The Copper Age. The Gold and Copper Metallurgy
The Copper Age. The Gold and Copper Metallurgy

Summary/Abstract: In the first part of the paper we discuss the terminology in use for this period. Subsequently, we address the sources of raw materials, traces of exploitation and the metallurgical and open-hearth activities. We further rediscuss the metallographic analyses performed on some artefacts in the collection of the The National History Museum of Transylvania, Transylvania being a province with an important batch of copper artefacts. These have evidenced the high level of knowledge of the craftsmen involved in copper working. In terms of gold mining and working, we referred to the jewellery workshop at Cheile Turzii-Peştera Ungurească, unique in Europe to date. It is a workshop with several stages of restoration (with oven and hearths), where, beside ornaments, some of the tools used in their making were also discovered. By contrast with other areas, the gold artefacts of Cheile Turzii-Peştera Ungurească, even though not amounting to a very heavy weight, record the art of goldsmiths, being paralleled, in terms of how these were worked and decorated, with a number of artefacts in the Moigrad hoard.

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