This book successfully connects archaeology and archaeometallurgy with geoscience and metallurgy. It addresses topics concerning ore deposits, archaeological field evidence of early metal production, and basic chemical-physical principles, as well as experimental ethnographic works on a low handicraft base and artisanal metal production to help readers better understand what happened in antiquity. The book is chiefly intended for scholars and students engaged in interdisciplinary work.

Andreas Hauptmann is a professor emeritus for archaeometry/archaeometallurgy at the Ruhr University's Institute for Prehistory and of Geoscience. He studied mineralogy and ore deposits, and for many years, he headed the archaeometallurgy research group at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum in Bochum. His research has largely focused on ancient mining and metallurgy. He has visited many countries in the Old World and performed field work in the Near and Middle East. He has investigated archaeological materials used in the production of copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, iron and tin using modern analytical methods to explore old technologies and to reconstruct tradeways. He has taught at the Universities of Bochum, Frankfurt and Fribourg, Switzerland, as well as the Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego (UCSD), USA.