Chalcolithic Europe

See also:Neolithic EuropeandPrehistoric Europe

TheEuropean Chalcolithic,theChalcolithic(also Eneolithic, Copper Age) period ofPrehistoric Europe,lasted roughly from 5000 to 2000 BC, developing from the precedingNeolithicperiod and followed by theBronze Age.

It was a period ofMegalithicculture, the appearance of the first significant economic stratification, and probably the earliest presence ofIndo-Europeanspeakers.

The economy of the Chalcolithic, even in the regions where copper was not yet used, was no longer that of peasant communities and tribes: some materials began to be produced in specific locations and distributed to wide regions.Miningof metal and stone was particularly developed in some areas, along with the processing of those materials into valuable goods.

Ancient Chalcolithic

Further information:Old Europe (archaeology)

Reconstruction of an elite burial,c. 4500 BC,Varna culture,Bulgaria.

From c.5000 BCto 3000 BC, copper started being used first inSoutheast Europe,then in Eastern Europe, and Central Europe. Fromc. 3500onwards, there was an influx of people into Eastern Europe from thePontic-Caspian steppe(Yamnaya culture), creating a plural complex known asSredny Stog culture.This culture replaced theDnieper-Donets culture,and migrated northwest to the Baltic and Denmark, where they mixed with natives (TRBKA and C). This may be correlated with the spread of Indo-European languages, known as theKurgan hypothesis.Near the end of the period, another branch left many traces in the lower Danube area (culture ofCernavodă cultureI), in what seems to have been another invasion.

Meanwhile, the DanubianLengyel cultureabsorbed its northern neighbours of theCzech Republicand Poland over a number of centuries, only to recede in the second half of the period. InBulgariaandWallachia(SouthernRomania), theBoian-Marica cultureevolved into a monarchy with a clearly royal cemetery near the coast of the Black Sea. This model seems to have been copied later in the Tiszan region with the culture ofBodrogkeresztur.Labour specialization, economic stratification and possibly the risk of invasion may have been the reasons behind this development. The influx of earlyTroy(Troy I) is clear in both the expansion of metallurgy and social organization.

In the western Danubian region (the Rhine and Seine basins) the culture ofMichelsbergdisplaced its predecessor,Rössen.Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean basin, several cultures (most notablyChasseyin SE France andLa Lagozzain northern Italy) converged into a functional union, of which the most significant characteristic was the distribution network of honey-colouredflint.Despite this unity, the signs of conflicts are clear, as many skeletons show violent injuries. This was the time and area whereÖtzi,a man whose well-preserved body was found in the Alps, lived. Another significant development of this period was the Megalithic phenomenon spreading to most places of the Atlantic region, bringing with it agriculture to some underdeveloped regions existing there.

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  Varna cultureartefacts, 4500 BC
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  Bodrogkeresztúrgold idol, 4000-3500 BC BC
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  Cucuteni-Trypilliafigurine, 4000 BC
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  Cucuteni–Trypillia pottery
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  Maidanetske,Ukraine,c. 3800 BC
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  Copper tools,Old Europe,c. 4000 BC
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  Ljubljana Wheel,Slovenia, 3150 BC

Middle Chalcolithic

Los Millares,c. 3000 BC,Spain

This period extends along the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Most significant is the reorganization of the Danubians into the powerfulBaden culture,which extended more or less to what would be the Austro-Hungarian Empire in recent times. The rest of the Balkans was profoundly restructured after the invasions of the previous period but, with the exception of theCoțofeni culturein a mountainous region, none of them show anyeastern(or presumably Indo-European) traits. The newEzero culture,in Bulgaria, had the first traits of pseudo-bronze (an alloy of copper witharsenic); as did the first significant Aegean group: the Cycladic culture afterc. 2800 BC.

In the North, the supposedly Indo-European groups seemed to recede temporarily, suffering a strong culturaldanubianization.In the East, the peoples of beyond the Volga (Yamnaya culture), surely eastern Indo-Europeans, ancestors ofIranians,took over southern Russia and Ukraine. In the West the only sign of unity comes from the Megalithicsuper-culture,which extended from southern Sweden to southern Spain, including large parts of southern Germany. But the Mediterranean and Danubian groupings of the previous period appear to have been fragmented into many smaller pieces, some of them apparently backward in technological matters.

