Reiβscheiben ingots as markers of copper imports to the market of Medieval Novgorod

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Abstract

During the Middle Ages, massive ingots were the standard type of copper raw material obtained from European mines and exported across the Baltic and North Seas over vast distances. In Russian literature, they are known as “flat cakes” and “loafs”, while in the foreign one they are referred to as Reißscheiben (torn out disk). The article provides information about 24 cases of finding massive ingots. Most of the finds are concentrated on international trade routes and mark the main directions of movement of copper raw materials from mining operations located in the Western Carpathians, Erzgebirge and Eastern Alps, to the North and Baltic Seas. Recording and mapping of Reißscheiben that were not subject to remelting, and, therefore, retained the primary “isotopic marks”, provide valuable information for identifying sources of metal and establishing the routes of importing metal raw materials to the territory of medieval Rus. Huge volumes of copper shipwreck cargoes can be considered as reference samples when interpreting Pb-Pb data obtained for both different types of ingots and finished products.

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About the authors

Oleg M. Oleynikov

Institute of Archaeology RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: olejnikov1960@yandex.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. Massive copper Reißscheiben, 15th century AD. 1, 2 – photo of the author; 3–6 – after Ossowski, 2014. Fig. 2

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3. Fig. 2. Extracting (pulling out) the top ingot from the melt with an iron hook (after Arbin et al., 2022. Fig. 4)

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4. Fig. 3. Schematic cross-section of the foothill pit. Reconstruction based on finds of Reißscheiben on the island Heligoland (after Hänsel, Schulz, 1980. Bild 9)

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5. Fig. 4. Topography of finds of ingots and trade routes

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