Touchstones of archaeology

0424546 - ARÚ 2014 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Ježek, Martin
Touchstones of archaeology.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. Roč. 32, č. 4 (2013), s. 713-731. ISSN 0278-4165. E-ISSN 1090-2686
Institutional support: RVO:67985912
Keywords : Europe * Early Middle Ages * precious metal * elite * social stratification * burial * touchstone * electron microscopy * archaeometallurgy
Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology
Impact factor: 2.319, year: 2013

European archaeological collections record hundreds of thousands of stone artefacts from the Early Middle Ages described as whetstones. However, traces of non-ferrous metals, including precious metals preserved on a number of such artefacts. Many of the finds served in fact as touchstones - tools to test the quality of a particular metal. These artefacts are concentrated mainly in Vendel and Viking Age and Slavic coastal settlements and trade centres in the Baltic Sea basin, the coast and islands of Northwestern Europe, at Central and Eastern European fortresses and suburbia. Many finds also come from rural settings. In early medieval graves the touchstones join balance scales and weights as a sign of the buried individual's access to precious metals. Especially the rural finds with traces of precious metal provide a strong reason for a revision of present views on the social stratification of the early medieval society in Europe. Chemical microanalysis allows identifying the composition of the alloys. Besides new perspectives on the fields of the social history and the circulation of precious metals, the method also provides new information for the field of archaeometallurgy.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0230607