Transmission patterns in the production of Bronze Age solid- hilted swords

Bronze Age swords with a bronze hilt were a highly specialised production. Casting hilts and blades and fixing them to each other require lots of precision and very specific skills. We hardly know anything about the production organisation as moulds are extremely rare, preventing us from locating workshops. However, studying swords themselves using X-ray imaging techniques allows us to reconstruct a part of the chaîne opératoire and gain insight into some aspects of the production processes. We identify three periods in the production of solid-hilted swords at the European scale:1. Experimental phase (1800-1450 BC): small-scaled productions by multiple workshops experimenting various ways o…