Abstract

The invention of pyrotechnologies able to create new materials such as ceramics, metals, glazes and glass remains a scholarly obsession as well as a fundamental building block in regional and global archaeological narratives. Pyrometallurgy in particular attracted scholarly attention as the first transformative technology of the human past. The recognition of the fact that the metal extracted from ores in no way resembled its original source material increased humanity’s understanding of the surrounding environment, and consequently, dramatically developed the ability to manipulate it. The c. 7000 years old evidence for copper smelting from Belovode, a Vinča culture settlement in eastern Serbia opened new avenues in pursuing the origins of Eurasian metallurgy at a location remote from the Near East, a traditional heartland of metallurgy. The “how and why” of this invention is investigated through microstructure, composition and provenance analyses of a selection of copper minerals and metal production evidence: ores, slags, slagged sherds and metal droplets recovered from seven settlements in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, altogether spanning from the late 7th to the late 5th millennium BC.