A Espada do Monte das Oliveiras (Serpa) - uma arma do Bronze Pleno do Sudoeste

In this paper, we present a detailed examination of a sword dating from the Southwestern Middle Bronze Age, which was found several years ago during farming activities near the town of Serpa, Portugal. The sword was apparently found out of an archaeological context. The finder of the sword, who kindly allowed us to study it, cleaned the artefact of its corrosion and kept it in good conditions. The sword is about 50 cm long and its handle show two rivets (another one is missing) which are kept housed in notches. The rivets’ heads are spherical caps covered with a golden leaf. The use of a p-EDXRF equipment allowed us to determine and quantify the elemental composition of the blade, as well as of the golden leaf covering the rivet heads. It was thus possible to establish that the blade was manufactured with arsenical copper, while the composition of the golden leaf refers to a natural alloy. Finally, the Monte das Oliveiras sword is compared with several other coeval examples of Southern Iberia weaponry. Its hilt design, namely the three peripheral notches, seems to be of an unique variant in swords, being relatively rare in similarly shaped weapons, such as daggers.

Primary research on the bronze technology of Lower Xiajiadian Culture in northeastern China

The site of Habaqila is located in the area between Inner Mongolia and Liaoning provinces and dated to the 13th–11th centuries BC. It was identified as a metal production workshop of the Lower Xiajiadian Culture and revealed abundant metallurgical remains, including ore fragments, slags, technical ceramics, and stone implements. Scientific analyses demonstrated that polymetallic ores were smelted to produce tin bronze and arsenical copper. Perforated furnaces might have been employed in this process. The site also revealed the first known field evidence of tin smelting in a Bronze Age site of northern China. Systematic investigation of this site increases our understanding of metallurgical processes of Bronze Age culture in northern China.

The metal artefacts from the prehistoric walled enclosure of Castelo Velho de Freixo de Numão within the early metallurgy of north-west of Iberian Peninsula

This paper deals with the preliminary results of the typological and analytical study of a collection of copper-based objects found at the site of Castelo Velho (Freixo de Numão). This collection is associated to different contexts from the 3rd millennium BC (Chalcolithic). The analyses, performed by non-destructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF), show that the metals were produced with almost pure copper and arsenical copper (> 2% As). Impurities, such as As (<2%), Fe, Bi, Ag, Sn, Sb and Ni, were also identified, likely due to their presence in the ores used for the production of the objects. The data suggest that the metals from Castelo Velho may be framed within the metallurgical production already known for the Chalcolithic of the North-Western Iberian Peninsula.

Material Investigation of Bronze Artefacts from the Late Bronze Age

The study deals with the material survey of a raw material, bronze axe and sickle from the Late Bronze Age. Artefacts were chosen from a set of about thirty objects, which were found in a ceramic pot near to Křenovice in the South Bohemia. The ancient technology of the axe and the sickle production was determined by the evaluating of structural properties using prepared metallographic sections. The chemical composition of a metal matrix and intermediate phases were determined using a scanning electron microscope with an EDS analyzer and X-ray fluorescence. The corrosion products of the artefacts were analyzed by X-ray diffraction. The results showed that the axe was made from partly wrought bronze (CuSn10) processed by subsequent recrystallization annealing. The bronze sickle (CuSn11) was a cast without any further mechanical processing or heat treatment. The material of the a raw material was found to be an arsenical copper alloy (CuAs1), which was probably used as a starting material for the bronze alloy production.