One of the fundamental mysteries of Bronze Age metal-working may have been solved with the discovery that metal-workers of the 2nd and early 1st millennium BC possibly possessed a prototype of the bunsen burner.
The mystery has been to explain how early bronze-smiths produced much of the intricate, decorative metal work known from the period. Few metal-working tools are known, certainly none capable of handling filigree work or soldering.
Now, however, a perforated ceramic Bronze Age artefact with a central hole in its base, traditionally interpreted as a culinary device, has been recognised as a possible early bunsen burner. The discovery was made during experiments by Jacqui Wood, an archaeologist who specialises in reconstructing various aspects of Bronze Age life (see BA, July 1995).
Earlier this year, Mrs Wood was examining one of the perforated pots at the Lake Ledro Museum in Northern Italy, and noticed its inside had been subjected to intense heat, making it resemble crucibles used in reconstructions of tin and bronze smelting. Thinking at first that it was a kind of lantern, she lit a fat-soaked rushlight underneath and watched the effect.
`It immediately produced this tall, pencil-like flame through the hole in its base,' she said. `The air rushed in through the holes in the sides and the flame did not blow out in the wind.' The value of such a flame is that it would have allowed the metal-worker to get his or her hands close to the flame without getting burnt.
The artefact was widely distributed around Europe, and has been found in Italy, Sweden, Poland, and possibly Bavaria, Hungary and Lithuania - but not Britain. It had been thought of as a device to prevent a skin forming on heated milk in a pan, or to strain curds in cheese-making. `People just assumed that if it was ceramic, it must be domestic,' Mrs Wood said.
Peter Northover, an archaeometallurgist at Oxford University, said that to test the hypothesis you'd need to look for traces of metal on the Lake Ledro pot and estimate the temperatures implied by the scorch-marks inside. `But if she's right, it could explain why it's found on the Continent and not here. You wouldn't have needed that sort of flame to make British bronze and gold - and we don't have any Bronze Age silver - but you would have needed it to make some of the goods found the Continent,' he said.
