Levantine Hacksilber and the flow of silver in early Mediterranean commerce

Abstract This study presents a comprehensive approach to provenancing ancient silver artefacts, introducing a novel algorithm to correct for mass‐dependent isotope fractionation. Applied to a Pb isotope database of 281 Hacksilber samples from southern Levantine hoards (1700–600 BCE) and compared with approximately 7000 galena ores from Spain to Iran, the analysis reveals shifting silver sources over time. Trade of the Levantine merchants with the pre‐ and early‐Celtic societies of the western Mediterranean appears to have followed long‐established east‐west corridors along the northern Mediterranean coast‐routes originally opened during the Neolithic expansion of Anatolian farmers and later reused during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The reduction in silver remelting reflects more efficient sourcing and trading practices by the end of the Iron Age.