Bronze Bowls Research Articles

Bronze technology of the ancient megalithic communities in the Vidarbha region of India

Metallographic examination was carried out on forty-nine copper and bronze objects from five megalithic sites located in Vidarbha, India. The artifact assembly consists of horse ornaments, kitchenware, bangles, rings, small bells and the hilt of an iron dagger. Results show that the technology involved is characterized by the use of bronze alloys containing approximately 10% tin based on weight and the application of forging as a key method of fabrication. No deliberate addition of lead was observed. Arsenic was detected, but very rarely and only as an insignificant minor element. The consistent selection of such specific alloys indicates that the megalithic communities in this particular region had established a fully developed and standardized bronze tradition optimized for the production of forged items. Their advanced technological status was also noted in a special technique applied to two forged high-tin bronze bowls. Such a unique bronze tradition, dedicated to sheet metal technology, was most likely a practical choice made by these people to take advantage of the changing role of bronze. Specifically, with the introduction of iron, bronze seems to have become a more prestigious material that could serve as an indicator of the appearance of a more rigid socio-economic stratification within the megalithic communities of the Vidarbha region.

Μετάλλινα αγγεία από την επανέκθεση του αρχαιολογικού μουσείου Ρόδου

Metal vessels in the new exhibition in the archaeological museum of Rhodes. The article presents an overview of the metallurgy of Rhodes from the late 9th to the 5th c. BC, with the first presentation of some metal artifacts, especially luxury vessels, previously scarcely published. The vessels examined are mostly from the Italian excavations at the cemeteries of Ialysos and Kameiros and from the votive deposits of the sanctuaries at Lindos, Ialysos and Kameiros. The development of metal ware during early historical times on Rhodes can be traced in a series of luxury vessels, undecorated bronze bowls and basins, and a small number of decorated bronze and silver bowls, imported to Rhodes from the Νear East, especially from Phrygia, north Syria and Mesopotamia, lands with a long tradition in the art of metallurgy. Among these imported vessels from Rhodes are bronze and silver omphalos bowls of the 8th and 7th c. B.C. and silver phialai with relief decoration cast in moulds, typical of Achaemenid art of the late 6th and 5th c. B.C. in the Near East and the Black Sea. Bronze cinerary urns and oinochoai of the 7th-5th c. BC. are among the artefacts which were probably made in the West, in Etruria and South Italy; some, however, were probably made locally in South East Aegean or in Rhodes.

Learning from Romanesque bronze bowls

In his review of Romanische gravierte Bronzeschalen by Josepha Weitzmann-Fiedler, Herbert Kessler concluded that her book was important for the way it ‘probed deeply the creative processes involved in the expression of complex meanings in medieval works of art’.1 There is no doubt that Kessler himself has been among the foremost expositors of the multiple ways that complex meaning was invested in and generated by a wide range of art in the Middle Ages. In his teaching and scholarship he has shown the importance of looking closely at objects and of questioning accepted theories. For these reasons, and because of his own personal and academic closeness to both Josepha Weitzmann-Fiedler and Kurt Weitzmann, we think it particularly fitting to offer in his honor this essay reevaluating the engraved Romanesque bronze bowls.

Sutton Hoo: a seventh-century princely burial ground and its context

Hoo is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1939 it was the scene of the discovery of a fabulous treasure buried in a ship 30 metres long. In 1983 a new project began with the aim of discovering the context of the great Hoo burial ship. Using revolutionary fieldwork procedures, this new campaign uncovered a hectare of the cemetery, surveyed the surrounding region and made direct comparisons with monumental practices in neighbouring kingdoms across the North Sea. It was found that the burials were highly diverse - cremations in bronze bowls, with a horse, in a bed, and in boats and ships - and that many had been ransacked. Among the new finds were a new ship-burial and the first complete horse-burial, with its harness, to be excavated in England. From the eighth to tenth century, this 'burial ground of kings' became an execution site, allowing the new Christian authorities to exercise power through the public disposal of dissidents. Two groups of unfurnished burials were discovered, one associated with the posts of a gallows or gibbet. Sutton Hoo: A Seventh-Century Princely Burial Ground and its Context offers a description of all the investigations undertaken since 1983. The early medieval artefacts, the early medieval landscape and the environmental and prehistoric sequences are studied by contributing experts. The book provides a complete scholarly companion to the archaeological research and interpretation of Hoo.

