10.5880/fidgeo.2020.013 Rose, Thomas Thomas Rose 0000-0002-8186-3566 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East, Be’er Sheva, Israel Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Antiquity, Rome, Italy Klein, Sabine Sabine Klein 0000-0002-3939-4428 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany FIERCE, Frankfurt Isotope & Element Research Center, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Hanning, Erica K. Erica K. Hanning RGZM Mainz, Kompetenzbereich Experimentelle Archäologie, Mayen, Germany GFZ Data Services 2020 copper isotopes archaeometallurgy roasting smelting experiment chalcopyrite Mitterberg ore slag experimental archaeology chemical > isotope chemical element > transition element > copper EARTH SCIENCE > SOLID EARTH > GEOCHEMISTRY > GEOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES > CHEMICAL CONCENTRATIONS EARTH SCIENCE > SOLID EARTH > GEOCHEMISTRY > GEOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES > ISOTOPE MEASUREMENTS EARTH SCIENCE > SOLID EARTH > ROCKS/MINERALS/CRYSTALS > ELEMENTS > TRACE ELEMENTS In Situ/Laboratory Instruments > Spectrometers/Radiometers > ICP-MS In Situ/Laboratory Instruments > Spectrometers/Radiometers > MC-ICP-MS industrial process > metal working > metal smelting industry > metallurgical industry > non-ferrous metal industry research > scientific research > experimental study science > human science > archaeology Solar/Space Observing Instruments > X-Ray/Gamma Ray Detectors > XRPD Rose, Thomas Thomas Rose 0000-0002-8186-3566 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East, Be’er Sheva, Israel Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Antiquity, Rome, Italy Rose, Thomas Thomas Rose 0000-0002-8186-3566 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East, Be’er Sheva, Israel Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Antiquity, Rome, Italy Klein, Sabine Sabine Klein 0000-0002-3939-4428 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany FIERCE, Frankfurt Isotope & Element Research Center, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Klein, Sabine Sabine Klein 0000-0002-3939-4428 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany FIERCE, Frankfurt Isotope & Element Research Center, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Klein, Sabine Sabine Klein 0000-0002-3939-4428 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany FIERCE, Frankfurt Isotope & Element Research Center, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Hanning, Erica K. Erica K. Hanning RGZM Mainz, Kompetenzbereich Experimentelle Archäologie, Mayen, Germany Hanning, Erica K. Erica K. Hanning RGZM Mainz, Kompetenzbereich Experimentelle Archäologie, Mayen, Germany Bode, Michael Michael Bode 24287509700 Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, Germany Sessing, Jan Jan Sessing Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, Germany Kutz, Regina Regina Kutz Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, Germany Seitz, H.-Michael H.-Michael Seitz 7201971416 Goethe‐Universität Frankfurt, Institut für Geowissenschaften, Facheinheit Mineralogie, Germany Herdick, Michael Michael Herdick RGZM Mainz, Kompetenzbereich Experimentelle Archäologie, Mayen, Germany Mayen, Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology of the RGZM; smelting experiments Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology of the RGZM, Mayen, Germany Bochum, German Mining Museum: sample preparation, XRD, chemistry analyses German Mining Museum, Bochum, Germany Frankfurt, FIERCE: Cu isotope analyses FIERCE, Frankfurt, Germany Rose, Thomas Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany Klein, Sabine Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, Forschungsabteilung Archäometallurgie, Bochum, Germany 2020-02-28 2018-03-28/2018-09-26 2018-10-01/2020-02-18 2019-05-17/2019-08-27 Dataset https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ggthemes https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=gridExtra 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2007.04.004 https://www.geo.arizona.edu/xtal/group/pdf/am88_247.pdf 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2004.06.010 10.1107/S0021889809016690 10.1093/nar/gkr900 10.18637/jss.v040.i03 https://www.worldcat.org/isbn/9783902811134 https://www.academia.edu/36080744/Alpines_Kupferschmelzen_-_technologische_Aspekte 10.1016/S0016-7037(01)00815-8 10.1016/S0009-2541(98)00191-0 https://www.worldcat.org/isbn/3432959710 https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/canmin/article/33/3/689/12679/The-definition-of-a-mineral 10.1039/b710977f https://www.R-project.org/ 10.1021/ic00234a044 10.23689/fidgeo-3706 10.1016/0022-1902(77)80346-1 10.1107/S0021889813003531 https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=tidyverse https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=readxl 10.1016/S0009-2541(99)00076-5 10.1111/arcm.12564 CC BY 4.0 The project from which the data derived aimed to establish the first systematic study of Cu isotope fractionation during the prehistoric smelting and refining process. For this reason, an experimental approach was used to smelt sulfide copper ore according to reconstructed prehistoric smelting models. The ore was collected by E. Hanning as part of her PhD thesis work from a Bronze Age mining site, the Mitterberg region, Austria (Hanning and Pils 2011) and was made available for the experiments.


All starting materials for the experiments such as the natural ore, roasted ore, construction clay, flux, dung (used for the roasting), wood and charcoal (fuel) were natural materials. All firing conditions including the amount of fuel or charging material and the temperatures in the furnaces were recorded, and the experimental procedures were documented in the very detail. In total, 30 experiments were carried out in 4 experimental series. The smelting products, both intermediate products and final products were sampled during or after the respective experiment. Slag, matte and copper metal were the major smelting products. All other materials used in and produced by the experiments were sampled, too. Materials used and produced in the two most promising experimental series with regard to potential Cu isotope fractionation were analyzed. Based on the analytical results, the potential of Cu isotopes as a tool in archaeometallurgical research was systematically evaluated and consequences for the copper isotope application as a provenance tool in archaeometry were identified.


The data include the documentation of the experiments, laboratory procedures and analytical methods. An experimental outline was previously published in Rose et al. (2019). Analytical methods applied were ICP-MS (elemental analysis, 80 samples), MC-ICP-MS (copper isotopes, 98 samples), and XRD (phase analysis, 25 samples). The experiments were carried out at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Labor für Experimentelle Archäologie, Mayen, Germany. Laboratories used for the analytical part of the project were the research laboratories at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum and FIERCE (Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center), Goethe-University Frankfurt, both Germany. Data were processed and plots created with R (R Core Team 2019) in RStudio®. Data are provided as data tables or text files, the R scripts used to create the time-temperature plots of the smelting experiments are also included.


The full description of the data and methods is provided in the data description file.
Mayen, Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology of the RGZM; location of the smelting experiments 7.23883 50.3327 Bochum, German Mining Museum; sample preparation, XRD, chemistry analyses 7.21282 51.4883 Frankfurt, FIERCE; Cu isotope analyses 8.63403 50.1737 Mitterberger Hauptgang 13.1251 47.4019 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://doi.org/10.13039/501100001659 KL 1259/10-1 Evaluation der Kupferisotopenfraktionierung während der Verhüttung: ein experimenteller Ansatz