Bronze Age Tools

Manuel Zeiler (2023): Bronzezeitliche Neufunde aus Südwestfalen. Archäologie in Westfalen-Lippe 2022, 64-68.

The article presented here is the first integrated review of all the Bronze Age sites in southern Westphalia. Settlement of the Central German Uplands clearly began as early as the Middle Bronze Age and the region continued to be intensively settled until the Late Bronze Age. The microregion around the modern towns of Hagen, Iserlohn and Hemer was probably the starting point for the spread
of settlements into the upland region to the south.


Erstmals werden alle bronzezeitlichen Fundstellen Südwestfalens in einer Synthese betrachtet. Die Aufsiedlung der Mittelgebirgslagen begann sicher schon in der mittleren Bronzezeit und bis in die späte Bronzezeit hinein war auch das Mittelgebirge intensiv ausfgesiedelt. Die Mikroregion bei den heutigen Städten Hagen-Iserlohn-Hemer bildete vermutlich den Ausgangspunkt der Besiedlung der südlich angrenzenden Bergregion.

In Britain there is little evidence for actual metalworking from Bronze Age contexts and only a fraction of the tools necessary to make
metal objects have been recovered. To understand what would constitute a suite of materials and tools necessary for a Bronze Age
metalworker’s toolkit, an inventory was made of known metalworking tools from the archaeological record. This was cross-referenced
to the tools and materials used in both modern workshops and ethnographic settings. This catalogue, along with an understanding of
the chaîne opératoire for creating metal objects, provides the components for establishing a system that will yield a clearer image of
the organisation of the metalsmith’s workshop

On 9 July an examination of a bronze hammer from the Taunton Workhouse Hoard and a bronze mould was undertaken as part of a PhD project in association with the University of Sheffield which includes a study of British Bronze Age metalsmithing tools. The study included metric recording, photography, and visual description. On a second visit on 12 April 2013, a second hammer was examined and photographed.

The hammer from the Taunton Workhouse hoard was found in February 1877 by a crew working on the grounds of the Taunton Union Workhouse. The hoard consists of 11 palstaves, a hammer, a spearhead, an axe, a razor, 2 sickles, 2 torcs, 4 pins, 4 rings and 20 fragments from five rings.

In the present work, a fragment of a stone mould recently found in Galicia (NW Spain) was studied by multiple analytical techniques approach involving 3D optical imaging reconstruction to obtain data about the shape of the mould, typology of artefact produced, and distribution of a black residue at the surface of the mould and pXRF, SEM-EDS, micro-FTIR, and micro-Raman to investigate the nature of the black residue. The study shows that the mould was likely used for socketed axes with a side loop, was originally composed of two valves and one core, and that it might have been subjected to a repair during use. The black residue is distributed in the carved surface and spreads to nearby surfaces as a result of the use of the mould. The alloy cast in the mould was a ternary bronze (Cu + Sn + Pb). The analyses by SEM-EDS of black residue covering the surface did show the presence of scattered micro particles with P and Ca, and micro-Raman analysis detected the presence of a carbon black...

In this paper we will deal with one of the most distinctive and genuine objects associated with the late Bronze Age of Menorca: the so-called biconical beads, also refered by others as biconical shank. Traditionally associated with ornaments or clothing elements, recent research suggests that it could be some kind of instrument whose purpose is far removed from the decorative use it was given in the past.

A total of 42 bronze sickle blades dating from the Middle Bronze Age-B (c. 1500-1000 cal. BC) to the Early Iron Age (c. 800-600 cal. BC) are known from the Netherlands, yet these have never been studied or published in full. In this contribution, we aim to determine the significance of Bronze Age sickles in both practical and symbolic terms. Did communities in later prehistory perceive sickles solely as functional tools for agricultural tasks such as reaping, pruning, coppicing or weeding, or did sickles obtain a particular symbolic significance that rendered them suitable for votive depositions in hoards, graves and settlements? To answer this question, first a status quaestionis of European Bronze Age sickle research is presented and the terminology and typology applied are explained. Following this, the Dutch corpus of
sickles with tangs, knobs (Groups 1-2), elongated knobs (Group 3) and peg holes (Group 4) is described, with particular attention to their dating, use-histories and the context of their deposition. Moreover, analysis of their alloy compositions was deployed to classify sickles of dubious “Dutch” provenance. For all proposed groups of sickles, their supra-regional affinities are discussed. From such supra-regional affinities it can be shown that communities in the Dutch later Bronze
Age were integrated into Nordic as well as Central European exchange networks. In addition to this supra-regional integration, distinctly regional types of bronze sickle can be identified as well.