{
  "abstract": "Leaded bronze ornaments of the La Tène period provide a key lens on how technological innovation intersected with social and economic change in Iron Age Central Europe. In the 4th–3rd centuries BCE, the Middle Danube formed a major communication corridor between the Balkans and the Transalpine zone. Copper-alloy personal ornaments became central to changing expressions of identity and status, while also reflecting shifts in alloy recipes, raw-material procurement, and craft organisation. A major 3rd-century BCE development was the widespread adoption of leaded bronze, well suited to casting high-relief “Plastic-Style” ornamentation. It remains debated whether this innovation was introduced primarily through emergent agglomeration sites or developed within established local communities embedded in regional networks. We address this question through lead isotope and trace-element analyses of copper-alloy ornaments from 4th–3rd century BCE cemeteries in Bohemia and Moravia, compared with material from the open industrial agglomeration of Němčice nad Hanou. Lead isotope ratios are used to assess metal provenance, while trace-element compositions characterise alloying and casting practices. These data are integrated with chronological, typological, spatial, and decorative evidence, using KDE-based matching, conventional isotopic plots, and multivariate trace-element analysis. The results show a diachronic shift from heterogeneous 4th-century BCE alloying to more standardised leaded bronze recipes in the 3rd century BCE. This technological regime combined improved castability, reduced tin demand through lead addition, and the visual demands of Plastic-Style ornamentation, producing a prestige-coded but widely circulating “bulk luxury” commodity. Lead isotope signatures indicate increasingly structured supply chains, including recurrent use of lead sources consistent with central and western German deposits. Overlaps between cemetery assemblages and Němčice suggest that agglomerations scaled and integrated innovations already present in community-based production rather than initiating them. We argue that rural cemetery communities were active arenas of metallurgical innovation, and that 3rd-century BCE agglomerations functioned as accelerators of locally rooted technological and social trends.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic",
    "Ústav Archeologické Památkové Péče Brno, Brno, Czech Republic",
    "Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic",
    "University Hradec Kralove, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic",
    "Faculty of Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic"
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Alžběta Danielisová"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Daniel Bursák"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Samuel Kertés"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Ivan Čižmář"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Hana Čižmářová"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jana Čižmářová"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tomáš Mangel"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ladislav Strnad"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jakub Trubač"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0j16sgr8qh44x.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0352885",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0j16sgr8qh44x",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0352885",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3302|Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Geographical locations/Europe"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Chemistry/Analytical chemistry/Trace elements"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Chemistry/Chemical elements/Metallic lead"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Materials science/Metallurgy/Alloys/Copper alloys"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Materials science/Metallurgy/Alloys/Lead alloys"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Mathematics/Statistics/Statistical methods/Multivariate analysis/Principal component analysis"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Physics/Particle physics/Composite particles/Atoms/Isotopes"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Mathematical and statistical techniques/Cluster analysis/k means clustering"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Research and analysis methods/Mathematical and statistical techniques/Statistical methods/Multivariate analysis/Principal component analysis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7206162430",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0352885&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-02",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0j16sgr8qh44x.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:02Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0352885",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0352885"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "plos:analytical chemistry",
      "subfield": "analytical"
    },
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "plos:materials science",
      "subfield": "materials-polymers"
    },
    {
      "field": "mathematics",
      "origin": "plos:statistical methods",
      "subfield": "statistics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Tracing socioeconomic change and emerging elites in 4th–3rd century BCE: Metalwork from the Amber Road Corridor",
  "title_text": "Tracing socioeconomic change and emerging elites in 4th–3rd century BCE: Metalwork from the Amber Road Corridor",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:02Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0j16sgr8qh44x",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}