Breaking sickles for shaping money. Testing the accuracy of weight-based fragmentation

Abstract

Bronze is considered a key commodity during the European Bronze Age (BA, 2200-800BC). Recent studies have shown that, mostly during the Late Bronze Age (Late BA, 1300–800 BC), fragmented bronze objects were subjected to regulation consistent with a Pan-European weight system. This hypothesis is mostly based on statistical analyses of weights. In this article, we present the results of an experiment in which sickle replicas were broken up and the resulting fragments weighed and compared with examples attested from the BA. The purpose of the fragmentation was to obtain pieces complying with certain weight patterns similar to regularities observed in archaeological fragmented sickles and fragmented objects in general. Results of the fragmentation experiment have been compared with a statistical analysis of c. 1500 fragmented sickles from European BA hoards, concluding that archaeological and replica fragments share the same metrological characteristics. We suggest that rough weight-regulated fragmentation is possible even by persons with no metallurgical skill, and that both inaccurate and ‘unwanted’ fragments probably comprise the known archaeological examples. The article demonstrates that statistical analyses usually employed in similar research allow for detecting the existence of weight systems even in a dataset characterized by the significant presence of random values.