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The European Bronze Age, read in the ground
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All 24 entries on the site, in reading order, with the section each belongs to. No dropdown required.

No.PlateEntrySectionWhat it covers
01A corroded bronze socketed axe head with a flared, split-socket topA tenth part tinThe AlloyCopper alone is too soft to hold an edge. Add about a tenth part tin and it casts better, hardens under the hammer and takes a working edge — but copper and tin almost never occur in the same place, so the alloy could not exist without long-distance trade. The whole period follows from that inconvenience.
02Aerial view of Great Orme's exposed copper mine spoil surrounded by hillside roads and buildingsCopper sourcesThe AlloyWhere it was mined, how the ore was roasted and smelted, and what the spoil says.
03Cassiterite ore sample and two vials of roasted tin ore beside a ruler and label cardTin and its scarcityThe AlloyRare, concentrated in a handful of regions, and worth moving the length of a continent.
04Museum placard explaining bronze alloy composition and bimetallic casting techniques in Chinese metalworkProportion and hardnessThe AlloyMore tin is harder and more brittle. The ratio varies by object and by workshop.
05Map showing 2500 BCE trade routes linking the Indus Valley to Mesopotamia, Elam, Egypt and CreteRoutes and riversTradeWater moved metal. Distribution maps of finds are largely maps of navigable water.
06Four corroded copper-alloy ingot fragments with green and brown patina, shown front and backIngots and scrapTradeMetal circulated as raw stock and as broken objects. A scrap hoard is a bank, not a loss.
07Ancient gold bowl, ceramic pot, and iron chain artifacts displayed together in a museum caseWho controlled itTradeControl of a scarce alloy is control of weapons, and it shows in burials.
08Maps plot rectangular and lenticular weights, balance beams and scale bars across Bronze Age EuropeWeight and standardTradeEvidence for reckoning by weight, long before coinage.
09Ancient stone mould with a carved spear tip cavity, shown against a black backgroundMouldsCastingStone, clay and lost wax, each leaving a different signature on the object.
10A weathered ceramic crucible with a chipped rim and pouring lip on displayCrucible and furnaceCastingGetting to temperature with charcoal and forced air, and holding it long enough.
11Corroded bronze casting jet fragments shown from four angles beside a metric scale barJets, flash and finishingCastingMost of the work happens after the metal is solid.
12A blacksmith hammers a heated metal blade against a small anvil on a wooden blockWork-hardening an edgeCastingHammered cold, the edge gets harder — and eventually cracks.
13Wooden posts marking a causeway alignment across an open grassy fieldCausewaysTimber and WaterTimber alignments driven into wetland, sometimes for a kilometre. Enormous labour for a route across ground nobody had to cross.
14Stilt houses on a riverbank with small wooden boats moored along the shorePlatforms and pilingTimber and WaterPosts driven into peat, and what the spacing says about what stood on them.
15A rusty axe blade embedded in a cut tree stump showing visible growth ringsReading a worked endTimber and WaterTool facets on a waterlogged post identify the axe and sometimes the hand.
16Three curved wooden strips showing tree ring grain patterns arranged diagonally on a white surfaceFelling and seasonTimber and WaterTree rings can date a timber to a season, not just a year.
17Corroded bronze sword handle fragment shown from front, back and side views beside a scaleRiver metalworkDepositsSwords and spearheads recovered from rivers in numbers that cannot be accidental loss.
18A plaster body cast with textured skin folds lies inside a glass display caseBog findsDepositsAnaerobic ground keeps organic material that survives nowhere else.
19A corroded bronze axe head with two drilled holes lying on a white surfaceBreakage and bendingDepositsObjects deliberately destroyed before deposition — killed, in the literature.
20Rows of corroded metal fragments and shards arranged on a table beside a scale barHoards, and what they are notDepositsNot always hidden wealth; often the point was that it stayed there.
21Bare dead trees stand in still, dark swamp water surrounded by tangled fallen branchesKeeping wood wetWet StorageWaterlogged timber survives only while saturated. Lift it and let it dry and it collapses to a fraction of its size.
22Charred artifact fragments sorted into small cardboard trays on a lab tableConsolidationWet StorageReplacing water with a wax or sugar that holds the cell walls open.
23A carved wooden figurine shown from multiple angles beside a measuring scaleWhat drying costsWet StorageShrinkage, warping and the loss of every tool mark on the surface.
24Leaving it in the groundLeaving it in the groundWet StorageIncreasingly the answer: the ground has kept it this long.