Further Spectrographic Analyses of Nigerian Bronzes

Medieval Copper Alloy Production and West African Bronze Analyses ‐ Part Ii

“…The remainder of the analyses are from a wide range of cultures and periods but a few are from assemblages for which no analyses had previously been reported, and the results broadly fall into the pattern established in the publications of Barker (1965), Shaw (1969Shaw ( , 1970aShaw ( , 1970b, Werner (1970Werner ( , 1975Werner ( , 1976, and Willett (1964Willett ( , 1977Willett ( , 1981 etc.…”

“…1500) are of bronze rather than brass, as are the 49 thirteenth-century manillas and bracelets from the Old Palace site, Benin city (Shaw 1969). However, both groups contain sufficiently large traces of zinc (about 1%) to suggest the incorporation of scrap brass and that at least some of the metal again comes from across the Sahara.…”

The Composition of Brasses From Ife and Benin

“…149 (sample no. 45 figure 2 will be found in Shaw 1969, Werner 1970band Wolf 1966, 1968 One can conclude that the brass of the Benin objects which lie on these curves was probably made from three types of calamine, because the eleven curves in figure 2 show three angles of slope. Their connection with the three types of Ife alloy is apparent.…”

“…From several objects pairs of samples were taken, one from the main casting, the other from a burnt-in repair. Another sample was taken from a burnt-in repair on the seated figure of Tada generally agreed to be an Ife work, to supplement the analyses T3 and T4 published by Shaw (1969). Two pieces from the Benin Museum omitted from Shaw (1969) were also added (illustrated in Willett 1973, Figs.…”