Tracing Europe-Wide Copper and Bronze flow in the Dutch Late Neolithic to the Early Iron Age
9 affiliations
- 1Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2Institute of Archaeological Studies, Ruhr Universität, Bochum, Germany
- 3Groningen Institute for Archaeology, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- 4Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
- 5Archol B.V., Leiden, The Netherlands
- 6National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, The Netherlands
- 7Limburgs Museum, Venlo, The Netherlands
- 8Drents Museum, Assen, The Netherlands
- 9Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
Abstract
The study of the production, movement, processing and consumption of copper and bronze objects in the European Bronze Age (c. 2500–800 BC) reveals the underlying mobility and interconnectedness of Bronze Age societies. Long-distance exchange networks spanned the European Continent, and this paper fills an important geographic gap in Bronze Age metal research improving our understanding of the metal flows across Europe. The Netherlands as maritime/riverine east-west and north-south crossroad is a key piece to the Bronze Age metal supply puzzle. More than 200 lead isotope and elemental analyses of copper and bronzes from the Netherlands, featuring the strategic use of portable laser ablation, constitute a key opportunity to test and reshape theories on Bronze Age metal flow. Our analyses indicate that the earliest copper is of Balkan and Slovakian origin with some import of Iberian arsenical alloys followed by an intensification of Slovakian/Únětice metal imports during the Early Bronze Age. In the early phase of the Middle Bronze Age, the Netherlands received fresh copper with nickel and arsenic impurities from both the Great Orme mine in Wales and Mitterberg in Austria, shifting towards Italian Alpine copper in the late Middle Bronze Age. Italian Alpine copper was widely used, probably reaching the British Isles via trade routes through the Netherlands. In the Late Bronze Age, high-impurity antimony-bearing copper sources prevailed in both the Netherlands and in Britain and highly leaded bronze became commonplace, with the added lead being consistent with British sources. The high-impurity element pattern can be linked to recycled Alpine metal with almost no visible contribution of Iberian metal arriving via Atlantic trade routes.
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BibTeX
@article{merkel2026tracing,
title = {{Tracing Europe-Wide Copper and Bronze flow in the Dutch Late Neolithic to the Early Iron Age}},
author = {Stephen William Merkel and Stijn Arnoldussen and Liesbeth Theunissen and Bertil van Os and Judith van der Leije and Joris Brattinga and Luc Amkreutz and Bibi Beekman and Irini Biezeveld and R. Alan Williams},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0348751},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348751},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Tracing Europe-Wide Copper and Bronze flow in the Dutch Late Neolithic to the Early Iron Age
AU - Stephen William Merkel
AU - Stijn Arnoldussen
AU - Liesbeth Theunissen
AU - Bertil van Os
AU - Judith van der Leije
AU - Joris Brattinga
AU - Luc Amkreutz
AU - Bibi Beekman
AU - Irini Biezeveld
AU - R. Alan Williams
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0348751
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348751
AB - The study of the production, movement, processing and consumption of copper and bronze objects in the European Bronze Age (c. 2500–800 BC) reveals the underlying mobility and interconnectedness of Bronze Age societies. Long-distance exchange networks spanned the European Continent, and this paper fills an important geographic gap in Bronze Age metal research improving our understanding of the metal flows across Europe. The Netherlands as maritime/riverine east-west and north-south crossroad is a key piece to the Bronze Age metal supply puzzle. More than 200 lead isotope and elemental analyses of copper and bronzes from the Netherlands, featuring the strategic use of portable laser ablation, constitute a key opportunity to test and reshape theories on Bronze Age metal flow. Our analyses indicate that the earliest copper is of Balkan and Slovakian origin with some import of Iberian arsenical alloys followed by an intensification of Slovakian/Únětice metal imports during the Early Bronze Age. In the early phase of the Middle Bronze Age, the Netherlands received fresh copper with nickel and arsenic impurities from both the Great Orme mine in Wales and Mitterberg in Austria, shifting towards Italian Alpine copper in the late Middle Bronze Age. Italian Alpine copper was widely used, probably reaching the British Isles via trade routes through the Netherlands. In the Late Bronze Age, high-impurity antimony-bearing copper sources prevailed in both the Netherlands and in Britain and highly leaded bronze became commonplace, with the added lead being consistent with British sources. The high-impurity element pattern can be linked to recycled Alpine metal with almost no visible contribution of Iberian metal arriving via Atlantic trade routes.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -