Looking beyond X-ray: Neutron tomography analyses of Late Bronze Age weapons from the Somló Hill

Abstract

Three spearheads and an arrowhead from the Somló Hill (Veszprém County, Hungary) Urnfield site are selected for X-ray radiography and neutron tomography analyses. The four weapons can be dated to the late phase of the Urnfield period between Ha B1 and Ha B2 and originate from different contexts: spearheads Nos. 1–2 from Hoard I, spearhead No. 3 from Hoard III, and an arrowhead (No. 4) as a stray find. Macroscopic characteristics of these newly discovered weapons attest to different stages of production and use, from as-cast to finished, used and heavily used products. The applied methods provide information on the inside of the objects, with special attention to the quality of the casting and traces of repair. Neutron tomography potentially offers an unbiased and quantifiable evaluation of the objects’ porosities and their levels from a modern industrial perspective. All three spearheads from Somló Hill showed different levels of porosity inside, the morphological characteristics of which suggest that they were probably caused by gas porosity. The long spearhead No. 1 from Somló Hill also shows traces of a misrun defect repaired by the cast-on technique. Traces of production and use suggest that except for one spearhead (No. 3), which was cast almost solid and showed high levels of porosity together with other types of defects, such as flashes and incomplete casting, all other studied objects were finished products used for combat and hunting.