I have been working with the University of Minnesota's collection of bronze
axes since the spring of 2006. It's a small collection of 30 axes from
Western Europe ranging from early flanged axes to later socketed axes. In
May of this year I had the opportunity to have the metal analyzed on almost
all of them. Right now I am working with a professor in the art metals
department casting replicas of the axes using the metal analysis in order to
test the axes' wear and durability.
I've just set up a blog where I am posting the data, and hope that it can be
useful to others. Right now all I have up is a general overview and two of
the Excell spreadsheets, but hope that I'll have time to post all of the
data in the next few weeks. I'll also be posting journal entries about the
casting process. The university has primitive casting facilities and so the
replica axes will be made as close as possible to the originals.
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/fregn001/anthropology/
Giovanna Fregni
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