Bronze Age Europe

See also:Chalcolithic EuropeandPrehistoric Europe

TheEuropean Bronze Ageis characterized bybronzeartifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regionalBronze Agesucceeds theNeolithicandCopper Ageand is followed by theIron Age.It starts with theAegean Bronze Agein 3200 BC and spans the entire 2nd millennium BC (including theUnetice culture,Ottomány culture,British Bronze Age,Argaric culture,Nordic Bronze Age,Tumulus culture,Nuragic culture,Terramare culture,Urnfield cultureandLusatian culture), lasting untilc. 800 BC in central Europe.

Arsenical bronzewas produced in some areas from the 4th millennium BC onwards, prior to the introduction of tin bronze.Tin bronze foil had already been produced in southeastern Europe on a small scale in theChalcolithicera, with examples fromPločnikin Serbia dated toc. 4650 BC,as well as 14 other artefacts fromBulgariaandSerbiadated to before 4000 BC, showing that early tin bronze developed independently in Europe 1500 years before the first tin bronze alloys in theNear East.This bronze production lasted for c. 500 years in the Balkans but disappeared at the end of the 5th millennium, coinciding with the "collapse of large cultural complexesin north-eastern Bulgaria and Thrace in the late fifth millennium BC ". Tin bronzes usingcassiteritetin were subsequently reintroduced to the area some 1500 years later.

History

Aegean

Main article:Aegean Bronze Age

Gold 'Mask of Agamemnon',Greece,1550 BC

TheAegean Bronze Agebegins around 3200 BC when civilizations first established a far-rangingtradenetwork. This network importedtinand charcoal toCyprus,wherecopperwas mined and alloyed with the tin to producebronze.Bronze objects were then exported far and wide and supported the trade.Isotopicanalysis of the tin in someMediterraneanbronze objects indicates it came from as far away asGreat Britain.

Knowledge ofnavigationwas well developed at this time and reached a peak of skill not exceeded until a method was discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) to determinelongitudearound AD 1750.

Around 1600 BC, theeruption of Theradestroyed the site ofAkrotiriand damagedMinoansites in easternCrete.The further impact of this event is poorly understood.

TheLate Bronze Age collapse

Starting in the 15th century BC, theMycenaeansbegan to spread their influence throughout the Aegean and Western Anatolia. Byc. 1450 BC,the palace ofKnossoswas ruled by a Mycenaean elite who formed a hybrid Minoan-Mycenaean culture. Mycenaeans also colonized several other Aegean islands, reaching as far asRhodes.Thus the Mycenaeans became the dominant power of the region, marking the beginning of the Mycenaean 'Koine' era (fromGreek:Κοινή,common), a highly uniform culture that spread in mainland Greece and the Aegean.The Mycenaean Greeks introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of theMediterraneanwas essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, theLinear B,offers the first written records of theGreek languageand their religion already included several deities that can be also found in theOlympic Pantheon.Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king, known aswanax.

Southeast Europe

See also:Bronze Age Southeastern EuropeandBronze Age Romania

A study in the journalAntiquityfrom 2013 reported the discovery of a tin bronze foil from thePločnik archaeological sitedated toc. 4650 BC,as well as 14 other artefacts fromSerbiaandBulgariadated to before 4000 BC, showed that early tin bronze was more common than previously thought and developed independently in Europe 1,500 years before the first tin bronze alloys in theNear East.The production of complex tin bronzes lasted for c. 500 years in the Balkans. The authors reported that evidence for the production of such complex bronzes disappears at the end of the 5th millennium coinciding with the "collapse of large cultural complexes in north-eastern Bulgaria and Thrace in the late fifth millennium BC". Tin bronzes usingcassiteritetin would be reintroduced to the area again some 1,500 years later.

Caucasus

TheMaykop culturewas the major early Bronze Age culture in theNorth Caucasus.Some scholars date arsenical bronze artifacts in the region as far back as the mid-4th millennium BC.

Eastern Europe

Further information:Indo-European migrations

Corded Ware,YamnayaandSintashtacultures

TheYamnaya culturewas alate copper age/early Bronze Age culture dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC. The culture was predominantly nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers and a few hill-forts.

TheCatacomb culture,covering several related archaeological cultures, was first to introducecorded potterydecorations into the steppes and showed a profuse use of the polished battle ax, providing a link to the West. Parallels with theAfanasevo culture,including provoked cranial deformations, provide a link to the East. It was preceded by theYamnaya cultureand succeeded by the westernCorded Ware culture.The eastern Corded Ware culture (Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture) gave rise to theAbashevo culture,followed by theSintashta culture,where the earliest known spoked-wheelchariotshave been found, dating fromc. 2000 BC.The Catacomb culture in the Pontic steppe was succeeded by theMulti-cordoned Ware culture,and theSrubnaya culturefromc. the 17th century BC.

