The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
50. What is ArchaeoMetallurgy?
The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
Naama Yahalom-Mack [+]
Hebrew University
Naama Yahalom-Mack is an associate professor at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and holder of the Nahman Avigad Chair in Biblical Archaeology. She is a codirector of the Tel Abel Beth Maacah excavations and the head of the Laboratory for Archaeological Materials and Ancient Technologies. Her research interests focus on archaeometallurgy, the provenancing of archaeological materials
as a proxy for reconstructing ancient trade interaction, and the incorporation of scientific analytic methods in archaeology.
Description
If you had to choose which period you’d prefer to live in, would you go for the Stone Age, Bronze Age, or Iron Age? Indeed, periodization in archaeology is based on these technological developments and obviously, the introduction of metals resulted in a giant leap forward for human-kind. Archaeometallurgists study both the process of production from raw materials to the end products, and do so within the broader cultural context that is imperative for creating a deeper understanding of the past.