New finds of copper metallurgy during the bronze age in the Timok region (north-east Serbia)

Abstract

Over the last 7 years a series of discoveries were made at Banjsko Polje near the city of Bor, the largest copper exploitation center in south-eastern Serbia, which prove that in the Bronze Age copper metallurgy intensified on this territory. Besides the remains of two metallurgical kilns, a large quantity of ceramics and slag was discovered from the same context. The types of slag indicate a complex process of extracting copper from sulfide ore of the Timok eruptive basin, where the first absolute date established for the Bronze Age on this territory contributed to a change in the archeological framework and genesis of prehistoric culture in the Timok Region.