ABSTRACT
There are a considerable number of references to copper/bronze in the Old Testament, not many of them particularly informative from the technical point of view, and a limited number in the Phoenician inscriptions. A sample of labelled bronze exists in the form of fragments of a bowl, possibly originally with the profile of a shallow truncated cone, of about the eighth century BC from Cyprus, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Bronze appears to have been widely used for cult objects, and a number of bronze pieces are described in Exodus as forming part of the equipment of the tabernacle. A very large bronze example is described as playing a part in the dedication of the Temple by Solomon. The tabernacle was equipped with bronze examples, but for Solomon’s temple they were made of gold.