Central Europe

See also:Bronze Age Transylvania

Reconstruction of theLeubingenburial chamber

Important sitesinclude:

• Biskupin(Poland)
• Nebra(Germany)
• Zug-Sumpf,Zug,Switzerland
• Vráble,Slovakia

InCentral Europe,the early Bronze AgeUnetice culture(2300–1600 BC) includes numerous smaller groups like theStraubingen,AdlerbergandHatvancultures. Some very rich burials, such as the one located at Leubingen (today part ofSömmerda) with grave gifts crafted from gold, point to an increase of social stratification already present in the Unetice culture. All in all, cemeteries of this period are rare and of small size. The Unetice culture is followed by the middle Bronze Age (1600–1200 BC)Tumulus culture,which is characterized by inhumation burials intumuli(barrows). In the eastern HungarianKöröstributaries, the early Bronze Age first saw the introduction of theMakó culture,followed by theOtomaniandGyulavarsándcultures.

The late Bronze AgeUrnfieldculture (1300–750 BC) is characterized by cremation burials. It includes theLusatian culturein easternGermanyandPoland(1300–500 BC) that continues into theIron Age.The Central European Bronze Age is followed by the Iron AgeHallstatt culture(800–450 BC).

Italy

Main article:Bronze Age Italy

Illustration of aTerramaresettlement

The Italian Bronze Age is conditionally divided into four periods: The Early Bronze Age (2300–1700 BC), the Middle Bronze Age (1700–1350 BC), the Recent Bronze Age (1350–1150 BC), the Final Bronze Age (1150–950 BC).

During the second millennium BC, theNuragic civilizationflourished in the island ofSardinia.It was a rather homogeneous culture, more than 7000 imposing stone tower-buildings known asNuraghewere built by this culture all over the island, along with other types of monuments such as the megaron temples, the monumentalGiants' gravesand theholy well temples.Sanctuaries and larger settlements were also built starting from the late second millennium BC to host these religious structures along with other structures such ritual pools, fountains and tanks, large stone roundhouses with circular benches used for the meeting of the leaders of the chiefdoms and large public areas. Bronze tools and weapons were widespread and their quality increased thanks to the contacts between the Nuragic people and Eastern Mediterranean peoples such as theCypriots,the lost wa xing technique was introduced to create several hundred bronze statuettes and other tools. The Nuragic civilization survived throughout the earlyIron Agewhen the sanctuaries were still in use, stone statues were crafted and some Nuraghi were reused as temples.

Northern Europe

Main article:Nordic Bronze Age

See also:Tollense valley battlefield

Hünenburg bei Watenstedt,central settlement reconstruction,c. 1000 BC.

In northernGermany,Denmark,SwedenandNorway,Bronze Age cultures manufactured many distinctive and artistic artifacts. This includeslurhorns, horned ceremonial helmets, sun discs, gold jewelry and some unexplained finds like thebronze "gong" from Balkåkrain Sweden. Some linguists believe that an earlyIndo-European languagewas introduced to the area probably around 2000 BC, which eventually becameProto-Germanic,the last common ancestor of theGermanic languages.This would fit with the apparently unbroken evolution of the Nordic Bronze Age into the most probably ethnolinguistically GermanicPre-Roman Iron Age.

The age is divided into the periods I–VI, according toOscar Montelius.Period Montelius V, already belongs to theIron Agein other regions.

British Isles

Main article:Bronze Age Britain

See also:Atlantic Bronze Age

Cadbury CastleLate Bronze Agehillfort

InGreat Britain,the Bronze Age is considered to have been the period from around 2100 to 700 BC.Immigrationbrought new people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves aroundStonehengeindicate that at least some of the immigrants came from the area of modernSwitzerland.TheBeaker peopledisplayed different behaviors from the earlierNeolithicpeople and cultural change was significant. The richWessex culturedeveloped in southern Britain at this time. Additionally, the climate was deteriorating; where once the weather was warm and dry it became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, forcing the population away from easily defended sites in the hills and into the fertilevalleys.Large livestock ranches developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. TheDeverel–Rimbury culturebegan to emerge in the second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400–1100 BC) to exploit these conditions.Cornwallwas a major source oftinfor much of western Europe andcopperwas extracted from sites such as theGreat Ormemine in northernWales.Social groups appear to have been tribal but with growing complexity and hierarchies becoming apparent.

Also, the burial of dead (which until this period had usually been communal) became more individual. For example, whereas in the Neolithic a largechambered cairnorlong barrowwas used to house the dead, the 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individualbarrows(also commonly known and marked on modern BritishOrdnance Surveymaps as Tumuli), or sometimes incistscovered withcairns.

