ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of skill in a period of experimentation and change. The first half of the Early Bronze Age is characterised by a large variety of types of metal in circulation. A large group of axes was still made of type I material, the soft, malleable, and fairly 'pure' copper-compositions that were common in the preceding period. There are 28 axes in the dataset with a copper-composition in which the elements arsenic, nickel, antimony, and silver make up more than 7%. A material dependency is observed in axes made of type III copper-compositions. These are typically good castings that with little extra effort or skill resulted in axes with superior hardness values compared to the standard of the time. Axe 192 contains arsenic and silver, besides some very small amounts of antimony and nickel. Axe 48 is made of a type II copper-composition and of very poor casting quality.
