New Bronze Age absolute datings for Solana del Bepo copper mine (Ulldemolins, Tarragona Province, Spain)

Abstract

We present the results of the archaeological excavation carried out at the Solana del Bepo mine that have allowed us to contextualise the surface finds made in the 1940s. It had been possible to locate the prehistoric workings and to characterise the mined ores by pXRF elemental, -XRF and LIA analyses. The mining implements found in the excavation and the earlier surface finds were typologically described and classified. To precise the chronology a set of samples were radiocarbon dated. The results confirm that Solana del Bepo was an active copper mine at least throughout the first half of the second millennium cal BCE, that is the Early/Middle Bronze Age of northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. The studies carried out there and in other mines in the county of Priorat (province of Tarragona) allow us to advance some considerations regarding the nature of the exploitation of local copper ore, its chronology and the regional dispersion of the metal obtained.