2019-07-13_Archaeology_Magazine

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B

ronze Age Spain was a dicey place to buy jewelry. At this time, trade networks

that spanned all of Europe carried valuable raw materials across the continent.

One of these materials was amber, or fossilized tree resin, which had long been

prized for its color and rarity, and was used in high-status ornaments for both

the living and the dead. Amber from the Baltic, and later Sicily, as well as ivory from Asia and

Africa, jade from the Alps, and the mineral cinnabar became ever more prized commodities.

At the continent’s western edge, Spain was connected to long-distance trade routes, and thus

to a plentiful supply of these luxury items, by virtue of its access to the Atlantic Ocean and

Mediterranean Sea, says archaeologist Carlos Odriozola of the University of Seville. It was also,

therefore, a prime target for unscrupulous traders looking for an easy mark.

Odriozola has analyzed grave goods from burials in two different locations—one an

artificial cave called La Molina in Seville, and the other the Cove of the Giant near Barcelona.

He has found that, alongside such precious items as ivory, there were also beads that, at first

glance, appear to be amber, but which actually turn out to be shells and seeds covered in pine

resin to make them resemble the gemstone. “This is the first time in Western Europe we have

evidence of imitation and fakery,” says Odriozola. He wonders whether these were

examples of traders deliberately deceiving consumers, whether community

leaders didn’t have the resources to

purchase the real thing, or whether

a shortage of amber led to the

development of techniques for

creating faux amber. “The quest

for power and wealth are consistent

behaviors for humankind across time,

and it’s easy to imagine ancient middlemen

cheating people to acquire them,” Odriozola

says. “If they fooled us, a team of well-trained

archaeologists, I’m sure they fooled their

buyers in the past, too.”

WHAT IS IT

Beads

CULTURE

Bronze Age

DAT E

3000–1400 b.c.

MATERIAL

Mollusk shells, seeds,

pine resin, cinnabar

FOUND

DIMENSIONS

Ranging from 0.37 to

0.53 inches diameter

ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2019

ARTIFACTBY JARRETT A. LOBELL

Cove of the Giant

La Molina Cave

SPAIN