Late medieval copper alloying practices: a view from a Parisian workshop of the 14th century AD

Seal dies from the National Museum of Slovenia: Non‐destructive analyses of medieval and early modern copper alloys

“…It has been reported in the literature that medieval brass production involved impure Cu as a raw material, with a natural Sn content of around 2% (Bourgarit and Thomas 2012); this could explain the moderate presence of Sn in brass alloys. Another interesting indicator is the Pb content.…”

“…Among the samples only three of the earliest seal dies contain > 4% Pb; the rest generally contain < 2% with no apparent pattern of concentration. Pb is usually added to Cu alloys in small quantities for ease of casting and machinability, though in large percentages it becomes detrimental to the overall performance of the alloy for most purposes (Ponting 2008; Bourgarit and Thomas 2012). Also, it should be taken in consideration that in many cases Zn used in the production of brass was often a by‐product of lead smelting scrapped off furnace walls, which could explain the presence of Pb (Dawkins 1950).…”

“…Reuse of older alloys seems particularly plausible in the case of low‐Zn brasses with a significant percentage of Sn, which were typical of the late Middle Ages (Bourgarit and Thomas 2012). This would indicate that less complex or primarily decorative objects such as seal dies were made with little regard to their elemental composition, and most likely from recycled material from different sources (Scott 1991; Pollard et al .…”

Copper-alloy use in a Tyrrhenian medieval town: The case of Leopoli-Cencelle (Italy)

“…Following conventional practice (Craddock, 1979;Mortimer, 1991;Bayley, 1990Bayley, , 2002Nicholas, 2003;Brownsword, 2004;Dungworth and Nicholas, 2004;Bourgarit and Thomas, 2012), while acknowledging that these thresholds are arbitrary, we will use the term brass for copper alloys with Zn N 2% and Sn b 2%, bronze for alloys with Zn b 2% and Sn N 2%, and gunmetal for those with Zn N 2% and Sn N 2%. Metals with Zn b 2% and Sn b 2% will be termed copper, while all alloys with Pb N 2% will be considered leaded.…”

The recycling of material culture today and during the Paleolithic

“…One of the critical advantages that metal working provided over lithic technology was the ability to combine and reforge broken and exhausted tools to make new ones. Recycling has been documented throughout the world for the metal industries of ancient copper (Bourgarit and Thomas, 2012;Bray et al, 2012;Potts, 2007, p. 126-128;Simmons and Shugar, 2008), bronze (Bradley, 1988;de Ryck et al, 2005;Figueiredo et al, 2010;Needham et al, 1989;Ottaway and Roberts, 2008), and iron (Lahiri, 1995;Zimring 2005, pp. 12-36).…”