bronze

The Quality of the Craft

Paul Eklöv Pettersson (SE)
In this study the sustainability of crucibles used during the Scandinavian Bronze Age is tested. Due to the crucible’s high or low sustainability the idea of it being a disposable object may be ratified or discarded. Earlier experiments focusing on the casting process in Scandinavian Bronze Age have concluded that crucibles such as the ones used during Bronze Age were disposable objects due...

Results of a Discussion on the State of Experimental Archaeology in Switzerland

T. Doppler,
S. Osimitz and
K. Schäppi (CH)
On 27 March 2010, the board of the Working Group on Experimental Archaeology in Switzerland (AEAS-GAES) invited a panel of experts to hold a public debate in Olten on whether the incentives that had existed at the time still played their part, how they were now constituted and what the future perspectives were...

Scandinavian Iron Age and Early Medieval Ceramic Moulds - Lost Wax or Not or Both?

Anders Söderberg (SE)
1999 Wilhelminaoord Workshop
***Since the 1940s we have had a discussion in Scandinavia concerning ancient mould-making methods. The question of different methods in the production of ceramic moulds has taken a large part in these discussions; by lost wax or by direct matrix-methods...

How Metallographic Examinations Can Give the Forming Process of Metal Artefacts? The Example of the Hoard of Farébersviller

Cécile Veber and
Michel Pernot (FR)
1999 Wilhelminaoord Workshop
***The hoard of Farébersviller (Moselle, France) was discovered in 1991 during rescue excavations (See Image above). This set contains 130 "bronze" artifacts, which date to the Late Bronze Age (8th century BC)...

Precision Lost Wax Casting

Nigel Meeks (UK),
Caroline Tulp (NL) and
Anders Söderberg (SE)
1999 Wilhelminaoord Workshop
***The limits of precision casting were explored experimentally at the Bronze Casting Workshop at Wilhelminaoord, the Netherlands, by making wax models, moulds and lost wax castings using essentially early metalworking conditions. Geometrically patterned models of Dark Age type dies were used to...

The Experimental Reconstruction in Bronze of a Merovingian Treasure Box from Sixth Century A.D.

Frank Willer (DE)
1999 Wilhelminaoord Workshop
***Considerations about a lost ancient fabrication technique of bronze attachements from a merowingian treasure box pointed out that practical experiments had to be done to reconstruct the cast and coldwork. A self made oven and mould sould help to...

From the Object to the Mould: Is there a Connection between Microstructure of a Cast Bronze Object and its Mould Material Used?

Emanuela Jochum Zimmerman,
Nina Künzler Wagner and
Stefanie Osimitz (CH)
1999 Wilhelminaoord Workshop
***The question studied within the framework of the Wilhelminaoord Workshop was: In which way the mould material does influence the cast structure of a bronze object? For this, casts in two different mould materials...