Bronze Age Hoard Research Articles

Kaymachinsky Bronze Age Hoard from North-Western Crimea: XRF Analysis of Alloy Composition

Kaymachinsky Bronze Age Hoard from North-Western Crimea: XRF Analysis of Alloy Composition

Trade, recycling and mixing in local metal management strategies of the later Bronze Age south Carpathian Basin: Lead isotope and chemical analyses of hoarded metalwork

Lead Isotope Analysis (LIA) has been applied most often as a means of provenancing copper at the macro scale. Here we use LIA at the regional scale to expose the relationship between long-distance communication and local metal management strategies. We conducted lead isotope and chemical analysis on 82 objects and ingots from Late Bronze Age hoards of the south Carpathian Basin, a node in long distance networks. From a social perspective, results indicate the presence of a community of practice of metalworkers that went beyond socio-political boundaries. Analyses of ingots demonstrate that communities imported copper from a variety of distant sources, but local circulation and specific mixing and recycling practices created a characteristic chemical signature unique to this region. Moreover, metalworkers' choices of copper sources were tailored to specific object types. From an analytical perspective, we demonstrated that the frequent mixing of copper from different sources with varying lead concentrations to make objects resulted in the masking of LIA signatures for some sources – we termed these ‘ghost fractions’ in mixtures – by others with more lead.

Contact between the Eastern Baltics and Bohemia in the Bronze Age? Nortycken type battle-axe from the hoard in Olešná, South Bohemia

This paper focuses on a unique Nortycken-type bronze battle-axe recently discovered as part of the Late Bronze Age hoard (Br D – Ha A1) at the site Olešná in Southern Bohemia. The battle-axe probably originates from the Eastern Baltic or Northern Poland, where similar artifacts are primarily dated to Period I-III of the Bronze Age. The possible role of this artifact in Southern Bohemia remains in question. The Nortycken-type battle-axe was likely imported over a considerable distance, but there is no evidence of a connection to local Bronze Age elites. The archaeological record does not indicate the presence of such elites in the region of Southern Bohemia (Czech Republic).

Axes to Axes: the Chronology, Distribution and Composition of Recent Bronze Age Hoards from Britain and Northern Ireland

This study explores the impact that recent Bronze Age hoard finds have had on our understanding of hoarding practices across Britain and Northern Ireland. Changes to the legislation of Treasure and the onset of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in England and Wales have produced a wealth of new information on Bronze Age hoards. Beyond a handful of studies which have focused on specific groups of hoards or the distinction between dryland/wetland deposition, however, many of these more recent finds have been overlooked. Our regional understanding of hoarding practices across Britain is also largely based on studies which are now significantly out of date. This paper aims to address this problem by providing a snapshot of hoards and hoarding practices, based on a substantial dataset of 385 hoards (containing 7210 objects) that were reported on between 1997 and 2021. Broad chronological and spatial trends in the distribution are highlighted, with precedence given to characterising these enigmatic deposits based on their size and the categories of objects within them. This investigation provides fresh insights into the selection of certain object groups – particularly axes – during certain periods and within specific regions, whilst also exploring ideas so that we might better understand the scale of metalwork deposition. This research not only demonstrates how recent hoard finds fit into traditional narratives but also how they have the potential to enhance our understanding of regional hoarding practices, offering new and exciting avenues for future research.

Multi-faceted analyses of Poland's Bronze and Early Iron Age hoards

Bronze and Early Iron Age hoards in Poland are the focus of a multi-faceted study combining archival research with laboratory analyses and landscape studies. The diverse dataset is expected to reveal new insights into the phenomenon of metal deposition.

A Final Bronze Age hoard from Cierpice, Poland: new evidence for the use and deposition of a horse bridle in the region

Zusammenfassung Im Herbst 2020 entdeckte eine Gruppe von Detektorgängern auf einer bewaldeten Düne in der Nähe des Dorfes Cierpice in Nordzentralpolen 150 Bronzefunde. Der Fund umfasst Backenstücke, Phalerae, Rassel- und Terretringe sowie Zügelmanschetten mit Drahtgliedern, die einst Teil eines Pferdezaumzeugs aus der Endbronzezeit waren. Die Zaumzeugteile wurden zusammen mit einem Tüllenbeil in Pflanzenfasern eingewickelt und dann sorgfältig in einen organischen Beutel gelegt, der verrottet war. In diesem Artikel werden die Ergebnisse der archäologischen, metallographischen und paläobotanischen Untersuchungen des Hortes vorgestellt und diskutiert, unterstützt durch andere archäologisch dokumentierte Daten. Diese werden mit den Mustern der Bewegung und des Verbrauchs von Metallwaren im heutigen Polen während der Lausitzer Periode und dem weiteren Kontext der nordeuropäischen Bronzezeit in Beziehung gesetzt.

