Thanks Gary. That makes a lot of sense, and is a great reference.

Another bit of trivia I found today is that many bronze artifacts are actually brass. Tin and Zinc deposits are often interspersed together. This resulted in some alloys to be more copper and zinc than copper and tin.

The oldest bronze artifacts were copper and arsenic, which was a very brittle alloy. The arsenic gas released during the process of making this old form of bronze probably resulted in the death of the metal smith. Tin was eventually used to replace the arsenic and made a stronger and less brittle alloy.