Los moldes de fundición de bronce para hachas de talón de La Macolla (Linares De Riofrío, Salamanca). Nuevos datos sobre viejos hallazgos

Abstract

The discovery of two metal moulds for casting palstaves with two loops in Linares de Riofrío (Salamanca) is one of the most interesting evidences known for the study of the Late Bronze Age metallurgy in the Northern Spanish Plateau. This paper presents the results of a new documentary, formal, and archaeometric review of this finding. Our study was able to resolve most of the problems driven from the moulds early dispersion, which had been hindering their proper analysis. The formal study and archaeometric analysis (xrf, pixe) of the moulds allowed us to make a complete characterization of the technology behind their casting, as well as their usage.

Although the moulds from La Macolla share features with the palstaves commonly found in the Northern Spanish Plateau, some of their typological details allow us to link them with the Late Bronze Age metallurgy from central Portugal. This aspect, along with the supposed context of the find, is extremely relevant in the analysis of the technological and ideological processes behind these objects, offering new data for the study of the limited group of metal moulds known for this period in the Iberian Peninsula.