As an amateur blacksmith, I can tell you that bronze is very difficult to forge. The minimum working temperature is close to the temperature at which it turns i

As an amateur blacksmith, I can tell you that bronze is very difficult to forge. The minimum working temperature is close to the temperature at which it turns into a liquid, and you would be hard pressed to keep it between those limits. It also doesn't color like iron or steel, and iron and steel have much wider working temperatures. Bronze is much easier to cast than it is to forge. So, if we're talking about casting, then we have to ask what did they cast in, and what did they use for the molded object? I don't know when sand casting was invented, but I think that's how a lot of modern casting in bronze is done. As for the original piece that was molded, you could do a lost wax type process, and wax was certainly a thing available back then, but would it have been used for this purpose? And how would you do lost wax with sand casting? If it wasn't a lost wax process, then how did you get all those neat little knobs, because otherwise you'd get the equivalent of mold tear outs. Any sand casted piece would have needed a lot of cleanup to make it look nice, so you'd need to cut, sand, and polish those edges and surfaces. It would be interesting to have this discussion with someone who is well acquainted with the process of casting bronze, to see what their thoughts are.