First Results of a Study of Lead Finds of the 6th–9th Centuries from the Lower Town of Phanagoria

A small sample of lead artifacts from the layers of the mid-6th–late 9th centuries uncovered on the Lower Town of Phanagoria, is analyzed using synchrotron X-ray diffraction analysis and multi-collector mass spectrometry. Several samples of lead artifacts from excavations of the Upper Town of Phanagoria on the Taman Peninsula, dated to the Classical period, are also included for comparison. All samples are found to contain cerussite and laurionite phases, as well as muscovite phases, which indicates significant archaeological exposure. The Pb isotope composition of 11 samples from the sample set revealed that, in the mid-6th century, lead from the mines of Lavrion (Attica), which had been imported to Phanagoria in antiquity (so-called “old” lead), was used. During the early medieval period of the Lower Town’s existence, Phanagoria primarily imported lead from deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean. Several samples dated to the mid-6th to mid-9th centuries are consistent in their Pb isotope composition with ores from deposits in the Massif Central (a mountain range located in central and southern France).