Glossary Metals, materials and technology
Gossan
The rust-red and yellow crust of iron oxides that forms where a buried sulphide ore body weathers at the surface.
A gossan is a natural signpost to ore. On Cyprus the weathered tops of the Troodos copper deposits show as bright red, ochre and yellow patches on the hillsides, and these were the first sign to ancient prospectors that metal lay beneath. The same zones supplied the island's ochres and umbers, the earth pigments used to paint pottery.
Gossans turn up in other roles too. The ore smelted at Late Bronze Age Politiko-Phorades probably came from the gossan at Kokkinorotsos, about 800 m away, and the iron-free white clay of White Slip ware may have been dug from the leached zone beneath gossans in the mining districts.
Full entry: Copper Metallurgy in Ancient Cyprus
Related terms
- Ore
Rock containing enough metal to be worth mining and smelting; Cypriot copper ore is mostly chalcopyrite, a copper-iron sulphide.
- Pillow lava
Rounded, pillow-shaped masses of lava formed when molten rock erupts under the sea; in the Troodos they host the copper ores.
- Smelting
Heating ore with a fuel such as charcoal until the metal separates from the rock, leaving a waste called slag behind.