Which mechanism limited ancient Mesopotamian bronze tools' hardness, creating deformation under high stress during construction work?

💡 Explanation

When bronze alloys lack sufficient tin content, tin depletion occurs which weakens the grain boundaries, causing increased softness and lower yield strength during cutting or hammering activities. Therefore insufficient tin content leads to deformation, rather than oxidation, brittleness, or grain growth which require other metallurgical deficiencies or processing steps.

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