The greatest quantities of bronze objects found inEnglandwere discovered inEast Cambridgeshire,where the most important finds were done inIsleham(more than 6500 pieces).

Western Mediterranean

Remains ofLa Bastida de Totanafortified town

Preceded by the Chalcolithic sites ofLos Millares,theArgaric cultureflourished in southeastern Iberia in from 2200 BC to 1550 BC,when depopulation of the area ensued along with disappearing of copper–bronze–arsenic metallurgy.The most accepted model for El Argar has been that of an early state society, most particularly in terms of class division, exploitation, and coercion,with agricultural production, maybe also human labour, controlled by the larger hilltop settlements,and the elite using violence in practical and ideological terms to clamp down on the population.Ecological degradation, landscape opening, fires, pastoralism, and maybe tree cutting for mining have been suggested as reasons for the collapse.

The culture of themotillas,developed an early system of groundwater supply plants (the so-calledmotillas) in the upperGuadianabasin (in Iberian Peninsula's southernmeseta) in a context of extreme aridification in the area in the wake of the4.2-kiloyear climatic event,which roughly coincided with the transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. Increased precipitation and recovery of the water table from about 1800 BC onward should have led to the forsaking of themotillas(which may have flooded) and the redefinition of the relation of the inhabitants of the territory with the environment, with the development of the Iberianoppidamode of settlement.

Atlantic Europe

See also:Atlantic Bronze Age,Prehistory of France § The Bronze Age,andPrehistoric Iberia § Bronze Age

The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the Bronze Age period of approximately 1300–700 BC that includes different cultures inPortugal,Andalusia,Galicia,France,Britain,andIrelandand is marked by economic and cultural exchange that led to the high degree of cultural similarity exhibited by coastal communities, including the frequent use of stones aschevaux-de-frise,the establishment ofcliff castles,or the domestic architecture sometimes characterized by the round houses. Commercial contacts extended fromSwedenandDenmarkto theMediterranean.The period was defined by a number of distinct regional centres of metal production, unified by a regular maritime exchange of some of their products. The major centres were southern England and Ireland, north-western France, and western Iberia.

The Bronze Age in Ireland commenced in the centuries around 2000 BC when copper was alloyed with tin and used to manufactureBallybegtype flat axes and associated metalwork. The preceding period is known as theCopper Ageand is characterised by the production offlat axes,daggers,halberdsandawlsin copper. The period is divided into three phases:Early Bronze Age2000–1500 BC;Middle Bronze Age1500–1200 BC andLate Bronze Age1200–c. 500 BC.Irelandis also known for a relatively large number of Early Bronze AgeBurials.

Gallery

Maps

• 
  Diffusion ofmetallurgyin Europe
• 
  Steppe expansionsand migrations
• 
  Influence of theBell Beaker culture
• 
  Cultures of the Middle Bronze Age
• 
  Europe in the Late Bronze Age

Artefacts

• 
  Trundholm sun chariot,Denmark,c. 1500 BC
• 
  Nebra sky disk,Germany,1800 BC
• 
  Avanton gold hat,France,1400 BC
• 
  Minoan rhyton,Crete,1500 BC
• 
  Bronze boat model,Sardinia,c. 1000 BC
• 
  Mold cape,Britain,c. 1900–1700 BC
• 
  Gold diadem,Spain,c. 1600 BC
• 
  Bronze chariot wheel,Romania,c. 1200 BC
• 
  Cult chariot model,Serbia,c. 1300 BC
• 
  Ceremonial bronze dirk,Netherlands,c. 1500 BC
• 
  Gold lunula and discs,Ireland,c. 2200 BC
• 
  Wagon models,Russia,c. 2100 BC
• 
  Marble figurine,Cycladic Islands,2700 BC
• 
  Bronze collar,Sweden,c. 1400 BC
• 
  Bronze dagger,Switzerland,c. 2000 BC
• 
  Bronze cauldron,Hungary,c. 1000 BC
• 
  Valchitran Treasure,Bulgaria,c. 1300 BC
• 
  Bronze axes & armrings,Poland,c. 1000 BC
• 
  Gold necklace,Belgium,c. 1000 BC
• 
  Borodino treasure,Moldova,c. 1700 BC
• 
  Bronze shield,Czech Republic,c. 1200 BC
• 
  Bronze sword,Austria,c. 1300 BC
• 
  Silver and gold axe,Montenegro,c. 2200 BC
• 
  Gold bull figurine,North Caucasus,c. 3200 BC

See also

• Chariot burial
• Megalithic tomb
• Old European hydronymy
• Helladic chronology
• Nordic Bronze Age
• Argaric culture
• Atlantic Bronze Age

External links

• Media related toBronze Age Europeat Wikimedia Commons