Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T21:47:24.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The working of copper-arsenic alloys in the Early Bronze Age and the effect on the determination of provenance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Hugh McKerrell  and
R. F. Tylecote
Hugh McKerrell
Affiliation:
National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland
R. F. Tylecote
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The earliest copper alloy of the British Bronze Age is arsenical copper, a material relatively short-lived when compared with the succeeding tin bronze but of no little importance when tracing the stages and progress of prehistoric metal working. Like tin, arsenic functions as a mild deoxidant and confers the useful property of work-hardening upon the metal. Copper-arsenic alloys need to be strengthened by cold working, and it was probably this requirement as much as any other that would have led to their eventual disuse and replacement by cast tin bronzes. The normal source of arsenic for such alloys is generally agreed as a constituent of the copper ore actually smelted, usually the grey tetrahedrite tennantite mineral (Coghlan and Case, 1957; Tylecote, 1962), although other suggestions have been made (Charles, 1967).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 38 , December 1972 , pp. 209 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Caley, E. R., 1964. Analysis of ancient metals. London.Google Scholar
Charles, J. A., 1967. ‘Early arsenical bronzes—a metallurgical view’, Am. J. Arch., 71, 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coghlan, H. H. and Case, H., 1957. ‘Early metallurgy of copper in Ireland and Britain’, PPS, 22, 91.Google Scholar
Coles, J. M., 1969. ‘Scottish Early Bronze Age metalwork’, PSAS, 101, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junghans, S. E., Sangmeister, E., and Schroder, M., 1968. Studien zu den Anfangen der Metallurgie (SAM 2, 3). Berlin.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, W., 1965. Helgoland und das fruheste kupfer des Nordens. Ottendorf.Google Scholar
Organ, R. M., 1963. ‘Are analyses of uncorroded ancient alloys representative?’, Studies in Conservation, 7, 48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tylecote, R. F., 1950. ‘The oxidation of copper at 350–900 °C in air’, J. Inst. Metals, 78, 327.Google Scholar
Tylecote, R. F., 1962. Metallurgy in archaeology. London.Google Scholar