According to an organic residue analysis performed on 10 copper-alloy daggers from Pragatto, a Bronze Age domestic site (1550-1250 BCE) in northern Italy, these artifacts were used for processing animal carcasses and not as non-functional symbols of identity and status, as previously thought.
Daggers are ubiquitous yet poorly understood artifacts from prehistoric Europe.
They first appeared near-simultaneously in Eastern/Central Europe, the Alps, and the Italian peninsula in the early 4th millennium BCE.
From the outset, daggers were made from either flint or copper (first alloyed with arsenic, and later with tin) depending on source proximity and cultural preferences.
By the early 2nd millennium BCE, daggers were being made, used, and exchanged from Crete in the south to Scandinavia in the north, and from the Ukrainian steppes in the east to Ireland in the west.
