Analysing silver from Phoenician hoards.
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From about 4000 BC onwards the use of silver became widespread in the ancient world. This was obtained by smelting lead-ores in a furnace, and then cupellatiting (oxidising) the resultant metal to separate silver and gold. Lead ores, generally galena (lead sulphate) and cerussite (lead carbonate), were typically mined by a deep pit method, digging vertically down to a seem then following it horizontally. Silver was important to many ancient peoples, among whom were the Phoenicians, who built city states such as Tyre, Sidon and Byblos, ‘Akko and Dor in Lebanon and on the northern shores of the southern Levant during the Iron Age, roughly from the eleventh century BC onwards, and who travelled widely on trading expeditions, bringing innovations such as the alphabet, murex-based purple dyeing and masterful craftsmanship to the western Mediterranean, where they established colonies in North Africa, Sardinia and Iberia. In the ninth century BC the Phoenicians began to exploit jarosite (potassium-iron sulphate) ores in Iberia, from which silver was also extracted as a biproduct.