The Sources of Mycenaean Silver and Lead

Lead-isotope and neutron-activation analyses are reported for Greek Bronze Age lead and silver artifacts from the Shaft Graves of Mycenae, from the Athenian Acropolis and Agora, from Vapheio, Thorikos, Menidi, and Perati, and for lead-silver ores from Laurion, Attica. The analyses prove that mines at Laurion were being exploited for silver, lead being produced as a byproduct, from at least as early as Middle Helladic times, continuing into the Late Helladic IIICI period. The analyses show that the Laurion was the dominant, almost exclusive, source of these metals for the Mycenaean cultures, and they provide an estimate of the minimum silver content necessary in argentiferous lead to make it economically or technically possible to extract the silver by cupellation in Bronze Age Greece.