Tin

Currently it is believed that the alloying of tin with copper to make bronze appears for the first time in Mesopotamia around 2700 B.C. (see Kish). So the absence of bronze at Gawra before Level VII was to be expected. But the MMP analytical program has identified only ten bronzes (Sn, >0.5%) among the 106 copper-base artifacts from the site’s Levels VII through IV (circa 3050 B.C.–2100 B.C.):

None

Level VI (among 74 artifacts):
Axe (31-52-251A: Sn, 17.7%)
Shafthole axe (31-52-249: Sn, 15.7%)
Chisel (31-52-230: Sn, 7.4%)
Toggle pin (32-21-113: Sn, 6.2%)
Blade fragment (31-52-225: Sn, 4.3%)

Level V (among 12 artifacts):
Snake (31-52-45: Sn, 7.2%)
Arrowhead (31-52-31: Sn, 2.9%)
Toggle pin (31-52-44: Sn, 1.9%)
Arrowhead (31-52-32: Sn, 0.55%)

Level IV (among 4 artifacts):
Flat adze (31-52-26: Sn, 1.7%)

The range of artifact types listed here argues against any notion that bronze was being used for any deliberate functional or aesthetic purpose. (Only an Sn-content of about 12% or more would give the alloy a golden hue when freshly cast: see Chase 1983)

This infrequency of bronzes at Gawra is in marked contrast with what we find at several southern Mesopotamian sites over the same period. For example, at Ur during the Early Dynastic III (circa 2600 B.C.–2300 B.C.) and subsequent Akkadian period (circa 2350 B.C.–2150 B.C), 52% and 42% of the copper-based artifacts were bronzes, respectively (see Ur). Whether the bronzes listed above might perhaps be imports from the south (i.e., that northern Mesopotamia had little or no bronze-working tradition of its own) is currently under consideration.