Symbolism of graves with weapons in the Early Bronze Age: Use-wear analysis of metal daggers in Bohemia
Abstract
While use-wear analysis of stone tools is quite well established in the Czech Republic, much less attention has been paid to the potential of use-wear traces on prehistoric metal weapons. This pilot study presents such an analysis for selected copper-based daggers in the graves of the Únětice Culture, during the Central European Early Bronze Age, the Reinecke stages A1 and A2 (understood in our work as chronological labels only).
There are several reasons for the study of this specific group of artifacts. Daggers occur in the graves with both "typically" male or female grave offerings.
This study therefore raises two basic questions: First, whether the copper-based daggers were actually actively employed before deposition in the grave or whether they only had a symbolic function in specialized social context? Secondly, whether it is possible to define more precisely the specific use of such daggers in a gendered context? In other words, whether we can register differences of use-wear marks in case of male or female burials. The functional analysis was carried out on fourteen daggers with a wider and a narrow blade from six Central Bohemian districts which can be considered a representative sample of daggers from the Early Bronze Age in our region.