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‘Atiqot 110 (2023)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Medieval Book Fitting(?) from the ‘Atlit Castle
(pp. 263–281)
Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel and Dana Ashkenazi
Keywords: archaeometallurgy, ‘Atlit Castle, Château Pèlerin, book fitting, copper alloy, medieval Latin East, microstructural characterization
A metal object found on the surface at the ‘Atlit Castle was identified as a book fitting. Although such mounts could have served other functions, such as inlays, belt or girdle mounts, this artifact was probably an anchor-plate, part of a book clasp for a medieval codex, possibly of religious content, bound in a leather cover. Visual testing inspection and SEM-EDS analysis of the book fitting have shown that the item was made of a heterogeneous composition of copper alloy. This book fitting joins a growing corpus of metal artifacts from the Latin East, establishing a metallurgical database for future comparative analysis of book fittings and similar artifacts. The identification of the item as a book fitting, and its plausible dating as a piece of medieval book furniture, supports its origin in the Frankish occupation of the site.