Metallurgia del piombo e siderurgia nel sito protostorico di Brunku ’e s’Omu (Sardegna centro-occidentale): inquadramento funzionale dei manufatti e ricostruzione dei processi produttivi

The archaeological excavations carried out in 2013 in the hut n. 16 of the protohistoric settlement of Brunku ’e S’Omu (central-western Sardinia), returned some metal products. The morpho-metric and functional study of these artefacts allowed to recognise two mending strips and others remains related with Bronze Age (late II millennium BC) ceramic vessels repair. Some melting slags and metal fragments, probably dating back to the Iron Age (I millennium BC), were identified too. Visual examination and archaeometric investigation carried out by means of portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) were performed on these metals. The analyses were able to relate the most recent finds to iron manufacturing and highlighted the lead composition of Bronze Age residues. The chosen approach further allowed to clarify some aspects of nuragic metallurgists’ behaviour in selecting and processing metalliferous geo-materials.