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The Bronze Age
Definitions for the chapter
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Time period? | 2500 - 500 BC. Human settlement mostly built of wood so little remains. |
Main characteristic | Change from stone to metal |
Benefits of metal? | Craftsmen now able to make stronger and more efficient weapons and tools |
Metal used? | Gold, copper, bronze. Bronze the best = easier to shape, harder wearing, sharper edge. |
What is bronze? | An alloy of copper and tin. In Ireland, made from copper and tin imported from Cornwall, England. |
Repoussè | Used to make raised design on flat surface. Thin sheet of gold faced down and designs made using tracers. Pressed or hammered into surface. Work flipped to reveal design underneath. |
Incision | Decoration incised (cut into surface) with scriber (and sharp pencil-shaped tool) |
Flat designs | Concentric circles, hatching, parallel lines, cross-hatching, chevron, triangles, punch marks |
Raised designs | Parallel ridges, rope/string pattern, rows of beads, bead within circle of beads, raised cone shape, punch marks |
Example of Early Bronze Age artefacts? | Sun Discs or Lunula |
Sun Discs | Circular sheets of gold, made using repoussè. Repeating pattern of rides, dots and chevrons. Forms cruciform shape, but before Christ so unrelated to religion. Holes near centre suggest they were sewn onto belt or garment. |
Lunula | Comes from Latin 'luna', meaning 'moon' due to crescent shape. Neck collar. Piece of gold hammered into flat sheet. Lugs at narrow ends twisted to create catch. Decoration incised (Lines, triangles and chevrons) |
Example of Middle Bronze Age artefacts? | Torcs and Derrinaboy Armbands. |
Torcs | Made by twisting flat, round square of triangular sectioned rods of gold into spiral shape |
Example of Late Bronze Age artefacts? | Fibulae (fibula), Gorgets and Lock Rings |
The Clones Fibula | Made from 1kg of solid gold. Large open cup endings connected by handle. Some may have been used as clothes fasteners, but not all shaped in that away. Decoration: triangles, concentric circles. Handle cast and cups hammered into shape, soldered together |
Gorget | U-shaped collar with gold disc at each end. Outer + inner edge finished with gold strip for smooth finish. Discs two-layered, larger wrapped over edge of smaller upper disc. Discs connected to collar by stitching with gold wire or by hinge. |
Design of Gorget | Rows of repoussè, which are plain and rope patterned. Row of beading along outer and inner edges. Discs have rows of beads and concentric circles with smooth cone in centre. |
Decoration of Bronze Age | Metal was cast, hammered, twisted and cut using mechanical means (a compass and straightedge) rather than the free-hand designs of the Stone Age. It combines basic geometric shapes with technology. |
How was copper mined? | Roasting ore-bearing rock and cracking it by throwing cold water at it. In later years, mixed with tin to form bronze. |
How was it melted and cast? | Smelted over charcoal fire, then poured into stone moulds |