Since 2000 the Regional Archaeological Museum of Madrid has been carrying out several courses for archaeologists. They are supported by the General Direction of Historical Heritage and the Archaeological Section of the Doctors and Bachelors’ College. 

In 2007 a course entitled Metals and Metallurgy; Criteria for identification and study, was held.  That laid the foundation for making the Archaeometallurgy Manual. 

This is the first book of a series that condense the content of the courses offered. 

 Abstract: 

Among the primitive and ancient technologies, metallurgy is perhaps the less close to the daily activities of archaeologists, despite the quantity of information it can provide. The Archaeometallurgy offers a series of Archaeology methods which, by studying a diverse list of materials, help to get close to understanding the various facets involved in the knowledge of metallurgical activity and develop interpretations of the role and significance of metal in society and in the economy of communities in the past. 

Although we identify easily finished parts or fragments of them as an object of study, other materials such as slag, gutters, fragments of nozzle, furnaces, various minerals, etc., constitute a universe that sometimes we can not assess properly. The methodological research framework is based on the study of the archaeological context where these materials appeared, of its formal description and typological classification, of analysis techniques applied to know their chemical and physical characteristics and, finally, of experimentation that allows us to understand both aspects, the technological and the formation of the archaeological record itself.

 
Items integrated in the book are:

• Introduction to Achaeometallurgy. Ignacio Montero Ruiz and Salvador Rovira Llorens 
  
• Mining and metallurgy in prehistoric research. Ignacio Montero Ruiz
• Pyrometallurgical operations and products. Salvador Rovira Llorens and Martina Renzi
• Uses of metal vessels, nozzles and molds. Martina Renzi
• Technology-based copper metallurgy. Ignacio Montero Ruiz
• Technology of iron metallurgy. Gener Marc Moret
• Archaeology of gold: noble metals technology. Alicia Perea
• An anthropological perspective to the interpretation of metallurgy. Beatriz Comendador Rey