The Compleat Metalsmith: Craft and Technology in the British Bronze Age ELPIDIA GIOVANNA FREGNI University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2014 E. G. Fregni ABSTRACT This thesis explores the craft of metallurgy in the British Bronze Age through an examination and analysis of metalworking tools. The goal of this research was to reassemble the Bronze Age metalsmithing toolkit based on an understanding of the craft and its practice. The first chapters examine the smith and metalsmithing tools through literary sources to establish a theoretical framework for understanding the significance of tools and smiths in the British Bronze Age. This is followed by a study of metalsmithing tools in museum collections. These examinations focussed on wear, design, and chemical composition. Tools were cross-referenced to contemporary tools, descriptions from ethnographic literature, and tools in modern workshops. This research also supplied data to create replica tools for use in an experimental programme to explore tool use and performance. The research culminated in establishing a system called Minimum Tools Required (MTR). It is based on the idea that the presence of an object implies the existence of the tools and materials necessary for its manufacture, and that the presence of tools implies a purpose, and the possibility of other tools and materials that are associated with that purpose. Using this system provides a means to assess assemblages and aids in understanding the kind and the number of tools and materials that were a necessary part of the Bronze Age metalsmith’s toolkit. The system also allows for more precise interpretations to be made of hoards. Tools can indicate the types of metal objects being made, or represent specific metalsmithing tasks. Thus by recognising the tools and their function, statements can be made about how these tools were used and the processes by which metal objects were made in the Bronze Age, resulting in a more complete understanding the organisation of the metalsmith’s craft in antiquity. 2 The Compleat Metalsmith PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Discovery is art, not logic C.S. Smith 1981, 347 My background as an artisan For many a thesis and the resulting PhD is the beginning of a career. For me it is the culmination of years of experience as a jeweller and metalworker. The knowledge of metalworking, its traditions, tools, and techniques have been passed from teacher to student more than three thousand years. I am indebted to my teachers, because the skills I learned are necessarily experiential and cannot be acquired from reading books. As a student at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, I learned the properties of metals while stretching flat sheets of copper into round bowls. My teachers instructed me on the mechanical properties and the microcrystalline structure of metal; how metal fatigue will cause an object to crack if I continued working and that annealing will relax the metal so that the work can continue. Metallography is not the same as metalsmithing. The changes in metallic structure can be seen under the microscope in polished samples, but in order to be a metalsmith, I had to feel the tension in the metal as I worked it. When the metal became stressed, I needed to feel how the hammer bounces back slightly differently, that the sound of the hammer striking the metal will change as the metal becomes more rigid. When it is time to anneal the metal I can use a thermocouple and pyrometer, but I needed also to know that the piece was nearing the proper temperature for annealing when the rainbow colours on the surface of the metal coalesced to a cherry red. To those who do not know these subtle signals, the embodied knowledge of the metalworker appears to be a form of magic. In 2005 I decided to return to university to finish a degree in anthropology. While working in the labs at the University of Minnesota, I was given the opportunity to work with a collection of bronze axes. I was fascinated by them and plunged into the Bronze Age technology. The anthropology department did not have facilities to cast bronze so I introduced myself to Wayne Potratz, master of the foundry in the art department. While he was accustomed to sculpture students, he became interested in my questions about ancient alloys and recipes for clay moulds. We successfully cast axes and palstaves. I also produced some spectacular failures, but each one was a learning experience. When I studied for my master’s degree at the University of Sheffield, I learned more of the mechanical properties of metal, but found that other than casting, few archaeologists had explored metalsmithing tools or smithing techniques. Once again I plunged into the world of metalworking, exploring tools that were both 3 E. G. Fregni familiar and different than the ones I had used most of my adult life. As a metalsmithing student I was told that the tools I used had their origins in Medieval Europe. Little did I know that their pedigree went so much further back in time. The use of modern analytical equipment has given me the opportunity to see metals in a way that was impossible for early metal workers. However, despite the technological advances, I still need to understand the material as they did: by pumping bellows, watching flames, and feeling the hammer as I work the metal. This thesis has been a labour of love, but that is not to say that it has been easy. In the second year I of my PhD I had to make some radical changes. I was determined to regain control of my work, and in order to do this I realised that I had to abandon most of what I had written and start fresh. I quickly outlined the thesis that is presented here with modifications suggested by Dr Caroline Jackson and Dr Bob Johnston, both of whom I am indebted to for their support, patience, and for taking me on as a student on such short notice. I am very much indebted to the following people for their assistance in pursuing data and completing this thesis and their support through the years: My academic supervisors, Dr Caroline Jackson and Dr Robert Johnston Thanks also to Rocky, Shane, and Chris for technical help and support. Thanks also to Katheryn Goldsack and the administrative and office staff who have solved problems, given advice, and smoothed all the transitions over the years. Thanks to those who helped facilitate experimental work: Stuart Bater, Phil Stator, and Ian Watts of the University of Sheffield Materials Science Foundry Sally Rodgers of Heeley City Farm The organisers of Umha Aois: Niall O’Neill, Holger Lönze, Pádraig Mc Goran, James Hayes, Mary Jane Vernier, Cliodna Cussen and Billy Mag Fhlionn Professor Wayne Potratz who has recently retired from teaching at the University of Minnesota Foundry Dr Francesca Fulminante and Mukund Unavane and the Material Culture Laboratory of Cambridge University for their assistance in obtaining XRF analyses Thanks also to the staff and curators of museums for permission to examine objects in their collections Paul Sealey and the museum staff of Colchester Museum Services Helen Harman and Lucy Creighton of Weston Park Museum, Sheffield Ken Hawley and Alison Duce of Kelham Island Museum Alison Roberts and Ilaria Perzia of the Ashmolean Museum Ben Roberts of the British Museum 4 The Compleat Metalsmith Catharine Niven, Jeanette Pearson and the staff of Inverness Museum, and Eleanor Fairclough for her help and support Samantha Belcher of the Bowes Museum Karl Noble of Clifton Park Museum, Rotherham Lisa Webb and the staff of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes Ruth Waller, Rebecca Loader, Frank Basford, and Corina Westwood Isle of Wight Heritage Service Museum Service Paul Robinson of Northampton Museum John Davies, FSA and Alan West of the Norwich Castle Museum Jane Ellis-Schön and the staff of Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum Ken Crowe of Southend Museums Services Stephen Minnitt and Sam Astill of Taunton Museum Robin Iles of Winchester Museums Services Keith Cunliffe and Chris Mycock of St Edmundsbury Heritage Service My family and friends supported me through all this Ellie Fregni Lori Bogren Ken Fletcher Tim Cockrell Venetia Fregni Dr Kevin Cootes Davide Fregni Syed Mohammed Muntasir Bob Alberti Mark Peters Gretchen Anderson Samantha Rubinson Ambereen and Professor M.A.R. Morgan Smith Barker Petra Verlinden Thanks to Jim Young and Emily Tindall for their help with German translations This thesis is dedicated to the memory of M.A.R. Barker and Jim Young, who were great friends and mentors, and who are sorely missed. Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime." - Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 5 E. G. Fregni CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Preface and