Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: nickel, arsenic/lead, iron
K. Eremin, January 2014
Technical Observations: The patina is light blue, green, and dark gray, with some cupritic areas. Grayish-tan soil accretions, which are most likely burial remains, are preserved on much of the surface. The surface is distorted overall with small pustules of corrosion, some of which are broken. The plate is distorted and cracked; one of the handles and one of the tips are broken off, the other handle is bent, and there is a loss on part of the rim. The metal at the breaks appears to be mineralized, and the black spots along their edges and in a few other areas on the piece are copper sulfide crystals that were caused by post-excavation storage conditions.
This plate was formed in one piece from sheet metal, which was cut out to form the handles and four extending tips adjacent to these. Two rows of evenly spaced raised dots—one on the front, the other on the reverse—form a raised circular decoration in the middle of the plate. These are created with a pointed punch. The distortion of the metal caused by the tooling—on both the front and the back of the plate—is typical of repoussé work.
Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2012)
