| Abstract: |
The Mesopotamian Metals Project (MMP) was undertaken in order to answer basic questions about the nature of metals used in different time periods and different areas of Mesopotamia. Drawing on the collections of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, this project involves the analysis of about 350 copper-base artifacts. Their chronological and geographical range is from third millennium Ur, Kish, Fara, Gawra, and Billa, to second millennium Nippur, Khafajeh, and Billa, to Neo-Assyrian Billa. <p> Taking the MMP data along with results published by other scholars, sufficient information is available to begin to describe and interpret the course of metallurgical activities in Mesopotamia. One of the important results of this research which is discussed in detail is that we can no longer postulate a smooth linear development from the use of native copper to smelted copper to arsenical copper to tin bronze. In Mesopotamia the "Bronze Age" was in fact the "copper-base" metal age, and the same situation pertained in Bronze Age Anatolia.
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