ISOTOPIC LEAD RATIO ANALYZED BY ICP-MS IN SOME METALLIC SLAGS COMING FROM LOCRI EPIZEPHIRI (MAGNA GRAECIA, SOUTH ITALY)

The lead isotopic composition of samples of iron slags recovered from two archaeological sites in Locri Epizephiri(Italy - Calabria) were analysed for the first time by ICP-MS. The 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb and 208Pb contentof traces of lead present in the slags are reported. The analysis allows some preliminary conclusions on thedifferent origins of iron slags and on the metallurgical processes that they had undergone to be made. The twoarchaeological sites are different by excavated extension, chronology and position in the ancient town: the firstone shows that, in the 6th cent. B.C. the activity was mostly a reduction of minerals probably not coming froma single unique source of ore or an individual mine; the latter, with slags coming from a foundry in a mainsanctuary of Locri Epizephiri, indicates that, in the 5th - 4th cent. B.C., the metalworking used ingot or bloom,probably obtained from ores retrieved from mines sited near the city