Lead Isotope Analysis (LIA) has been applied most often as a means of provenancing copper at the macro scale. Here we use LIA at the regional scale to expose the relationship between long-distance communication and local metal management strategies. We conducted lead isotope and chemical analysis on 82 objects and ingots from Late Bronze Age hoards of the south Carpathian Basin, a node in long distance networks. From a social perspective, results indicate the presence of a community of practice of metalworkers that went beyond socio-political boundaries. Analyses of ingots demonstrate that communities imported copper from a variety of distant sources, but local circulation and specific mixing and recycling practices created a characteristic chemical signature unique to this region. Moreover, metalworkers' choices of copper sources were tailored to specific object types. From an analytical perspective, we demonstrated that the frequent mixing of copper from different sources with varying lead concentrations to make objects resulted in the masking of LIA signatures for some sources – we termed these ‘ghost fractions’ in mixtures – by others with more lead.

中文翻译：

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喀尔巴阡盆地南部晚期青铜时代当地金属管理策略中的贸易、回收和混合：铅同位素和储藏金属制品的化学分析

铅同位素分析 (LIA) 最常被用作宏观范围内铜来源的一种手段。在这里，我们在区域范围内使用 LIA 来揭示远距离通信与当地金属管理策略之间的关系。我们对南喀尔巴阡盆地（长距离网络的一个节点）青铜时代晚期宝藏中的 82 件物品和锭进行了铅同位素和化学分析。从社会角度来看，结果表明金属工人实践社区的存在超越了社会政治界限。对铜锭的分析表明，社区从各种遥远的来源进口铜，但当地的流通和特定的混合和回收实践创造了该地区独有的化学特征。此外，金属工人对铜源的选择是根据特定的物体类型量身定制的。从分析的角度来看，我们证明了将不同来源的铜与不同的铅浓度频繁混合来制造物体，导致某些来源的 LIA 特征被含铅较多的其他来源掩盖——我们将这些来源称为混合物中的“幽灵部分”。