Brass vs bronze: continuity and change from Late Antiquity to the early Islamic period in the Persian Gulf and adjacent regions

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The continuities, adaptations and innovations in the transition from late antiquity to the early medieval period continue to attract much research. In the case of metalwork, the widespread use of brass in the Islamic world has generally been regarded as a continuation from the Classical tradition with no influence from Sasanian metalworking practices. It is also generally thought that, once brass appears, all other copper-based alloys such as bronze are abandoned. However, the cultural and technical origins of Islamic metalwork are likely to be more complex than traditionally assumed, and many questions remain unanswered. For example, allusions in the Babylonian Talmud suggest that brass was used in the Sasanian period, and a pilot study of excavated metalwork from Merv indicates that a wide range of copper-based alloys was used in both periods. This project aims to test established assumptions by analysing large and well-dated archaeological assemblages, mostly held by the British Museum, to trace the emergence of brass in Iran and Iraq, document the changing frequency of other copper-alloy industries, characterise technological traditions, and assess the incidence of recycling. The results will offer detailed knowledge of the production and use of metals during a period of dramatic cultural and religious change, to be integrated with data for other technologies such as ceramics, glass and glazes. This research will fill a key temporal and geographic gap in our understanding of the history of copper-alloy use, as well as provide an archaeometallurgical contribution to Sasanian and Islamic archaeology more broadly.