Five hoards in eighty years. Landscape perspectives on new Bronze Age hoard finds around Lake Mälaren in Sweden

Abstract Since 1941, only five Bronze Age hoards have been found in the four provinces around Sweden’s Lakes Mälaren and Hjälmaren: three in Uppland, two in Södermanland, none in Västmanland or Närke. The most recent one appeared in 2016. Here each hoard is discussed in terms of its date, the regional affiliation of its contents, and its landscape situation. They all date from Per. V–VI, c. 950–520 cal BC, and are entirely dominated by locally made objects. Two sites are apparently peripheral in relation to period settlement and to other deposition sites, while two are in an area of dense settlement and were found during the same military metal detector campaign. The steep drop in new hoard finds after World War II is discussed, and Sweden’s restrictive metal detector legislation is identified as the main reason that only five hoards have come to light in the area over the past eighty years.

A complex case of trade in metals: The origin of copper used for artefacts found in one hoard from a Late Bronze Age Lusatian Urnfield Culture in Poland

Metal artefacts from Bronze Age hoards have routinely been used to study interregional contacts. Their stylistic and typological features helped distinguish local products and imports by appearance. In the last 40 years, combined lead isotope and chemical analyses of metals have been widely applied to verify hypotheses based on style and typology. This paper is a comprehensive typological and analytical study of a metal item hoard discovered in Paszowice, SW Poland. In the Bronze Age, the area was inhabited by the Lusatian Urnfield culture (ca. 1350/1300–800/750 BC) communities. We expected that at least some of the artefacts would be local products fashioned according to foreign stylistic patterns. The research aimed to determine whether a ‘classical’ stylistic analysis combined with provenance studies of metals would allow more decisive conclusions. This combination of methods could also show how the metal reached the Lusatian Urnfield culture settlement zone. We conducted a detailed typological and chronological analysis to map the distribution of similar artefact types. It demonstrated that stylistic matches for the artefacts from Paszowice occur mainly in NE Hungary, S Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. Selected metal artefacts (both tin bronze items and raw copper objects) from Paszowice were also analysed for their chemical (EPMA) and lead isotope (MC ICP MS) compositions. The study revealed many copper sources used for their production, ranging from the nearest copper mines in the Slovak Ore Mountains, through Eastern Alps and mines in Sardinia, to possibly the Iberian Peninsula. In this way, we identified the potential trade routes by which metal could get to SW Poland: the southwestern and southeastern routes and the Mediterranean-Danube route. The Iberian metal might have also reached the study area from the north – through its redistribution by Scandinavian traders. Our results show that metal from many sources circulated in central Europe during the Late Bronze Age. The Lusatian Urnfield communities were part of a pan-European exchange network and maintained extensive long-distance contacts, allowing metal acquisition from various sources.

A Late Bronze Age ‘Hoard’ and Metal Stray Finds from Tiszalök-Rázompuszta (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, Hungary)

The paper presents an uncertain Late Bronze Age (Ha B1) hoard and metal stray finds from Tiszalök (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County) that were discovered more than half a century ago, around 1952, and remained hidden for research in the private collection of László Teleki, the chief engineer of the Tiszalök hydroelectric power plant’s construction. Based on an escrow contract between the granddaughter of the late collector, Zsófia Farkasné Teleki and the Hungarian National Museum, the objects are temporarily kept in the Prehistoric Collection of the Department of Archaeology. The assemblage and stray finds were discovered at the construction site of a hydroelectric power plant on the north-eastern edge of the so-called Rázompuszta. Information on the hoard’s composition is contradictory, and it can be best reconstructed from the lists of Emília Risztics, who documented the collection on the construction site in 1952. Most of the objects—a sword, a socketed axe, a spearhead, two plano-convex ingots, and several bracelets and annular rings—that arrived at the Hungarian National Museum through the escrow contract appear in her lists and are identifiable by their dimensions and her sketches. This selection of objects suggests that the uncertain hoard in question belongs to the common category of “hoards with mixed composition”. The typo-chronological analysis of the finds dates this assemblage to the Ha B1, assigning it to the so-called Hajdúböszörmény horizon. The study provides a basic typological and technological overview of the uncertain hoard and the stray finds, with particular emphasis on ornament types not subjected to in-depth analysis. Metal finds from Tiszalök-Újtelep and Tiszalök-Vásártér are also presented in the text to add to our understanding of the local Late Bronze Age sites near Tiszalök.

