Middle Bronze Age metallurgy in the Levant: evidence from the weapons of Byblos Ziad EL Morr * , Michel Pernot Institut de Recherche sur les ArchéoMATériaux (IRAMAT-CRPAA), UMR5060, CNRS, Université Bordeaux 3, Esplanade des Antilles, 33607, Pessac Cedex, France article info Article history: Received 15 March 2011 Received in revised form 2 May 2011 Accepted 20 May 2011 Keywords: Metallurgy Copper base alloy Technology Weapons Middle Bronze Age Levant Byblos abstract This paper constitutes a synthesis of a technological investigation on copper base alloy weapons from Byblos. Most of the weapons are typical of the Middle Bronze Age in the Levant. Methods such as metallographic examination and chemical analyses by EDS were used to identify the different stages of the chaîne opératoire used in the making of these weapons. The results reveal precise information regarding the production of several types of weapons such as the type and performance of the moulds used for casting and the deformation process. Furthermore, these results highlight the contribution of economic and cultural factors in the choice of components in a copper base alloy recipe. Finally, the use of silverecopper brazes for joining copper base alloy objects is recorded for the first time for the period and region concerned. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Following what many archaeologists qualify as a period of “crises”, the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (roughly around 2000 B.C.) witnessed the regeneration of complex urban societies all across the Levant (Akkermans and Schwartz, 2003). This new period is accompanied by the appearance of new types of weapons, such as fenestrated axes and socketed spearheads, displaying new shapes and hafting systems (Gernez, 2007). According to previous studies such as Moorey and Schweizer (1972), Rosenfeld et al. (1997) and Philip et al. (2003), the frequent use of bronze (CuSn) in this area began in this period or slightly before (Early Bronze Age IV). The large-scale introduction of new alloy recipes and weapons makes the Middle Bronze Age an interesting period for the study of the Levant metallurgy. Studies investigating the metallurgical know-how used in the production of copper base alloy objects from Middle Bronze Age Levant were mostly concentrated on Palestine and Transjordan (Khalil, 1980; Philip, 1991, Philip et al., 2003; Rosenfeld et al., 1997; Shalev, 2000, 2009). In contrast with this substantial body of data concerning southern Levant metallurgy, only few studies (Moorey and Schweizer, 1972; Philip, 1991) have investigated northern Levant. The region of Lebanon in particular suffers from the scarcity of information regarding copper base alloy metallurgy. Therefore, weapons from Byblos were chosen to investigate the different technological aspects of copper base alloy metallurgy. This site has delivered the largest quantity of Middle Bronze Age weapons in all the Levant. The site of Byblos is situated on the eastern coast of the Medi- terranean, about 40 km north of Beirut the capital of Lebanon. In the Middle Bronze Age, Byblos was a small prosperous city with several religious structures (Huot et al., 1990). These structures yielded several deposits containing more than 400 weapons. Most of the weapons presented in this paper were found in the dépôts des offrandes (Dunand, 1954). These 22 temple deposits constitute sealed and chronologically coherent archaeological contexts dating back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (Saghieh, 1983: 132). Most of the remaining weapons were discovered in warrior tombs (Montet, 1928) and other less defined archaeological contexts (Dunand, 1939, 1954). 2. Presentation of the corpus In this paper, 57 weapons including fenestrated axes, daggers, socketed spearheads and riveted spearheads are investigated. These weapons will be presented here by their inventory numbers * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ33 5 57121084; fax: þ33 5 57124550. E-mail addresses: ziad_el_murr@hotmail.com (Z.EL Morr), mpernot@u- bordeaux3.fr (M. Pernot). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas 0305-4403/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.05.015 Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (2011) 2613e2624