A Comparison Study of Middle Bronze Age II Daggers and Their Rivets as a Tool for a Better Understanding of Their Production

Abstract

The Middle Bronze Age II is a period during which there exists a contemporaneous usage of arsenic copper and tin bronze for metal weaponry production. In order to learn more about the alloys used in this period, the blades and rivets from 65 daggers of two significantly different types, which were discovered at the Rishon LeZion (RL) cemetery, Israel, were tested by the non-destructive method of X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The results reveal new knowledge of the alloys selected for dagger and rivet production, both of which represent fine examples of the Middle Bronze Age II Southern Levant in metal industry.

Metal Weapons of “Warrior’ Burials” Found in the Middle Bronze Age II Southern Levant – Economical and Social Aspects

“…These, funerary contexts have generally been referred to as "warrior burials", and contained individuals buried with a presumed "kit", comprising weapons, such as daggers, axes and spearheads found on the deceased's waist and/or next to their head (Figure 2). The "warrior burials" are dated mainly to the first half of the MBII period (MB IIA; 1950-1750 BCE) and decline in occurrence in the Middle Bronze IIB (MB IIB; 1750-1550 BCE) [6][7][8].…”

“…Recently, it has been shown [6,7] that less than 25% of all the MB IIA burials can be defined as "warrior burials", and they should rather be considered to reflect high-ranking members of the contemporary society, i.e., an elite social class‫‬ . The weapons in the MB IIA "warrior' burials" were well-made, elaborate and composed of copper alloyed with up to 14% tin, both with and without low arsenic concentration [5][6][7].…”

“…Tin Bronze objects are known from earlier periods, but in small quantities while the use of arsenic copper was more common [5,9]. During the Middle Bronze Age II, tin bronze was widely used to create metal objects in general and weapons [5,6,7,10]. While for production of arsenic copper one metal source containing copper with arsenic was needed, the production of tin bronze required two metal sources, one of tin and one of copper, which were in far distance from the southern Levant [11,12].…”

“…Through a detailed analysis of the available metallurgical data we have shown that the situation was in fact quite the opposite. It was demonstrated that the transition was highly complex; Tin bronze appeared quite abruptly in the MBIIA, with only few antecedents, and decreased during the MBIIB [6,7].…”