Material Investigation of Bronze Artefacts from the Late Bronze Age

Abstract

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.