{"id":486,"date":"2011-03-18T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2011\/03\/18\/327\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:46:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T03:46:40","slug":"327","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/","title":{"rendered":"A Chalcolithic Error: Rebuttal to Amzallag 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the October 2009 issue of the <em>AJA<\/em>, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread of furnace-based metallurgy in the Old World (&ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2009\/10\/01\/300\/\">From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory<\/a>,&rdquo; <i>AJA<\/i> [2009] 497&ndash;519). Amzallag&rsquo;s paper is rife with misunderstandings of both an archaeological and a technical nature, leading to a skewed vision of early metallurgical development. In this rebuttal, we seek to correct some of the more egregious errors in his article and provide a counterargument for the origins of copper-based metallurgy in the Old World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the October 2009 issue of the AJA, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread of furnace-based metallurgy in the Old World (&ldquo;From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory,&rdquo; AJA [2009] 497&ndash;519). Amzallag&rsquo;s paper is rife with misunderstandings of both an archaeological and a technical nature, leading to a skewed vision [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[921],"tags":[3,21,27,36],"issues":[123],"region":[807],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forum-article","tag-bronzeage","tag-archaeologicalscience","tag-prehistory","tag-metallurgymetalworking","issues-123","region-neareast"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Chalcolithic Error: Rebuttal to Amzallag 2009 | April 2010 (114.2) | American Journal of Archaeology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Chalcolithic Error: Rebuttal to Amzallag 2009 | April 2010 (114.2) | American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the October 2009 issue of the AJA, Amzallag published a hypothesis for the origins and spread of furnace-based metallurgy in the Old World (&ldquo;From Metallurgy to Bronze Age Civilizations: The Synthetic Theory,&rdquo; AJA [2009] 497&ndash;519). Amzallag&rsquo;s paper is rife with misunderstandings of both an archaeological and a technical nature, leading to a skewed vision [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aja.journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-18T23:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T03:46:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornton_Fig01_large.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"website\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"website\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"website\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f93c211048ad920b94c1e8abdb2053f0\"},\"headline\":\"A Chalcolithic Error: Rebuttal to Amzallag 2009\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-18T23:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/\"},\"wordCount\":97,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornton_Fig01_large.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"Bronze Age\",\"Archaeological Science\",\"Prehistory\",\"Metallurgy\/Metalworking\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Forum Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/\",\"name\":\"A Chalcolithic Error: Rebuttal to Amzallag 2009 | April 2010 (114.2) | American Journal of Archaeology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornton_Fig01_large.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-18T23:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/forum-article\/327\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornton_Fig01_large.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Thornton_Fig01_large.gif\",\"width\":393,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"New Kingdom crucible from Qantir\/Pi-Ramesse in the eastern Nile Delta, showing the slagged interior surface of the crucible and the relatively untouched exterior surface (Frame 2009, 606; courtesy L. 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