A Canaanite-Early Phoenician Inscribed Bronze Bowl in an Iron Age IIA-B Burial Cave at Kefar Veradim, Northern Israel

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Canaanite-Early Phoenician Inscribed Bronze Bowl in an Iron Age IIA-B Burial Cave at Kefar Veradim, Northern IsraelYardenna AlexandreYardenna AlexandreIsrael Antiquities Authority Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 13, Number 12006 A journal of ASOR Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/MAR200613102 Citations: 5Citations are reported from Crossref © 2006 American Society of Overseas Research. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Assaf Kleiman, Alexander Fantalkin, Hans Mommsen, and Israel Finkelstein The Date and Origin of Black-on-Red Ware: The View from Megiddo, American Journal of Archaeology 123, no.44 (Oct 2021): 531–555.https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.123.4.0531 Peter M. Fischer , Teresa Bürge , and Mohammad A. al-Shalabi The “Ivory Tomb” at Tell Irbid, Jordan: Intercultural Relations at the End of the Late Bronze Age and the Beginning of the Iron Age, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 374 (Nov 2018): 209–232.https://doi.org/10.5615/bullamerschoorie.374.0209 Benjamin Sass , Yosef Garfinkel , Michael G. Hasel , and Martin G. Klingbeil The Lachish Jar Sherd: An Early Alphabetic Inscription Discovered in 2014, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 374 (Nov 2018): 233–245.https://doi.org/10.5615/bullamerschoorie.374.0233Daniel D. Pioske The Scribe of David: A Portrait of a Life, Maarav 20, no.22 (Mar 2023): 163–188.https://doi.org/10.1086/MAR201320203Christopher A. Rollston The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass, Maarav 15, no.11 (Mar 2023): 57–93.https://doi.org/10.1086/MAR200815105

Pollen analysis of the contents of excavated vessels—direct archaeobotanical evidence of beverages

Direct evidence of mead and wine by pollen analysis is possible under certain circumstances which have prevented the decomposition of the original pollen content of vessels from archaeological contexts. This is shown here by two examples. The first, which concerns a Bronze bowl from a rich woman's grave of the late Hallstatt Period at Niedererlbach, Bavaria, must have contained mead as is indicated by the pollen, preserved by copper salts. The results are similar to those from Glauberg, Hochdorf and Heuneburg. The second example comes from Coptic wine amphorae of the early medieval period from Saruna, Middle Egypt. Pollen, as remains of the former contents, had been preserved by the absolute dryness of the climate. Vitis pollen persists on the grape's surface and it is also detectable in the finished wine when it has been prepared without using modern vinification technology, as shown by experiments. In some samples a sweetening of the wine or an enrichment of the must by honey is evident. These honeys were not mixed like the Celtic honeys in central Europe were but were well-made Brassicaceae yield honeys which indicate a highly developed bee-keeping culture; since they were collected by wild bees they represent the bees' activity over a complete growing season.

Nu bli’r der ballade

Nu bli’r der ballade

Destannification of Ancient Indian High Tin Bronze / Entzinnung einer altindischen hochzinnhaltigen Bronze

The surface oxide and underlying metal of an ancient Indian high tin bronze bowl (28 wt.% Sn) has been characterized. The presence of annealing twins in the microstructure indicates that the high tin bronze was hot worked at high temperatures. The surface scales consisted essentially of Cu 2 O and Sn 3 O 4 , with Cu 2 O appearing as needles and Sn 3 O 4 appearing faceted. The Sn 3 O 4 oxide was the major constituent of the outer scale. The region in between the outer Sn 3 O 4 oxide was composed of Cu 2 O and Sn 3 O 4 . The inner scale was rich in Cu 2 O. The oxide nature has been explained by considering destannification of bronze. The destannification of bronze was further proved by composition profiling the cross section of the underlying alloy.

