Experimental casting of high-leaded bronze palstaves in the ATLANTAXES Project

12th Experimental Archaeology Conference EAC12, World Tour

Exeter. Reino Unido
Congreso. 2021

Palstaves are the most abundant metal object in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Bronze Age and the transition to the Earliest Iron Age. They usually occur in isolated hoards, while socketed axes are underrepresented in the area, in comparison with other regions of the Atlantic Europe. Many of these palstaves contain high quantities of lead and have morphological features (such as the presence of the casting jet) that are incompatible with their use as ‘functional’ tools or weapons.

An ongoing research project, “Mass production and deposition of leaded bronzes in Atlantic Europe during the Late Bronze Age - Iron Age transition” (ATLANTAXES), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, focuses on this topic dealing with issues such as technology, metal provenance and hoarding patterns through analytical techniques and experimentation, alongside other research strands.

This contribution introduces some of the experimental work carried out within the project, which aims a better understanding of lead segregation in high-leaded alloys. Previous research pointed out that some of these palstaves have a lead core resulting from an intentional casting of pure lead inside a bronze casing. In contrast, our preliminary results under laboratorial conditions, suggest that these cores are massive lead segregations formed under specific casting conditions using high-leaded alloys. Some prospects for future research are also discussed.

Archaeometallurgy. Experimental Archaeology. Palstaves. Late Iron Age. Early Iron Age. Atlantic Europe.