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

从古代晚期到中世纪早期的过渡中的连续性、适应性和创新性继续吸引着大量的研究。在金属制品方面，黄铜在伊斯兰世界的广泛使用通常被认为是古典传统的延续，没有受到萨珊金属加工实践的影响。人们还普遍认为，一旦黄铜出现，所有其他铜基合金，如青铜，都将被抛弃。然而，伊斯兰金属制品的文化和技术起源可能比传统上认为的更复杂，许多问题仍然没有答案。例如，巴比伦塔木德中的典故表明，在萨珊时期使用了黄铜，对梅尔夫出土金属制品的初步研究表明，在这两个时期都使用了各种铜基合金。该项目旨在通过分析大部分由大英博物馆保存的大型和年代久远的考古组合来测试既定假设，以追踪伊朗和伊拉克黄铜的出现，记录其他铜合金工业的变化频率，追溯技术传统，并评估回收的发生率。研究结果将提供在文化和宗教发生巨大变化的时期金属生产和使用的详细知识，并与陶瓷、玻璃和釉料等其他技术的数据相结合。这项研究将填补我们对铜合金使用历史的理解中的一个关键的时间和地理空白，并为更广泛的萨珊和伊斯兰考古学提供考古学贡献。

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.