Dear William,
It is quite unlikely to find the residues of crushed cassiterite ore to
be totally of euhedral ( I guess this is what you mean by "square"?)
crystals like you find them in bronzes (only some single euhedral
crystals might be found that were not affected by crushing, but never
the major portion).
I agree with Peter Northover that SnO2 crystals represent common waste
product of bronze working. To avoid misunderstanding in interpretation
I recommend to all not to use the mineral name cassiterite, because this
is highly misleading towards the suggestion that the respective phase is
an ore mineral rather than an oxidation product!
Andreas Hauptmann and I have just attended to the occurence of tin- and
copper oxides in tin bronzes: Klein, S. & Hauptmann, A. (in press):
Iron Age Leaded Tin Bronzes from Khirbet edh-Dharih, Jordan. Journal of
Archaeological Science.
Sabine Klein
--
Dr. Sabine Klein
Institut fuer Mineralogie
Senckenberganlage 28
60054 Frankfurt a.M., Germany
Phone:+069/798-23382 Fax: +069/798-28066
Email: [log in to unmask]
Internet: http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/FB/fb17/IMIN/petro.htm
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