Neutron analyses of eight Bronze Age swords from Austria: The question of ‘stabbing’ or ‘cut-and-thrust’ weapons

•Bronze Age swords are rare. Destructive sampling is a constraint on technical studies.•Non-invasive neutron methods are ideal combined with standard metallography and XRF.•Information about manufacture and use of Bronze Age swords.•Identification of the sword’s primarily usage as ‘stabbing’ or ‘cut-and-thrust’ weapon. European Bronze Age swords are rare finds; they cannot normally be sampled in the destructive manner that would be necessary to assess their manufacturing technique, or to obtain evidence regarding their use primarily as ‘stabbing’ or ‘slashing’ weapons. Therefore, non-invasive neutron-based methods are potentially ideal. In this paper, neutron diffraction (ND) and Neutron Resonance Capture Analyses (NRCA) are presented. The analyses were undertaken on eight Bronze Age metal-hilted swords of various types, from three Austrian museums. Neutron diffraction measurements were carried out on all eight swords at the ISIS Neutron Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK), giving information about crystallographic microstructure, and major metal alloy and mineral compound proportions. NRCA was carried out on four of the swords at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Geel (BE), to determine the elemental compositions at various regions of these swords, because no invasive sampling was permitted. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) was used to measure the elemental compositions of four swords from which one sample each was permitted to be cut for metallographic examination. The tin contents of the swords determined by NRCA, XRF and neutron diffraction data are in good agreement; some small differences could be well understood. Questions about the use of these swords as primarily either ‘stabbing’, or ‘cut-and-thrust’ weapons were addressed based on the neutron diffraction results and provide information which will be especially relevant for experimental archaeology and use-wear analysis.