Gift for the gods or scrapping over scrap metal? Metallographic examination of sword fragments from the Late Bronze Age hoard from Slavonski Brod, Croatia

Abstract The deposition of metal in hoards appear throughout the European Bronze Age and there is on-going dispute about motivations behind the practice of hoarding metals at that period. Therefore, nine fragments of bronze swords from a late Bronze Age hoard have been investigated by metallography and X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDXRF) in order to evaluate their conditions. The objects do not show compositional deviations from contemporaneous material, but they are of poor quality showing considerable casting defects and pronounced dendritic segregation. They may never have been finished. Nonetheless, the reasons for their destruction and burial do not become evident.

The problem of classification and cultural-historical interpretation of the Bronze Age hoards of metal objects from the North-Western Caucasus

The problem of classification and cultural-historical interpretation of the Bronze Age hoards of metal objects from the North-Western Caucasus

Metallography on a sickle fragment from the Drassburg/Burgenland hoard find

Abstract The Drassburg Bronze Age hoard find (approx. 25 kg) also comprises some sickles and sickle fragments. One of these sickle fragments was provided for metallographic examinations. A XRF analysis revealed 94.5 wt.% Cu, 4.31 wt.% Sn, 0.61 wt.% Pb, and 0.12 wt.% S in the alloy. It can therefore be attributed to tin bronzes. The material has a uniform dendritic microstructure. Higher concentrations of Sn, S, and Pb were measured in the interdendritic areas. This suggests a precipitation of the phases Pb and Cu2S from the residual melt. Klemm II etching also revealed the dendritic areas which exhibited different orientations. Deformations were observed in thin edge areas of the sickle fragments. They were introduced in the course of mechanical postprocessing of the bronze or during its use. The surface of the sickle exhibits a patina with a layered structure and a thickness of up to 500 μm. The Sn contents measured in the outer layers are somewhat higher than in the inner layers.

Kaliska I: a Late Bronze Age metal hoard from Pomerania (Poland)

In the spring of 2017, amateur metal detectorists discovered a Late Bronze Age hoard near the village of Kaliska, Poland. Comprising over 120 artefacts, it is one of the most impressive Bronze Age finds within Pomerania. The authors discuss the hoard's contents and context, as well as its chronology.

Final Bronze Age Hoard with a Cup of Jenišovice Type from Bzince pod Javorinou

Final Bronze Age Hoard with a Cup of Jenišovice Type from Bzince pod Javorinou

Cvrtkovci hoard in the context of the potential of the Late Bronze Age hoards from Bosnia

The hoards from northern Bosnia, especially those along the wider stream area of river Bosna, are culturally and technologically interpreted in close connection with the emanating pattern of their manifestation in the wider area of south-western Pannonia and the extremely rich Posavina region within it. Data on 11 hoards in the region currently exists, with around 570 items and fragments recorded within these. Most hoards are considered to be representative of the cultural circumstances of the time and place in which they were deposited. Among them are included several exceptionally interesting recently published hoards from Majdan/Ridžal, Paležnica and Srebrenik, each with their own idiosyncrasies. These are now complemented by a hoard from Cvrtkovci, which is presented here in greater detail. All of these hoards, through typological-stylistic analysis and chronological attribution, have been attributed to the earlier period of the Urnfield culture, i.e., defined as falling within the range of phase II hoards of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a result, they are deemed to be characteristic of an integral part of the enigmatic Pan-European phenomenon of the Late Bronze Age, synchronized with the Ha A1 phase of Central European periodization of the 13th and 12th centuries BC.In the analyses of Bosnian hoards undertaken to date, an emphasis has been placed on the interpretation of objects as a valuable resource for typological and chronological evaluation, an approach that also forms the basis of this research. However, questions as to the spatial arrangement of the hoards within the landscape, interpersonal connections and origins have only recently been raised, and here, for the first time, an archaeo-metallurgical analysis of isotopes of representative objects from the Cvrtkovci hoard is presented.

