this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Not iron, so no rust, but it's bronze so it's copper and tin. I thought that still oxidized and corroded? I suppose the type of soil it was in could prevent that?
Bronze can also be arsenic bronze, as it happens, and it's probably the oldest form of bronze used because it forms naturally.
Apparently it's why Hephaestus and other ancient smith gods are depicted as crippled or deformed, an entire mythological archetype of such in fact, ancient smiths were mostly making arsenic bronze until around 1500 BC and even afterwards when tin couldn't be sourced.
This is almost certainly tin bronze, just a point to keep in mind.
Copper and bronze have a useful property: when the outer layer of the metal oxidizes, it forms a protective covering called a patina that prevents corrosion from penetrating the structure of the item. That's the source of that distinctive green color.
Gotcha, thanks. I've seen at least copper items degraded down, but not sure about bronze.
Yeah I'm astonished it held up this well over a 3000 year period, it would be more typical for it to look like this:
This is from southwest Greece and a similar age. I wonder if the composition of the bronze plays a big part, or if the well-preserved one was buried under unusual conditions.
Yeah, that was really my question. I'm betting something about the soil, maybe in a similar way that peat bogs can preserve organic stuff/bodies.