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Composition and manufacture of a rare gold example of the Mesopotamian “tree of life” iconography and coeval jewellery in southwestern Iberian Peninsula

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Abstract

The study of gold jewellery can provide important answers about the diffusion of goldsmith technologies and cultural beliefs in Mediterranean World. This work comprises gold ornaments recovered from archaeological contexts dated to the 1st millennium BC in southern Portugal, with special emphasis to two exceptional plaques portraying the Mesopotamian iconography of the “tree of life”, in addition to two rings, the so-called nezems, whose prototype also derived from Orientalising contexts. The set of gold items is completed with a fragment of an ornament such as a pendant or earring. The jewellery was characterised by p-EDXRF, SEM–EDS and optical microscopy to identify the production techniques and composition, while the reflectance transformation imaging technique was used to enhance the study of iconographic motifs. Some manufacturing processes were identified, namely the decoration with stamping on the “tree of life” plaques, a technique similar to strip-drawing on the nezems and the brazing with Au–Ag–(Cu) solder on the small fragment. Overall, the set showed gold alloys with highly variable silver contents (11–39 wt%), but rather constant copper amounts (1.8–2.5 wt%). The composition of individual items helped to establish associations, such as the use of an identical alloy for the pair of plaques. Moreover, the two nezems were made with gold of different purity probably due to economic reasons. Finally, the gold alloy compositions were compared with others from different collections in Iberian Peninsula and Eastern Mediterranean region, providing clues about the gold alloys used by ancient goldsmith workshops.

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks go to Javier Jiménez Ávila and Virgílio Correia for their invaluable help in the pursuit for parallels of the gold plaques of Vale Romeira and the jewel fragment of Castelo Velho de Safara, respectively.

Funding

The work was financed by national funds from FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the projects UIDB/04349/2020 (C2TN) and LA/P/0037/2020, UIDP/50025/2020 and UIDB/50025/2020 (CENIMAT|i3N).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares (C2TN), Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Campus Tecnológico e Nuclear, Estrada Nacional 10 (Km 139,7), 2695-066, Bobadela, LRS, Portugal

    Pedro Valério, Vitoria Corregidor, António M. Monge Soares & Maria Fátima Araújo

  2. Departamento de Engenharia e Ciências Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Campus Tecnológico e Nuclear, Estrada Nacional 10 (Km 139,7), 2695-066, Bobadela, LRS, Portugal

    Pedro Valério, Vitoria Corregidor & Maria Fátima Araújo

  3. Archaeologist, Silves, Portugal

    Jorge Estevão Correia & Luís Miguel G. Cabrita

  4. Department of Materials Science, School of Science and Technology, CENIMAT|i3N, NOVA University Lisbon and CEMOP/UNINOVA, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal

    Rui J. C. Silva

  5. UNIARQ - Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rui M. Soares & Mariana Nabais

  6. Câmara Municipal de Silves, Largo do Município, 8300-117, Silves, Portugal

    Rui M. Soares

  7. Era Arqueologia, Calçada de Santa Catarina, 9C, 1495-705, Cruz Quebrada, Portugal

    Rui Ramos & Lucia Miguel

  8. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología de La Universidad de Sevilla, c/María de Padilla s/n, 41004, Seville, Spain

    Pedro Albuquerque

  9. IPHES-CERCA - Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Mariana Nabais

  10. Departament d’Història i Història de L’Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Mariana Nabais

  11. Archaeologist, Albufeira, Portugal

    Luís Campos Paulo

Authors
  1. Pedro Valério
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  2. Jorge Estevão Correia
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  3. Vitoria Corregidor
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  4. Rui J. C. Silva
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  5. Rui M. Soares
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  6. Rui Ramos
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  7. Pedro Albuquerque
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  8. Luís Miguel G. Cabrita
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  9. Lucia Miguel
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  10. Mariana Nabais
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  11. Luís Campos Paulo
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  12. António M. Monge Soares
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  13. Maria Fátima Araújo
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Contributions

Pedro Valério: conceptualisation, formal analysis, investigation and writing of original draft; Jorge Estevão Correia, Rui M. Soares, Rui Ramos, Pedro Albuquerque, Luís Miguel G. Cabrita, Lucia Miguel, Mariana Nabais and Luís Campos Paulo: archaeological works and chronology; Vitoria Corregidor, Rui J.C. Silva, António M. Monge Soares, Maria Fátima Araújo: formal analysis and investigation. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pedro Valério.

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Valério, P., Correia, J.E., Corregidor, V. et al. Composition and manufacture of a rare gold example of the Mesopotamian “tree of life” iconography and coeval jewellery in southwestern Iberian Peninsula. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 96 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01801-9

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