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Scholar

Zofia Anna Stos-Gale

fl. 1997–2024

Physicist whose lead-isotope analyses of Cypriot ores and Bronze Age oxhide ingots are the basis of the argument about where the ingot copper came from.

Biography

Zofia Anna Stos-Gale, listed as a physicist8, worked at the Isotrace Laboratory, Oxford. With Noël H. Gale, G. Maliotis and N. Annetts she published the lead isotope data for Cypriot ores from the laboratory in Archaeometry in 19971. A companion paper in the same journal applied the isotope fields of the Cyprus ore deposits to oxhide copper ingots2.

A volume in honour of James D. Muhly summarises the results of this work, with later papers by Gale and by Gale and Stos-Gale. Most Cypriot ores do not match the ingots; the match is with the Apliki deposit alone3. Hauptmann, Maddin and Prange (2002) report her analyses of the Uluburun ingots4, and Artzy (2006) printed her lead-isotope appendix on the Jatt hoard5.

Powell and colleagues (2024) challenged the earlier provenance conclusions by tracing the copper of early ingots to the South Urals6.

Life and work

  1. 1997
    With N. H. Gale and others published the Isotrace (Oxford) lead isotope database of Cypriot ores and the application of Cyprus ore isotope fields to copper oxhide ingots; the result is that most Cypriot ores do not match the ingots, the match being with the Apliki deposit (as summarised in a later volume).

    Gale et al. 1997, pp. 237-246al. 1997, pp. 83-123Kassianidou & Papasavvas 2012, p. 88

  2. 2002
    Hauptmann, Maddin and Prange report her lead isotope analyses of the Uluburun copper and tin ingots.

    Hauptmann et al. 2002, pp. 13

  3. 2005
    Gale and Stos-Gale (2005) cited for the tight coherence of lead isotope analyses of oxhide ingots.

    Kassianidou & Papasavvas 2012, p. 85

  4. 2006
    Contributed the lead-isotope appendix (spelled 'Zofia Stoss-Gale' in the report) to Artzy's study of the Jatt metal hoard.

    Artzy 2006, p. 15

  5. 2024
    Powell, Barjamovic and Pulak (2024) discuss her earlier ingot provenance work while tracing the copper of early oxhide ingots to the South Urals.

    Powell et al. 2024, pp. 2

Connections

2 people

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Discussed in documents

Sources

  1. 1.N. H. Gale; Z. A. Stos-Gale; G. Maliotis; N. Annetts (1997). “Lead isotope data from the Isotrace Laboratory, Oxford: archaeometry data base 4, ores from Cyprus”. Archaeometry 39(1), 237-246.
  2. 2.Z. A. Stos-Gale et al. (1997). “Lead isotope characteristics of the Cyprus copper ore deposits applied to provenance studies of copper oxhide ingots”. Archaeometry 39, 83-123.
  3. 3.V. Kassianidou; G. Papasavvas (eds) (2012). Eastern Mediterranean Metallurgy in the Second Millennium BC: A conference in honour of James D. Muhly.
  4. 4.A. Hauptmann; R. Maddin; M. Prange (2002). “On the Structure and Composition of Copper and Tin Ingots Excavated from the Shipwreck of Uluburun”.
  5. 5.M. Artzy (2006). The Jatt Metal Hoard in Northern Canaanite/Phoenician and Cypriote Context.
  6. 6.W. Powell; G. Barjamovic; C. Pulak (2024). “Copper for the early oxhide ingots traced to the South Urals”.
  7. 7.Michael Rice Jones. “Oxhide Ingots, Copper Production, and the Mediterranean Trade in Copper and Other Metals in the Bronze Age”. MA thesis.
  8. 8.Wikidata/GND authority record: Zofia Anna Stos-Gale. Online