A non-destructive investigation of two Cypriot Bronze Age knife blades using neutron diffraction residual stress analysis

Abstract. This paper presents the results of a residual stress analysis that is part of a wider study of Cypriot Bronze Age knife and other weapon blades from a corpus of artefacts held by a number of institutions in Australia. The current focus is on knives from Early/Middle Bronze Age burial sites at Bellapais Vounous, Cyprus; a significant number of the blades were found on excavation to be bent. The aim of the study was to provide, by means of non-destructive neutron residual stress analysis, likely insights into fabrication methodologies of the knives and determine the stage in the life of each knife blade at which bending occurred. Two Vounous knives from the Australian Institute of Archaeology collection, one measurably bent and the other severely bent and broken, were studied using neutron diffractometer KOWARI to establish the residual stress profiles through the thickness of the knives at several locations. Since the knives were 1 – 2 mm thick at their thinnest sections, a very high through-thickness spatial resolution of 0.1 mm was used to resolve the residual stress profiles. The experimental data from the knives suggested forging/hammering as a possible method of fabrication of functional (hard edge) knife blade. Most significantly, however, the post fabrication bending of both knives at ambient temperature was established. The residual stress data for the two knives were considered in the context of reported metallurgical studies and the archaeological information from Cypriot Bronze Age sites