Archaeometric studies on bronze tripod cauldrons: new data for political and economic connections in Greece, ca. 1200 – 700 BC

With archaeometric methods the project aims to define the production sites of Early Iron Age Greek tripod cauldrons and also to localize the sources of the copper that was used. These basic data will allow us to find new answers for three questions: a) connectivity of Greek central religious sanctuaries between ca. 975 and 700 BC b) economic organization of the production of prestige goods between ca. 975 and 700 BC c) connections of the Greek elites with Aegean and trans-Mediterranean trade systems between ca. 1200 and 700 BC. Methods of the planned archaeometric analyses were tested in two pilot studies. The design of the project is based on the results of Kiderlen's project "Find distribution of tripod cauldrons used as indicator of the development of regional and supraregional political meeting places in early Greece, 11th to 8th century BC" (KI 1544/1-1).