According to lead author Chris Standish of the University of Southampton,
“This is an unforeseen and predominantly stimulating result as it suggests that
Bronze Age gold workers in Ireland were making artifacts out of material
sourced from outside the country, despite the reality and existence of a number
of easily-accessible and rich gold deposits found locally.”
The valuable metals industry may have been far more advanced than we once
previously thought. Archaeologists have made an amazing discovery between the
Southwest corner of Britain and Ireland. According to the
Statesman, scientists examined the chemical composition of gold artifacts
from the early Bronze Age in Ireland, and determined that they had originated
in the British town of Cornwall.
Standish says that early Irish gold workers likely knew how to extract gold
from the deposits on their own. He hypothesized that gold from Britain would
have held a higher value because it came from a different origin.
The team of scientists used a technique called laser ablation mass
spectrometry to examine the gold from 50 early Bronze Age artifacts. The
National Museum of Ireland’s collection included basket ornaments, discs, and
necklaces.
The scientists measured isotopes of lead in small pieces of the gold
artifacts and compared the levels with gold found over a wide range of
locations. The study concluded that the gold in the Irish artifacts almost
certainly came from Cornwall instead of Ireland. The study was published in the
journal Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.
