[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I suspect funerary items are more likely to survive intact than items intended for regular use; broken bronze tools are likely to get recycled.

In Celtic cultures the opposite could be true. Funerary swords were sometimes ritually sacrificed (deliberately broken or bent) before being deposited. Some cultures such as the Egyptians made use of non-functional funerary weapons (e.g. gold daggers and khopeshes with no edge bevelling) but the Mycenaeans didn't. The arms found in their graves were functional.

The easiest way to tell whether a bronze weapon was recycled is to look at its tin content. When bronze is remelted it preferentially loses tin. So if you have a weapon with less tin than was typical then it likely was recycled.