text: In the Middle Bronze (MB) Age (end of 3rd–middle of 2nd millennium BCE) hundreds of metal objects were found. The development of more complex weapons (longer daggers, swords, complex battle axes, etc.) was possible by alloying the copper with arsenic or with tin. All the MBII weapons that were analyzed were made of copper alloyed either with tin (14%–2% Sn) or with arsenic (4.3%–0.5% As), sometimes with a mixture of both usually in low concentrations. These changes in the metal properties of weapons are also reflected in the composition of small objects, like toggle pins that were probably made mainly from re-melting of scrap. Lead (Pb) started to play a greater role as a major alloy for thick casts of copper-based objects, mainly of battle axes  during this period.
  Although two definite major alloying compositions for the production of MBII copper-based artifacts, (1)copper with arsenic and (2) copper with tin, are detected, to date no visible connection of specific alloy with specific type of object or different periods has been seen: both alloys appear in similar objects and in burials dated to the beginning as well as to later parts of the ca. 400 years of the MBII age. Currently, there is no visible correlation between any specific alloying tradition and the spatial distribution of finds, as well. Similar objects made of arsenical coppers and of tin bronze were found in the same geographic region and identical objects with similar metal composition were found in distant areas like Palestine and Upper Egypt. The difference in the overall alloying pattern curve in Jericho and in Tell El-Dab'a shown by Philip (1995) does not necessarily have to be related to two different production centers, but could as well be the result of comparing different groups of objects (i.e., more prestigious weapons of control alloying either with tin or with arsenic) at Tell El Dab’a and similar objects mixed with simpler copper-based ones (like simple daggers, knives, toggle pins, etc.) in Jericho  and/or types like the spearheads that have more mixed, low levels of both alloys.
  The examination of metal composition in the formation of different types  does add knowledge concerning production modes. The thicker the object is, the more lead was
  deliberately added to the cast. The highest amounts of lead were measured in the duckbill axes, less in the flat socketed axes, and much less in thinner blades like spears and daggers, which were much more worked and annealed after being cast. This observation corresponds well with the controlled alloying of the duckbill axes and ribbed daggers (with much less lead in the latter) from the MBIIa, but does not correspond with the spears. Although they are derived mainly from MBIIa contexts, their composition is less controlled and more varied. There might be a connection between the level of allowing control and the investment in the cast — the more complex types, like duckbill and flat socketed axes and ribbed daggers, are usually cast in steatite, two-piece closed and well-carved moulds.
  On the other hand, some of the less controlled alloyed types, like spearheads and knives as well as more simple tools such as chisel points, were mainly cast into open, relatively roughly carved limestone moulds.