Mineral sources of silver and silver metallurgy in Europe and the Near East during the early metal period

This paper presents the classification of the mineral sources of silver and defines their availability in antiquity. It provides a detailed review of silver extraction methods with close attention to cupellation. The article also describes and evaluates currently employed methods of analysis in provenance studies, including spectral and lead isotope analysis, as well as discusses their interpretational limitations regarding silver artefacts. This article uses up-to-date approaches to the research of silver metallurgy described in foreign scientific literature.