ISOTOPIC LEAD RATIO ANALYZED BY ICP-MS IN SOME METALLIC SLAGS COMING FROM LOCRI EPIZEPHIRI (MAGNA GRAECIA, SOUTH ITALY)

Abstract

The lead isotopic composition of samples of iron slags recovered from two archaeological sites in Locri Epizephiri
(Italy - Calabria) were analysed for the first time by ICP-MS. The 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb and 208Pb content
of traces of lead present in the slags are reported. The analysis allows some preliminary conclusions on the
different origins of iron slags and on the metallurgical processes that they had undergone to be made. The two
archaeological sites are different by excavated extension, chronology and position in the ancient town: the first
one shows that, in the 6th cent. B.C. the activity was mostly a reduction of minerals probably not coming from
a single unique source of ore or an individual mine; the latter, with slags coming from a foundry in a main
sanctuary of Locri Epizephiri, indicates that, in the 5th - 4th cent. B.C., the metalworking used ingot or bloom,
probably obtained from ores retrieved from mines sited near the city.