The origins of the silver trade across the Mediterranean, and the role of the Phoenicians in this phenomenon, remain contentious. This is partly because of difficulties encountered when trying to assign archaeological silver to its geological sources. Here we present a reanalysis of Iron Age silver hoards in the southern Levant, which demonstrates not only that recycling of silver was widespread in the Early and Late Iron Age, but that the components of this mixed silver originated from the Aegean, Anatolia and the western Mediterranean. An assessment of lead isotope analyses combined with compositional data allows the identification of mixing lines based on gold levels in the silver and the Pb crustal age (or, more loosely, geological age) of the ore from which the silver originated. It is shown that, from as early as the 11th century BC, these mixed silver signatures derive from the Taurus mountains in Anatolia, from Iberia and an unknown source—with Sardinia as an additional possibility—and Laurion in Greece in the Late Iron Age. In contrast to copper, which was deliberately alloyed with silver, gold appears to have been mixed unintentionally, through the melting down of silver objects with gold parts. It is suggested that vertical mixing lines (with constant Pb crustal age but variable Au), may indicate the melting down and mixing of silver in times of unrest, both here and in other contexts. Gold and lead concentrations in the silver indicate that native silver from Iberia was most likely used in the Early Iron Age, suggesting that the first people to convey silver to the southern Levant were not miners but traders who had acquired silver directly from the indigenous Bronze Age inhabitants of Iberia. However, evidence of the exploitation of jarosite also supports that silver ore mining and cupellation was ongoing in Iberia at a similar time, and continued in the Late Iron Age—potentially a result of technological transfer from the East. In essence, the western Mediterranean origin of the silver in these Early Iron Age southern Levantine hoards supports an emerging picture of Mediterranean interactions and trade relations in the increasingly bright Dark Ages (c. 1200–800 BC).

中文翻译：

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从伊比利亚到黎凡特南部：铁器时代初期，银在整个地中海的运动

整个地中海地区的白银贸易起源以及腓尼基人在这种现象中的作用仍然存在争议。部分原因是在尝试将考古银分配给其地质来源时遇到了困难。在这里，我们对黎凡特南部的铁器时代的银ho积进行了重新分析，这不仅表明银的回收在铁器时代的早期和晚期很普遍，而且这种混合银的成分起源于爱琴海，安纳托利亚和西部。地中海。对铅同位素分析的评估与成分数据相结合，可以根据银中的金含量和银所源自的矿石的Pb地壳年龄（或更宽松地说，是地质年龄）来确定混合线。研究表明，早在公元前11世纪，这些混合的银签名来自安纳托利亚的金牛座山脉，伊比利亚和未知的来源（还有撒丁岛的可能性）以及铁器时代晚期的希腊劳里恩。与故意与银合金化的铜相比，金似乎是通过将银物体与金部件融化而无意间混合而成的。建议垂直混合线（在恒定的Pb地壳年龄但Au可变的情况下），这可能表明在动荡时期，无论在这里还是在其他情况下，银的熔化和混合。白银中的金和铅含量表明，从伊比利亚中提取的白银最有可能在铁器时代初期使用，这表明将银运送到黎凡特南部的第一批人不是矿工，而是直接从土著青铜时代获得白银的商人。伊比利亚的居民。但是，黄铁矿开采的证据也支持在同一时期在伊比利亚进行银矿石开采和炮制，并在铁器时代后期持续进行，这可能是东方技术转移的结果。在本质上，明亮的黑暗时代（约公元前1200-800年）。