Gold items can be "disguised" by a simple hammer. You don't need a specialized artisan or equipment to do such. Bronze is something else. You need as good of furnaces, melting pots, etc. as was used to make the item in the first place. There might have been just too few bronze workers around and they might have been unanimously too honorable (or regulated) to touch an item that just anybody brought in.
The answer may lay in the "culture" of the bronze workers. Whether that can be discerned at this date would be a hard nut to crack.
Bart Torbert
-----Original Message-----
From: Arch-Metals Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of paul major
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 7:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Bronze in the Meroitic period (Nubia/Sudan)
Bart,
I thank you for your helpful comments.
Yes, good point - I wondered about that. Then again, if you robbed somebody's
personal jewellry, I would be suprised if the robbers were going to wear
it...especially if the graves were robbed fairly soon after the individual was
buried - a robber bumping into someone who recognised that they were wearing
their fathers gold might be a bit difficult to explain. So presumably these gold
items were melted down by less scrupulous gold workers. If this is so, then they
could also melt down the bronze. I would expect personal gold items would also
be limited to the elites, so the same situation might apply to the bronze (if it
was indeed seen as a 'valuable' material).
I wonder whether the problem with the bronze bowls is that they were obviously
mortuary items? As far as I have been able to tell, they do not appear in any
other contexts (household for example), only graves. Maybe this means that if
they were used in the household they were regularly melted down and we therefore
do not find them, or they were made specifically for some votive reason
connected with mortuary ritual, feasting perhaps?
Your point about the other items that may have been stolen is a good one. The
sparcity of complete graves makes it difficult to know what would have
'normally' been included in a complete grave, and trying to derive answers to
why certain items may have been ignored by robbers is perhaps impossible in this
situation.
Still, its an interesting problem.
----- Original Message ----
From: Bart Torbert <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 2 June, 2011 15:40:00
Subject: Re: Bronze in the Meroitic period (Nubia/Sudan)
What else would have been in the graves that was taken by the grave-robbers?
Maybe the answer is that the robbers could carry off just so much and the bronze
was considered the least valuable items, so they were left. Robber mentality
would say take what is smallest and most valuable, leave what is bigger and of
lesser value.
Also think about what would be easiest to sell without it being obvious that the
items were stolen. Maybe the bronzes were a rare luxury item only the elites
would have. If some nobody shows up with one, that would raise suspicions.
The answer might be that the bronzes were too valuable, not lacking in value.
Bart Torbert
-----Original Message-----
From: Arch-Metals Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul
Major
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 4:28 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Bronze in the Meroitic period (Nubia/Sudan)
Professor,
Thank you very much for your comments - they are of great interest to me and my
future PhD research. As you rightly point out, there seems to be almost no work
done regarding bronze and I hope that in my small way I am able to at least
begin to shed some light on it's use/value in the meroitic period. I am
particularly interested in the bronze bowls that crop up from time to time in a
mortuary context, what there meaning is and why grave-robbers seem to have
ignored them despite their (as yet presumed) value as import items or even scrap
value.
kind regards,
Paul Major
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