• A close examination: casting moulds and casting technique
• The metalworker – a mythical figure
• The Golden Age
• From daggers to swords
   

A close examination: casting moulds and casting technique

Casting moulds of stone, unlike those of clay or sand, can be used more than once. Bronze casters were therefore able to fabricate objects in large volumes. To make the sickle mould found at Piperbühel, the artisan first obtained two stone slabs. In the slab that has survived he carved the shape of the sickle in reverse and later a channel, known as a sprue, through which the molten bronze was poured. Air vents were also necessary. These were notches made on the edge of the mould through which entrapped air and gases from the molten metal could escape. This was done to prevent the formation of bubbles and cavities in the metal. The second stone slab was left smooth, since the back of the sickle is flat.
Such two-part moulds consisting of a reverse impression and a smooth cover stone are especially suitable for making simple objects. 
  

The metalworker – a mythical figure

Only a relatively small group of people mastered the art of extracting and working metal during the European Bronze Age. Most of the population lived a self-reliant existence as farmers and had no contact with metalworking. Specialized metalworking artisans therefore assumed a special status. Their knowledge and skill made them wealthy individuals. When they died, their tools were sometimes placed in the grave with them.
In later times metalworkers and smiths were often depicted as mythological figures. The Greek god Hephaistos was a blacksmith. In Germanic legends of the Middle Ages the craft of the blacksmith is presented as magic.
  

The Golden Age

Bronze, once fashioned into objects, glistened like gold. The European Bronze Age is therefore also sometimes known as the Golden Age. It is only because they were buried in the ground that prehistoric bronze objects have taken on a greenish tinge, known as patina. The new material was not only popular for weapons. Metalworkers also produced a wide range of agricultural tools from bronze.
The production of jewellery flourished. Men and women wore cloak pins, which grew in size and splendour over time. Jewellery also became popular: toe rings, armlets, finger rings, hairpins, spiral pendants, disc-shaped brooches, necklaces, headbands, amulets, and diadems. Artisans engraved or stamped ornamentations using burins or small chisels. Those sections of the population that could afford it wore jewellery. It was regarded as a status symbol – even after death. It was therefore placed in graves for use in the afterlife.
 

From daggers to swords

During the Bronze Age, starting around 1300 BC, warriors in Central Europe and the Alpine region equipped themselves for the first time with protective armour. They wore helmets, breastplates, greaves to protect their legs, and brassards and vambraces to protect their arms, all of which went to make up a suit of armour. Shortly before that, the sword had replaced the dagger as an offensive weapon. In the Late Bronze Age starting around 1200 BC it evolved into the slashing sword.
The history of sword development began with the hafted sword, which had a trapezoidal or rounded hilting plate. Grip tongue swords, by contrast, had extended tangs to which a bronze, bone, or wooden handle was riveted. A third type of sword, known as the solid hilted sword, was fitted with a solid cast bronze hilt.