Skip to content

← Home

Tetiana Hoshko

Tetiana Yuriivna Hoshko is a Ukrainian archaeologist, a specialist in ancient metallurgy, metalworking, and the chemical-technological analysis of archaeological metal artifacts from the Bronze and Early Iron Ages, and a research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Overview

Tetiana Hoshko is a leading specialist in the metallographic and spectral study of ancient metal from the Northern Black Sea region. She is the author of the chemical-technological study of bronze and gold artifacts from the excavations of the Bilozerka Culture burial ground near Shyroke Village, as well as of the analysis of the elemental composition of ores, iron-smelting production residues, and bronze artifacts from the Uch-Bash settlement (Appendix 2 of the monograph "Ot bronzy k zhelezu" / "From Bronze to Iron", 2016).

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Study of the elemental composition of Inkerman metal: She carried out spectral and elemental analysis of hematite ores, slags, blooms, and metal finds from Uch-Bash, confirming the use of local hematite ore from Chortova Balka (Devil's Ravine) without phosphorus impurities.
  • Study of the metal from the Shyroke burial ground: She re-examined a collection of 58 metal finds (48 items analyzed) using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and a metallographic microscope, which made it possible to clarify the alloy compositions and the forging shaping schemes.
  • Discovery of the Caucasian raw-material vector: She refuted the simplified theory of an exclusively Volga-Ural origin of the Bilozerka bronzes, demonstrating the presence of stable chemical-metallurgical groups of tin-arsenic bronzes with antimony and lead admixtures, identical to the Koban culture sites of the Caucasus (the Tli burial ground).
  • Reconstruction of ancient smithing technologies: She established the use of free and shaping forging on a grooved anvil, the production of wire for temporal rings on cylindrical and conical mandrels, as well as the deliberate choice of low-temperature annealing ($400\text{--}500\,^\circ\text{C}$) in order to preserve arsenic in the alloy.

Sources and References