What is it about?
The metallographic structure of metal artefacts can reveal the single steps of the crafting of Bronze Age jewellery. Cast objects reveal a crystal structure that is shaped as clouds or christmas trees while hammered or punch decorated artefacts show clear structured grains. The different crystal shapes allow to reconstruct the crafting processes of 4000 year old bronze artefacts and give insight into the knowledge of these craftspeople.
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Why is it important?
We do not know much about the craftspeople, techniques and traditions behind the magnificent artefacts crafted in Bronze Age. This study investigates artefacts stored for centuries in museum collections and introduces a new methodology for studying individuals in prehistoric craft.
Perspectives
This study show the potential of artefacts stored in museum collections. The method explained here and the comparison of superficial crafting traces with metallographic explanation allows in future many more studies to prehistoric craft.
Dr. Heide Wrobel Nørgaard
Moesgaard Museum, Department of Archaeology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Metalcraft within the Nordic Bronze Age: Combined metallographic and superficial imaging reveals the technical repertoire in crafting bronze ornaments, Journal of Archaeological Science, December 2015, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2015.10.005.
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