Tribology's contribution to archaeology

Abstract

Nowadays, archaeology is a multidisciplinary science, aware of the possibilities which advanced technologies can bring about. Thus tribology, the science of wear and friction, has been for some time one of the analysing techniques leading to a better knowledge of our past. It studies the mechanisms of wear, abrasion and friction which took place during the manufacturing or the use of an object. Recently, two hoards of bronze objects, dating from the middle phase of the Final Bronze Age (1100–900 BC), were discovered on the site of les Feuilly in Saint-Priest (Rhône, France). These bronzes which reached us are the last markers of the techniques of former craftsmen: their surfaces reveal many traces, which are the memory of their manufacturing skills and their ‘social life’. The archaeological and tribological study was conceived to raise questions about gestures and processes used particularly for the decoration of bronze objects, in order to have a better knowledge of the crafstman's know-how. We could determine that decorative patterns of the bracelet 375 were created after the casting process, by chasing. The tools used were thus chasing tools, probably made of bronze. We had also the possibilities to reconstitute part of the kinetics of the bracelet decoration.