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Lead isotope evidence of lead supply in ancient Ilduro (second-first centuries B.C.E.)

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Abstract

In this article, we study the provenance of the lead contained in 22 objects found in the excavations conducted since 1998 on the ancient site of Ilduro (Cabrera de Mar, Barcelona), located in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. A selection of 12 bronze coins and 10 lead objects recovered from households, workshops, and the public baths of the town were examined by means of Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) to document the lead supply and trade networks between, on the one hand, the indigenous peoples known in the classical sources as the Laeetani and, on the other, the Roman provincial administration and the societates that controlled the natural resources, their exploitation, and distribution during the Late Republic (second-first centuries B.C.E.). There is no doubt about Rome’s dependence on the considerable output of the lead and silver from Hispanic mines during this period; however, very little is known on how these mines supplied and affected the lives of the local communities in Hispania over the course of time. This study helps to cover this gap in the existing literature. The results show how all the coins have lead isotope ratios with homogeneous values compatible with an origin in the Spanish mining district of Cartagena-Mazarrón. The isotopic composition of the 10 lead objects is not homogeneous, and it is possible to identify three distinct clusters. The samples in cluster 3, which include all the artifacts from the bath complex, can also be attributed to the mining districts of Cartagena-Mazarrón, demonstrating that a single mining district supplied the lead required for these two specific initiatives: minting and the construction of the baths. However, the provenance of the lead in the remaining samples (workshops and households) remains unresolved and in some cases might be a consequence of remelting or the direct mixing of leads with different origins. The data from Ilduro points towards the existence of different lead supply patterns in the settlement: directly from the mining exploitations for the public enterprises in contrast to the recycling and mixing practices detected in households and workshops.

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Notes

  1. Cato in 195 B.C.E., as described by Livy (34.21.7), seems to have introduced the payment of a vectigalia in the iron and silver mines. Díaz and Antolinos (2013: 536) suggested that the silver mines mentioned by Livy correspond to those in the area of Carthago Nova.

  2. On the societates and the exploitation of the mines in Cartagena and Sierra Morena, see Domergue (2008) and Arboledas (2010) with bibliography.

  3. Diodorus’ reference (5.36.3) discussing the presence of Italic immigrants in Carthago Nova during the second century B.C.E. might be of interest to reinforce this hypothesis. On this topic, see Stefanile (2017) with bibliography.

  4. Cf. Beltrán 2004: 151–175.

  5. A number of Italian gentes have been identified in Carthago Nova, particularly from Campania and Minturnae and its hinterland, e.g., Díaz 2008; Marín 1986; Orejas and Beltrán 2010; Stannard et al. 2019; Stefanile 2017.

  6. For a study of objects from NE Spain with chronologies between the eighth and the second centuries B.C.E, see the study by Rafel et al. (2010).

  7. The authors of this article understand that the Late Republican settlement and the Iberian oppidum at Burriac, which coexisted for at least three quarters of a century (during the second half of the second century B.C.E. and the first quarter of the first century B.C.E.), functioned as a single urban entity economically (Sinner and Martí 2012; Sinner 2017) and linguistically speaking (Sinner and Ferrer 2016, 2018). Therefore and, based on the data currently available, both sites are included in this paper as belonging to ancient Ilduro. A similar interpretation in Olesti 2010: 29, footnote 14, Olesti 2017: 434. A detailed study of the oppidum at Burriac in Zamora 2006–2007; for a description of the main sectors of the Late Republican settlement, see: Martín and Garcia 2007; Sinner 2015: 13–20; Martín 2017.

  8. LIMS is a wide data-base of approximately 1220 samples (Mediterranean area), which is based on the Oxford Archaeological Lead Isotope Database from the Isotrace Laboratory (Oxalid) (which includes lead isotopes of Spanish ores), the published literature (a summary in Montero 2018: 316-317), and, to a substantial degree, the measurements carried out by the LIMS itself. It is considered one of the most exhaustive isotopic databases available for the Roman period in the Mediterranean region (Clemenza et al. 2017: 1500).

  9. Because lead was present in all the coins sampled, and because lead and copper have very restricted solubility in the solid state, with lead tending to form small lumps, which could falsify the results, we tested two different areas of each coin, in order to reduce the impact of this phenomenon. The areas probed, from which corrosion products had been removed, were about one mm2, and the depth analyzed was about 10 μm. For all the spectra, the acquisition time was 200 s. Zn, As, and Sb are not present in Table 10 because they were not present in any of the coins tested. The coins were analyzed by means of a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, more specifically with an energy dispersive one (ED-XRF spectrometer) that allows to measure the number of X-rays emitted by the sample as a function of their energy. It consists of a low power X-ray generator, an X-ray detector, a pulse amplifier, a multichannel analyzer, and a computer. The X-ray generator has an anode target of palladium and a beryllium window of 150 μm of thickness and was powered with an accelerating potential difference of 40 kV and an electronic current of 0.1 mA. The detector is a Peltier cooled silicon drift (Amptek 123-SDD) which provides for every X photon revealed a current pulse of amplitude proportional to the photon energy. The detector has a surface of 25 mm2 and a thickness of 500 μm, a beryllium window of 12.5 μm and its energy resolution is 150 eV full width half maximum of the manganese Kα line at 5.9 keV. The current pulses are amplified by the pulse amplifier and send to the multichannel analyzer. Based on their amplitude, this device divides and counts the pulses in 1024 different channels. The result of this operation is a spectrum (number of photons versus photon energy) which is sent to the computer for storage and further analyses.

  10. In the assemblage of coins analyzed by Montero et al. 2011, silver coins were present (see Fig. 9 inside blue oval). These were interpreted as the result of mixtures, explaining their position on the chart.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Núria Rafel (Universitat de Lleida), Ignacio Montero (CSIC), Borja Díaz (Universidad de Zaragoza), Cristian Rico (Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès), and Clive Stannard (University of Leicester) for reading earlier versions of this article and providing insightful comments and suggestions.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) [435-2018-0777] and is part of the research project Beyond contacts: tracing identities and cultural change in the Roman West.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Greek and Roman Studies, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road (Ring Road), Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada

    Alejandro G. Sinner

  2. Trace Technologies, Via I. Silone 6, 64015, Nereto, TE, Italy

    Marco Ferrante

  3. CHNet, rete per i beni culturali dell’INFN, Laboratorio Nazionale del Gran Sasso, Via G. Acitelli 22, Assergi, AQ, Italy

    Stefano Nisi

  4. LIMS-INFN, Laboratorio Spettrometria di Massa Isotopica, Laboratorio Nazionale del Gran Sasso, Via G. Acitelli 22, Assergi, AQ, Italy

    Pier Renato Trincherini

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  1. Alejandro G. Sinner
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  2. Marco Ferrante
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Correspondence to Alejandro G. Sinner.

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Sinner, A.G., Ferrante, M., Nisi, S. et al. Lead isotope evidence of lead supply in ancient Ilduro (second-first centuries B.C.E.). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 131 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01073-7

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