With the aim of building up a much-needed reference collection for the determination of ancient production methods for cast bronze artefacts, a series of experiments were carried out at the University of Sheffield. This volume publishes the methodology and results of these experiments where bronze flat axes were cast using three types of moulds - sand, clay and bronze - under controlled conditions and were cooled using different techniques. The microstructure, malleability and behaviour of the copper alloy elements during melting and casting were then compared. A study with important implications for ancient production methods of cast bronze artefacts.

Thirteen papers, from the EEA Sixth Annual Meeting held in Lisbon in 2000, aim to explain the role that metal and metalworking played in past societies and to integrate analytical data with theoretical, contextual and ethno-archaeological studies'. Divided into four sections, contributions examine the development of metallurgy in the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age Levant and Europe; evidence for metalworking in Wales, central Europe and Portugal; ornate metalworking in Iron Age Norway, medieval Russia and modern Portugal and Cairo and, finally, the social and cultural function of metalworking and metal objects.