Quote:
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.
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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.
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