Bogdan Constantinescu
Viorel Cojocaru
Roxana Bugoi
Daniel Spânu*
National Institute of Nuclear Physics and Engineering "Horia Hulubei", Bucharest
*Archaeological Institute "Vasile Pârvan", Bucharest

The most important conclusion, which led to the interpretation of the X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) compositional analyses undertaken, is represented by the possibility of highlighting a deliberate intervention of the ancient metalwork craftsmen in the dosage of the alloy based on silver structure, of which the metalwork items have been manufactured, especially those which through their morphology and ornamentation reveal their local-barbarian origin.

The presence or absence of tin and the varied percentage of cooper determine a separation of the metalwork items from the Bucharest-Herăstrău hoard in two groups: a) items from an alloy with significant Sn, Cu and Pb adding, namely the bracelets and the bowls and b) items manufactured of an alloy in which Sn is absent, and the Cu and Pb values are reduced (mastos-type cup and the chain). The alloy composition of these two latter items is similar in a significant way to that of the Thasian coins. No matter the place where this items have been manufactured, from these observations it may be implied the fact that under metallographic and implicitly technological aspect, the inventory of the hoard is not unitary. Such an observation should not be unrestraint due to the fact that it is easily to assume that the items with a varied morphology were manufactured by different techniques. On the other hand, although the percentage values of the secondary elements (Au, Zn, Pb, Bi) of the bowls are different of those of the bracelets, still the rapport between them is similar, indicating the same silver source. The same observation can be made in the case of the mastos-cup, of the chain and of the tetradrahms, secondary elements of which although they are not close, they are still found in a close rapport.

So, the hypothesis according to which the material row which represented the basis for the metalwork items manufacturing would have been procured through the recycling of several similar coins to those discovered in the same hoard, is a quite realistic one, but more analyses for other similar hoards are required for a definite conclusion.