread. This paper reviews the theoretical approaches
to invention in early societies with a particular focus on pyrotechnologies. It highlights the papers within this special section, which demonstrate the capacity of an integrated approach incorporating materials science, archaeology and archaeological theory to understand the processes of both invention and innovation underlying the appearance of pyrotechnologies and their relationships to early societies throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. It is argued that the importance of historical and contemporary debates on inventions, innovations and societies across the world continues to increase—and will do so with or without the active contribution of archaeologists.