Am I under the false impression, that zinc alloys were not abundant in early metallurgy because on heating, zinc became volatile. Cementation was responsible for some earlier alloys, but was more hit and miss. Those craftsmen who learned how to capture the vapour through distillation, as at Zawar, were able to produce alloys with higher Zn content and true 'brasses'.
That is why the per centage of Zn in those artifacts which are not problematic for other reasons, is always low.
susan stock
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