LATE BRONZE AGE METALWORKER GRAVES
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-03-06

Discovering of the so-called specialists graves, in this case bronze smiths, in urnfields is a rare phenomenon. Studies of this type of graves usually focus on the typo-chronological analysis of the equipment and the determination of sex and age of the buried individual. Aspects related to the technological side of the equipment are very rarely studied. Macro- and microscopic observations of objects such as casting moulds or casting cores allow to specify the type of raw material from which they were made and to determine the method of their production. Thanks to specialist analyses it is possible to determine whether the objects (moulds, cores) were used, and if so, what was the way they were used in the casting process. The paper deals with the methods of identifying of metallurgists graves, characteristics of metalworking equipment and interpreting of such phenomenon in the funerary practice. In addition, it will be presented the research possibilities that can be carried out while analyzing this type of graves. This study is a part of the project of the Polish National Centre for Science, NCN UMO-2016/23/B/HS3/00450.


Author(s): Nowak, Kamil (Institute of Archaeology University of Wroclaw) - Stolarczyk, Tomasz (Copper Museum in Legnica)