Bronze

Bronze

Guided by his creative genius, Man has always known how to implement the multiple processes of elaboration allowing him to realize more or less all that he wanted, whatever the object desired. Dating more than 2000 years BC, the techniques of bronze make us discover how this noble material can be shaped by means of the know-how inherited from the elders, from some tools and from the simple materials picked up in nature.
A multitude of objects were so born by melting down, chasing, hammering, and polishing. Although it is less resistant than iron, it was particularly appreciated by the Gauls for its golden colour tint when it is new. They used it for jewels making, but also for swords and chariot elements.

A new production of small animals in cast bronze also appeared at that time. The Gauls inaugurated another technique :  cauldron making. Their manufacturing processes were perfected enough to allow them to shape cauldrons of less than a millimeter in thickness, helmets, scabbards, seals etc.

Where does it come from?
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin (from approximately 9 %). Tin came from Armorica, from the Southwest of Brittany (current Great Britain), and Spain. Tin found an outlet thanks to trade along rivers from Great Britain towards the Mediterranean Sea. Copper came from the Alps and from Eastern Europe.