Composition of pewters from early slavic hoards belonging to “the antiqivity of ants”

Yegorkov A.N., Shcheglova O.A.

Fourteen tin/lead alloy (pewter) samples of early Slavic hoard found near Gaponovo, Kursk region, Russia, from the 7th cen. AD have been analysed by optical emission spectral analysis (tab. 1). A comparison of results with ones (tab. 2) published for an other early Slavic hoard (7th cen. AD) from Velyki Budky, Sumy region, Ukraine, pointed out a distinct difference in content of impurities as Ag, As, Bi, Sb, Zn. The regularity of this difference suggests that (i) lead, at least, is of different origin for each hoard pewters, and (ii) for this reason the composition of pewters may be in some cases typified for a hoard.

An enhanced content of silver in Gaponovo pewters indicates availability of lead with a higher Ag content for early Slavic metallurgists and confirms the authors’ point of view that early Slavic metallurgical Ag was originated from galena [Щеглова О.А., Егорьков А.Н. 1998б]. The Gaponovo pewter no. 3 (tab. 1) has unusually high Zn and Cu content and is possibly a casus, nevertheless a predominance of Zn vs Cu may be taken into account as an evidence of availability of elemental Zn for early Slavic metallurgists.