La conexión Levantino-Chipriota. Indicios de comercio Atlántico con el Mediterráneo Oriental durante el Bronce Final (1150-950 a.C.)

Starting from an analysis of the trade and the chronological sequence between the Iberian Peninsula and the Cypro-Philistinian area during part of the Late Bronze Age (1150-950 BC), we can recognize, in the most peripheral territories of the Eastern Mediterranean, the presence at least of some exports of manufactured products in the form of articulated spits and knobbed fibulas of the Huelva type, and imports of bronze bowls. These artefacts appear in small hoards (Berzocana, Spain) or in tombs (Amathus, Cyprus), associated with members of the leading elites. This suggests an exchange of gifts in order to establish trade ties. We also evaluate the historic and economical aims of this trade.

‘Amaze Your Friends!’ Lucretius on Magnets

People wonder at this stone [the magnet]. Indeed it often makes a chain of rings hanging from itself. For you can sometimes see five or more rings hanging down one after another swaying in light breezes, when each hangs down from another, clinging underneath it, and each feels from the other the force and attraction of the stone; so much does its force penetrate and have its effect. … It also happens sometimes that the nature of iron withdraws from this stone, and will flee it and follow it in turn. I have even seen iron rings leap up, and at the same time iron filings seethe in bronze bowls when a magnet has been put underneath, so eager to escape the stone is iron seen to be.

The Archaeometallurgical Implications of New Findings of Traditional Crafts of Making High Tin ‘Delta’ Bronze Mirrors and ‘Beta’ Bronze Vessels in Kerala State of South India

ABSTRACTNew metallurgical and ethnographic observations of the traditional manufacture of specular high-tin bronze mirrors in Kerala state of southern India are discussed, which is an exceptional example of a surviving craft practice of metal mirror-making in the world. The manufacturing process has been reconstructed from analytical investigations made by Srinivasan following a visit late in 1991 to a mirror making workshop and from her technical studies of equipment acquired by Glover in March 1992 from another group of mirror makers from Pathanamthita at an exhibition held at Crafts Museum, Delhi. Finished and unfinished mirror from two workshops were of a binary, copper-tin alloy of 33% tin which is close to the composition of pure delta phase, so that these mirrors are referred to here as ‘delta’ bronzes. For the first time, metallurgical and field observations were made by Srinivasan in 1991 of the manufacture of high-tin ‘beta’ bonze vessels from Palghat district, Kerala, i‥e of wrought and quenched 23% tin bronze. This has provided the first metallurgical record for a surviving craft of high-tin bronze bowl making which can be directly related to archaeological finds of high-tin bronze vessels from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. New analytical investigations are presented of high-tin beta bronzes from the Indian subcontinent which are some of the earliest reported worldwide. These coupled with the archaeometallurgical evidence suggests that these high-tin bronze techniques are part of a long, continuing, and probably indigenous tradition of the use of high-tin bronzes in the Indian subcontinent with finds reported even from Indus Valley sites. While the source of tin has been problematic, new evidence on bronze smelting slags and literary evidence suggests there may have been some sources of tin in South India.

The thermomechanical processing of high-tin bronzes—an old practice in a south Indian village

For hundreds of years in the Indian village of Kadavaloor, craftsmen trained by tradition and their senses been using thermomechanical processing to create durable bronze bowls containing approximately 21 percent tin. Lacking a formal traming in metallurgy, the workers nonetheless apply a hot-working methodology that enables them to retain high-temperature, relatively ductile phases for room-temperature service.

