Prehistoric gold from Lake Sevan Basin? : new research on Armenian gold deposits and objects

Abstract

The article gives an overview of the results of a joint Armenian-German project in the area of today's open pit gold mine of Sotk in Eastern Armenia. Special attention is given to the preliminary results of the gold analysis. Interdisciplinary studies on regional natural gold deposits - especially the Sotk and Tsarasar deposits - and their archaeological context are presented together with the analytical results of 43 gold and four silver objects from five different sites in Armenia. The LA-ICP-MS data are discussed in terms of their alloy and trace element composition. They provide information on the use of raw material sources, intentional alloying, and the preferred use of these alloys. The archaeometric investigations show that the gold objects were mostly made of secondary placer gold. However, for one object, the oldest object examined in this study, the use of primary rock gold could not be excluded. Furthermore, the data provide information on the serial production of typologically identical types found at different sites, indicating that these objects were probably traded over long distances.