ISBN10: 1841710083, ISBN13: 9781841710082, [publisher: Oxford : British Archaeological Reports, BAR Publishing] Softcover xii, 348, [5] pages : illustrations (some colour), maps (some colour) ; 30 cm. The book includes 43 papers which deal with various aspects of metals, metallurgy and metalworking in antiquity. Areas covered stretch from China, Americas to Europe. The general goal was to explore the distribution of metals in the natural environment, extractive metallurgy and fabrication processes, as well as social context, use and deposition of artefacts, and combine anthropology, archaeology and the earth sciences. CONTENTS : The earliest use of iron in China / Donald B. Wagner -- Reconstructing the copper production process as practised among prehistoric mining/metallurgical communities in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand / Vincent C. Pigott -- Metals and middle-range theory / T.F. Taylor -- Arsenical copper in early Irish metallurgy / William O'Brien -- Role of ore geology and ores in the archaeological provenancing of metals / R.A. Ixer -- The application of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) for establishing the provenance of gold ores and artefacts / R. John Watling [and others] -- The early development of metallurgy in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula / Beatriz Comendador Rey -- Project Au for the study of goldwork technology and the concept of Technological Domain Systems / Alicia Perea. ...