Copper production and supra-regional exchange networks – Cu-matte smelting in the Balkans between 2000 and 1500 BC

The Balkan Peninsula played a crucial role for the introduction of metallurgy during the Copper Age and numerous archaeometallurgical examinations have delivered highly interesting insights on this topic. However, there is a lack of systematic analytical research on copper ore smelting and metal exchange for the later Bronze Age. In this paper we focus on the first archaeometallurgical results of slags from the sites Ružana, Trnjane and Čoka Njica, Eastern Serbia, complimented by the discussion of XRF and lead isotope analyses carried out on 28 copper-based artefacts. Importantly, radiocarbon dating from these sites points to copper production already being undertaken at the end of the Early Bronze Age (19th–18th centuries BC), more than 500 years earlier than previously assumed. This enables us to investigate the flow of metal during the 1st half of the 2nd millennium BC. The analyses of the metallurgical slags indicate a copper matte smelting process in small open pit furnaces and the use of local sulfidic copper ore sources. The fact that these intensive smelting activities in Eastern Serbia can be paralleled with the early production hotspots in central Europe e.g. on the Hochkönig (Mitterberg mining areas) sheds new light on the development of copper based metallurgy in Europe. At the same time, the evidence from Eastern Serbia shows that this area was a source of raw material for copper and bronze alloys providing a regional and supra-regional perspective. Furthermore, our analyses revealed the remarkable result, that by the start of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1700 BC) copper from the Northern Italian mining areas in the Trentino region also reached the western and central Balkans. •Radiocarbon analyses date the smelting activities in Eastern Serbia as early as 1880–1650 BC.•Archaeometallurgical analyses provide evidence for a copper matte smelting process of chalcopyrite based ore charges.•Lead isotope analyses revealed the exploitation of locally available copper ores in the Bor region.•Geochemical analyses confirm the presence of Southern Alpine copper as early as BA A2–B1 in the western and central Balkans.