Afterc. 2600several phenomena prefigured the changes of the upcoming period. Large towns with stone walls appeared in two different areas of the Iberian Peninsula: one in the Portuguese region ofEstremadura(culture ofVila Nova de São Pedro), strongly embedded in the Atlantic Megalithic culture; the other nearAlmería(SE Spain), centred on the large town ofLos Millares,of Mediterranean character, probably affected by eastern cultural influxes (tholoi). Despite the many differences the two civilizations seemed to be in friendly contact and to have productive exchanges. In the area ofDordogne(Aquitaine,France), a new unexpected culture ofbowmenappeared, the culture ofArtenac,which would soon take control of western and even northern France and Belgium. In Poland and nearby regions, the putative Indo-Europeans reorganized and consolidated again with the culture of the Globular Amphoras. Nevertheless, the influence of many centuries in direct contact with the still-powerfulDanubian peopleshad greatly modified their culture.

In the southwesternIberian peninsula,owl-like plaques made ofsandstonewere discovered and dated to be crafted from 5500 to 4750 BP (Before Present). These are some of the most unique objects discovered in theChalcolithic(copper age) cultural period. They have generally a head, two rounded eyes, and a body. Theses species were modeled after twoowlspecies, thelittle owl(Athene Noctua) and thelong-eared owl(Asio otux).

Late Chalcolithic

Further information:Bell Beaker culture

Silbury Hill,c. 2400 BC,England

This period extended fromc. 2500 BCtoc. 1800or 1700 BC (depending on the region). The dates are general for the whole of Europe, and the Aegean area was already fully in the Bronze Age.c. 2500 BCthe newCatacomb culture,which originated from the Yamnaya peoples in the regions north and east of the Black Sea. Some of these infiltrated Poland and may have played a significant but unclear role in the transformation of the culture of theGlobular Amphoraeinto the newCorded Ware culture.In Britain, copper was used between the 25th and 22nd centuries BC, but some archaeologists do not recognise a British Chalcolithic because production and use was on a small scale.

Around 2400 BC. this people of the Corded Ware replaced their predecessors and expanded to Danubian and Nordic areas of western Germany. One related branch invaded Denmark and southern Sweden (Single Grave culture), while the mid-Danubian basin, though showing more continuity, also displayed clear traits of new Indo-European elites (Vučedol culture). Simultaneously, in the west, the Artenac peoples reached Belgium. With the partial exception of Vučedol, the Danubian cultures, so buoyant just a few centuries ago, were wiped off the map of Europe. The rest of the period was the story of a mysterious phenomenon: theBeaker people.This group seems to have been of mercantile character and preferred being buried according to a very specific, almost invariable, ritual. Nevertheless, out of their original area of western Central Europe, they appeared only inside local cultures, so they never invaded and assimilated but rather went to live among those peoples, keeping their way of life.

The rest of the continent remained mostly unchanged and in apparent peace. Fromc. 2300 BCthe firstBeaker Potteryappeared in Bohemia and expanded in many directions, but particularly westward, along the Rhone and the sea shores, reaching the culture of Vila Nova (Portugal) and Catalonia (Spain) as its limit. Simultaneously but unrelatedly,c. 2200 BCin the Aegean region, theCycladic culturedecayed, being substituted by the new palatine phase of theMinoanculture ofCrete.

The second phase of Beaker Pottery, fromc. 2100 BConwards, was marked by the displacement of the centre of this phenomenon to Portugal, inside the culture of Vila Nova. This new centre's influence reached to all southern and western France but was absent in southern and western Iberia, with the notable exception of Los Millares. Afterc. 1900 BC,the centre of the Beaker Pottery returned to Bohemia, while in Iberia there was a decentralization of the phenomenon, with centres in Portugal but also in Los Millares andCiempozuelos.

See also

• Bronze Age Europe
• Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe
• Burned house horizon

Sources

• Miles, David (2016).The Tale of the Axe: How the Neolithic Revolution Transformed Britain.London, UK: Thames & Hudson.ISBN978-0-500-05186-3.

External links

Media related toCopper Age in Europeat Wikimedia Commons

• Archeo News:Ancient civilization uncovered in Bulgaria
• Hindustan Times: World's oldest Copper Age settlement found