Metallurgical analysis of prehistoric material has hitherto been concentrated on examination of early artifacts, presumably made from newly-won metal, which may therefore contain trace elements to indicate the sources and trade-routes of contemporary metal supply. The present study was undertaken to discover whether bronze artifacts from the British Middle and Late Bronze Age, when an important component of the bronzes produced must have been re-used metal, show nonetheless perceptible variations in metal composition, which might correlate with changes of bronze types, or with the successive industries of the archaeological sequence.Analyses were made at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology in the University of Oxford, using an optical emission spectrometer. Samples of the bronzes studied were examined for the elements copper (Cu), tin (Sn), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), nickel (Ni), bismuth (Bi), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), silver (Ag), gold (Au) and magnesium (Mg), the only elements found in the bronzes in appreciable quantities.

This investigation into the compositions of Minoan and Mycenaean pottery fabrics was carried out in Oxford at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art by permission of the Director, Dr. E. T. Hall. Mrs. E. E. Richards, co-author of this report, was in charge of the investigation, latterly with the assistance of Mrs. A. Millett. The potential importance of the work undertaken was first suggested by Mr. M. S. F. Hood, then Director of the British School at Athens. Mr. Hood has maintained lively interest in the investigation, and has made many valuable suggestions about the course it should take, as well as providing much of the sherd material. In this connexion we are greatly indebted to Dr. J. Papadimitriou, Director-General of Antiquities in Greece, for granting the necessary export permits. We are also grateful to Mr. M. R. Popham, for scraping selected sherds in the Herakleion Museum and in the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos, and to Dr. N. Platon, then Ephor of Antiquities in Crete, for allowing this to be done. Sherds from Thebes in the University Museum, Reading, were loaned by Mrs. A. N. Ure; the Rev. Dr. A. J. Arkell provided a set of Mycenaean sherds from Tell el Amarna from the collections in University College, London. Fragments from Rhodes were given by the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum through the kindness of Mr. D. E. L. Haynes and Mr. R. A. Higgins. Other sherds were provided from the reserve collection in the Ashmolean Museum. The sherds tested in the course of the investigation are now housed in the Ashmolean, with the exception of the group from Thebes (Reading).

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