New Late Bronze Age hoard from Srebrenik: a preliminary report

Late Bronze Age hoard from Srebrenik it turned up by chance in May 2016. It was discovered in shallow pit on the slope of the hill facing down towards small stream in the village Rapatnice near Srebrenik (Tuzla Canton). The Srebrenik hoard is the largest hoard of bronze metal work yet found. It consists of over 150 pieces divided into 5 groups: weapons, tools, ornaments, bronze sheets and raw materials (ingots), which defined the hoard to be of large quantity and mixed composition. In those aspects, it represents the application of a classical pattern of hoard finds from the wider Pannonian-Carpathian and Eastern Alpine region. According to the typological analysis and its chronological attributions artifacts from hoard show great similarity with findings from nearby hoards, as that from Boljanić dated to the IInd phase of the Urnfield period hoards of Bosnia and Herzegovina, culturally associated with Late Bronze Age Barice-Gređani group. In cultural and technological aspects, it is interpreted in closer association with characteristic pattern of manifestation of hoards over a wide area of south-western Pannonia basin with Slavonia and Serbian Danube region, i.e. with the hoards of the IInd phase of the Continental Croatia – Veliko Nabrđe and with the IInd phase of the Urnfield hoards of Serbian territory. Consequently, the Srebernik hoard is well synchronized with the Ha A1 phase i.e. with the late 13th first half of the 12th century B.C. of the corrected Central European periodization.

The Liminal Passage: A Final Bronze Age hoard found in Dolany-Nové Sady – “Sádek”, District Olomouc (CZ)

Abstract The article presents a hoard from the Final Bronze Age found in 2005 in the cadastre of Dolany-Nové Sady ‒ “Sádek”, Olomouc District (CZ). It consists of 2 bronze axes, 3 bronze cheek-pieces of a horse’s bit, 2 bronze phalerae, decorated bronze belt sheet, 6 fragments of 3 different plano-convex ingots and a ceramic vessel. The paper deals with the chronological-typological evaluation of the hoard and especially the motivations for its deposition in connection with supra-regional long-distance roads. Authors discuss the model of social organization of the landscape in the Low Jeseník Mountains area and selected adjacent regions.

An Early Bronze Age Hoard of Bronze Tools from Dvin, Central Armenia

An Early Bronze Age Hoard of Bronze Tools from Dvin, Central Armenia

Non-destructive analysis of a Late Bronze Age hoard from the Velem-Szent Vid hillfort

The study discusses an unpublished bronze hoard from the famous West Hungarian archaeological site: Velem-Szent Vid (Transdanubia, Vas County). This small Ha B1 assemblage contains a spearhead with remains of the wooden shaft, a sickle, and three different types of ingots. Our aim was a comprehensive structural and compositional characterization of the preserved objects from the hoard exclusively by means of non-invasive and non-destructive analytical, structural, and imaging techniques (XRF, PGAA, TOF-ND, Neutron Imaging, X-ray Imaging). The spearhead and the ingots were studied from production to deposition. Our results suggest that the spearhead was a good quality cast with relatively high Sn content and extremely low porosity rate. It received a minimal post-casting treatment, and hafted similarly to West European Late Bronze Age spearheads. Based on use-wear traces caused by blade-on-blade contact and edge-vs-flat collision, this weapon may have been used in parrying situation. After being used most likely just for a short period, the metal and wooden parts of weapon were intentionally destroyed by plastic deformation prior to deposition. Ingots selected to the Velem-Szent Vid hoard were cast in open one-piece moulds or ‘improvised’ moulds carved to the surfaces or berms of the metallurgical workshop. They have not been partitioned further after casting, but selected for deposition. The elemental composition data of the ingots revealed high quantity of Pb and Sb. The ratio of Pb in the miniature plano-convex ingot (89 ± 0.3 m%) and the rod ingot (94 ± 0.3 m%) was so high that they can be identified as lead ingots, a rare raw material type during the Late Bronze Age. One out of the analysed three ingots, the elemental composition of the cuboid ingot was the most complex, containing high Pb (13–37 m%) and Sb (0.6–6.2 m%) based on PGAA. Chalcocite (Cu2S) was identified by TOF-ND, which points to the possible origin of the raw material or production method (smelting). Our study suggests that this hoard was a combination of a professionally cast spearhead, used and destroyed intentionally along with a fragmented sickle, and three rare and valuable ingots made of specific materials, which were not used after casting. All of them were deposited together in a votive hoard in a central, multi-hoard settlement. Their treatment and selection followed local hoarding traditions practiced in Velem-Szent Vid and its related areas in Transdanubia.

Two Bronze Age Hoards with Shaft-Hole Axes from West Georgia

Two Bronze Age Hoards with Shaft-Hole Axes from West Georgia