Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 91.16; Sn, 8.18; Pb, 0.13; Zn, 0.005; Fe, 0.31; Ni, 0.03; Ag, 0.16; Sb, 0.03; As, less than 0.10; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer
Technical Observations: The patina is green with areas of black and red. One of the blades has a 1-cm loss. The flow of metal during casting of this blade may have been sequential, resulting in a crack where two sections did not coalesce, and the edge was later lost. An adjacent blade was deformed by an impact to its edge, which caused most of the green corrosion to fall off and reveal underlying red surfaces. This blade also has many fine cracks, which probably indicate brittleness from long-term burial.
Except for the hole through the middle axis, the pendant is a solid cast. This hole is not drilled and appears to be part of the casting. A 4-mm casting flaw near the blades creates an opening to the interior of the shaft. A second 7-mm flaw further up the shaft reveals the remains of a mineralized lead repair. The object is consistent with lost-wax casting, and its wax model may have been made directly rather than cast in a mold. The faces and edges of the blades show coarse abrasive marks from cold work after casting.
Henry Lie (submitted 2012)
