Anvil

This anvil was used by a smith in the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. The smith would take a piece of copper and beat it into the right shape on the anvil, using a stone hammer. The anvil was found in a grave, along with other objects from this period: a Bell Beaker, a wrist-guard, flint arrowheads, and axes. The grave also contained three other anvils and a copper awl. Finds of metal from the late Neolithic are extremely rare in the Netherlands. Clearly, smiths were active in these regions in the Late Neolithic, given the anvils and hammer stones that were found in two graves at Soesterberg and Lunteren. The grave at Lunteren also contained a copper dagger and awl. The object would be heated slightly during the hammering process, to prevent the copper from becoming brittle and developing cracks. Once the little dagger was finished, an organic material such as bone, horn or leather would generally be applied around the ‘tang’ – these pieces are known as ‘tanged daggers’ – to improve the grip. Occasionally the grip would be fixed with a rivet.