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Analysis of Bronze Age daggers has shown that they were used for processing animal carcasses and not as non-functional symbols of identity and status, as previously thought...As daggers are often found in weapon-rich male burials, or ‘warrior graves’, many researchers speculated that they were primarily ceremonial objects used in prehistoric funerals to mark out the identity and status of the deceased. Others suggested that they may have been used as weapons or tools for crafts.However, the lack of a targeted method of analysis for copper-alloy metals, like those available for ceramic, stone, and shell artefacts, left this problem unresolved.A revolutionary...

The ancient daggers. (Caricola et al., Scientific Reports, 2022) *************************************************************************** Prehistoric daggers long thought to be non-functional ceremonial objects interred in warriors' graves were actually used to slaughter and butcher animals during the early fourth millennium BCE, a new study suggests. Numerous copper-alloy daggers have been unearthed in Bronze Age warriors' graves across Europe, along with other weapons, and archaeologists previously speculated that the daggers may have served as status symbols. But scientists used a new analysis method on a set of 10 daggers, found in Pragatto, Italy in 2017, to reveal evidence that the tools had a more practical...