The Balkan Peninsula played a crucial role for the introduction of metallurgy during the Copper Age and numerous archaeometallurgical examinations have delivered highly interesting insights on this topic. However, there is a lack of systematic analytical research on copper ore smelting and metal exchange for the later Bronze Age. In this paper we focus on the first archaeometallurgical results of slags from the sites Ružana, Trnjane and Čoka Njica, Eastern Serbia, complimented by the discussion of XRF and lead isotope analyses carried out on 28 copper-based artefacts. Importantly, radiocarbon dating from these sites points to copper production already being undertaken at the end of the Early Bronze Age (19^th–18^th centuries BC), more than 500 years earlier than previously assumed. This enables us to investigate the flow of metal during the 1^st half of the 2^nd millennium BC. The analyses of the metallurgical slags indicate a copper matte smelting process in small open pit furnaces and the use of local sulfidic copper ore sources. The fact that these intensive smelting activities in Eastern Serbia can be paralleled with the early production hotspots in central Europe e.g. on the Hochkönig (Mitterberg mining areas) sheds new light on the development of copper based metallurgy in Europe. At the same time, the evidence from Eastern Serbia shows that this area was a source of raw material for copper and bronze alloys providing a regional and supra-regional perspective. Furthermore, our analyses revealed the remarkable result, that by the start of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1700 BC) copper from the Northern Italian mining areas in the Trentino region also reached the western and central Balkans.

巴尔干半岛在铜时代引入冶金起着至关重要的作用，许多古代冶金学研究对此主题提出了非常有趣的见解。但是，在后期的青铜时代，缺乏关于铜矿石冶炼和金属交换的系统分析研究。在本文中，我们重点讨论了来自塞尔维亚东部Ružana，Trnjane和ČokaNjica站点的矿渣的第一个考古冶金结果，并结合XRF和对28个铜基人工制品进行的铅同位素分析的讨论加以补充。重要的是，放射性碳测年从这些网站点，铜产量已经在早期青铜时代的结束（19所开展^日-18^日公元前几个世纪），比以前假设的早了500多年。这使我们在1调查金属流^ST一半的2^次公元前千年。冶金渣的分析表明，在小型露天炉中进行了铜磨砂冶炼过程，并使用了局部硫化铜矿源。这些在塞尔维亚东部的密集冶炼活动可以与欧洲中部的早期生产热点（例如，Hochkönig（密特贝格矿区）上的热点）相提并论，这为欧洲铜基冶金的发展提供了新的亮点。同时，来自塞尔维亚东部的证据表明，该地区是铜和青铜合金的原材料来源，提供了区域和超区域视角。此外，我们的分析显示出了惊人的结果，到中古铜时代开始（约公元前1700年），特伦蒂诺地区的意大利北部矿区的铜也到达了巴尔干的中部和西部。