A Bronze Bowl of Irchester Type from Stainfield, Lincolnshire

dated, later in the second century. If these four stones are indeed of the same date, then it follows that RIB 2054 cannot date to late in the reign of Hadrian, since there is no occasion then for rebuilding west of Benwell. It therefore seems improbable that the turf wall west of Milecastle 54 was rebuilt in stone late in Hadrian's reign. Since it is unlikely that that rebuilding was delayed to late in the second century, it probably dates to c. A.D. 158. Probably II Augusta was involved in restoring the stone wall in the area west of Benwell, after the gap in occupation occasioned by the advance into Scotland under Antoninus Pius, as well as in rebuilding the final stretch of turf wall west of Milecastle 54 at the same time. The comparatively elaborate style of decoration of all four stones would certainly fit this date in the reign of Pius very well. Even more elaborate decoration appears on some stones from Benwell itself set up by II Augusta. These are RIB 1341, 1342, and I344. All feature the Capricorn and Pegasus, while the second and third record work by coh. II and coh.X respectively. It is not unreasonable to suggest that these stones may also belong to a quite extensive rebuilding in and to the west of Benwell fort, in or about A.D. 158. The same date may be appropriate for the dedication RIB 1330, which records (in the reign of Pius) a centurion of II Augusta, M. Liburnius Fronto. At the same date, A.D. 158, and a little further west, VI Victrix was involved in rebuilding: RIB 1389 records such activity in that year, and the use of REF(ecit) is quite explicit. After the advance into Scotland under Pius, it would appear that much of the Wall in the sector from Benwell to the west was demolished, and extensive rebuilding was required at the time of the re-occupation of Hadrian's Wall as a frontier line in A.D. I58. Why this should be is unfortunately not clear. But it seems very likely that RIB 1388, recording rebuilding by coh.X of VI Victrix, and RIB 1385, 1390, and 1391, recording rebuilding by Cohorts IV, VIII and X of XX Valeria Victrix, all belong to the same date.

Phoenician Bronze and Silver Bowls from Cyprus and the Mediterranean. Glenn Markoe

<i>Phoenician Bronze and Silver Bowls from Cyprus and the Mediterranean</i>. Glenn Markoe

Early Maritime Contacts Between South and Southeast Asia

An analysis of the archaeological data available in recent years indicates the development of local maritime networks both in peninsular Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent by the middle of the first millennium B.C. By the second-first centuries B.C. these networks formed a part of the larger regional sailing circuit in the Bay of Bengal. Tangible indicators of this are carnelian and glass beads and bronze bowls with a high tin content. A demarcation of these networks is essential, before questions like the organization of trade or the channels through which religious ideology spread, can be explained.

Phoenician Bronze and Silver Bowls from Cyprus and the Mediterranean

Phoenician Bronze and Silver Bowls from Cyprus and the Mediterranean

A Hoard of Late Roman Bronze Bowls and Mounts from the Misbourne Valley, near Amersham, Bucks

The discovery of a hoard of bronze bowls and of two bronze human-headed terminals in the vicinity of Amersham is of some importance. In the following account, the context of the finds is discussed by Michael Farley, the bowls and the coins by John Taylor and the heads by Martin Henig.

A BRONZE CARYATID CENSER FROM AMMAN

A tomb was discovered recently in the course of digging the foundations of a private house in the southern part of Umm Udaina. The site lies about 1 km. north-west of the sixth circle in Amman. Immediately rescue excavations were undertaken by a team from the Department of Antiquities of Jordan and the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman. The tomb was very rich in finds and these included; an inscribed seal, core-formed glass bottles, broken alabaster vessels, two Attic lekythoi, and other pottery. In addition, bronze bowls and other bronze and silver artefacts were found. The outstanding bronze caryatid censer stand described in this article was also discovered in this tomb. The following study consists of a description with parallels, a study of fabrication techniques, a chemical analysis and conclusions.

A Syro-Phoenician Bull-Bowl in Geneva and its Analogue in the British Museum

The following discussion begins with a study of a bronze bowl belonging to Monsieur George Ortiz, whose collection of ancient bronzes in Vandoeuvres/Geneva includes a large number of outstanding pieces of Near Eastern art. The bowl was recently acquired in the antiquities market and is said to come from modern Turkey. It is one of the finest and best preserved examples of a particular class of oriental metalwork in repoussé, the so-called Syro-Phoenician “bull-bowls”, which were most probably produced in the Levant in the early first millennium B.C. The main decoration of this class consists of concentric friezes of bovine animals in procession or similar sequence arranged around a central floral motif. The present paper will also examine a second, as yet unpublished, bowl kept in the British Museum.

The Inscription on the Nimrud Bronze Bowl No. 5 (BM. 91303)*

The Inscription on the Nimrud Bronze Bowl No. 5 (BM. 91303)*