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If they’re tricky to produce well, that suggests another possibility - maybe they were a journeyman piece for bronze crafters. Does it require combining a numbe

If they’re tricky to produce well, that suggests another possibility - maybe they were a journeyman piece for bronze crafters. Does it require combining a number of different techniques to produce? Would deficiencies in particular techniques manifest in obvious flaws in the finished artifact? Or maybe they’re more like fizzbuzz for gallo-Roman bronze artificers. You show up at an interview and they ask you to knock out one of these to prove you’re not an idiot.

arbitrage 3y ago
> maybe they were a journeyman piece for bronze crafters If this were the case, shouldn't there be makers' marks on them? Something to identify them as being the work of a journeyman level artisan hoping to use it to prove their worth? Otherwise, one could fraudulently present someone else's work as there own, and undermine the system. I feel that if they were really part of a 'graduation portfolio' for crafters, it would be much more obvious. Something like an inscription that says "crafted by Albertus in the 14th year of the Emperor Foo". I like your fizz-buzz theory. If the object is a one-and-done throw away, then you might not bother to put your mark on it.