Bronze Age Europe

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Pre-Celtic
)
See also: Chalcolithic Europe and Prehistoric Europe

The European Bronze Age is characterized by

British Bronze Age, Argaric culture, Nordic Bronze Age, Tumulus culture, Nuragic culture, Terramare culture, Urnfield culture and Lusatian culture), lasting until c. 800 BC in central Europe.[1]

Arsenical bronze was 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 the Chalcolithic era, with examples from Pločnik in Serbia dated to c. 4650 BC, as well as 14 other artefacts from Bulgaria and Serbia dated to before 4000 BC, showing that early tin bronze developed independently in Europe 1500 years before the first tin bronze alloys in the Near 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 complexes in north-eastern Bulgaria and Thrace in the late fifth millennium BC". Tin bronzes using cassiterite tin were subsequently reintroduced to the area some 1500 years later.[2]

History

Aegean

Main article:
Aegean Bronze Age
Gold 'Mask of Agamemnon', Greece, 1550 BC

The

Aegean Bronze Age begins around 3200 BC[1]
when civilizations first established a far-ranging
Mediterranean bronze objects indicates it came from as far away as Great Britain.[3]

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

Around 1600 BC, the eruption of Thera destroyed the site of Akrotiri and damaged Minoan sites in eastern Crete. The further impact of this event is poorly understood.[4]

The Late Bronze Age collapse

Starting in the 15th century BC, the

wanax.[8]

Southeast Europe

See also:
Bronze Age Romania

A study in the journal Antiquity from 2013 reported the discovery of a tin bronze foil from the Pločnik archaeological site dated to c. 4650 BC, as well as 14 other artefacts from Serbia and Bulgaria dated 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 the Near 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 using cassiterite tin would be reintroduced to the area again some 1,500 years later.[9]

Caucasus

The Maykop culture was the major early Bronze Age culture in the North Caucasus. Some scholars date arsenical bronze artifacts in the region as far back as the mid-4th millennium BC.[10]

Eastern Europe

Further information: Indo-European migrations
Chariot model, Sintashta culture, Arkaim museum
Corded Ware, Yamnaya and Sintashta cultures

The Yamnaya culture[a] was a late 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.

The

Srubnaya culture
from c. the 17th century BC.

Central Europe

See also:
Pre-Celtic

Important sites
include:

In

Otomani and Gyulavarsánd
cultures.

The late Bronze Age

Urnfield culture (1300–750 BC) is characterized by cremation burials. It includes the Lusatian culture in eastern Germany and Poland (1300–500 BC) that continues into the Iron Age. The Central European Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age Hallstatt culture
(800–450 BC).

Italy

Main article:
Bronze Age Italy
Illustration of a Terramare settlement

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).[11]

During the second millennium BC, the

Giants' graves and the holy 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 the Cypriots, the lost waxing technique was introduced to create several hundred bronze statuettes and other tools. The Nuragic civilization survived throughout the early Iron Age
when 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 northern

Pre-Roman Iron Age
.

The age is divided into the periods I–VI, according to Oscar Montelius. Period Montelius V, already belongs to the Iron Age in other regions.

British Isles

Main article: Bronze Age Britain
See also: Atlantic Bronze Age
Cadbury Castle Late Bronze Age hillfort

In

Beaker people displayed different behaviors from the earlier Neolithic people and cultural change was significant. The rich Wessex culture developed 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 fertile valleys. Large livestock ranches developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. The Deverel–Rimbury culture began to emerge in the second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400–1100 BC) to exploit these conditions. Cornwall was a major source of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the Great Orme mine in northern Wales
. 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 large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead, the 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual barrows (also commonly known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as Tumuli), or sometimes in cists covered with cairns.

The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in England were discovered in East Cambridgeshire, where the most important finds were done in Isleham (more than 6500 pieces).[12]

Western Mediterranean

Remains of La Bastida de Totana fortified town

Preceded by the Chalcolithic sites of Los Millares, the Argaric culture flourished in southeastern Iberia in from 2200 BC to 1550 BC,[13] when depopulation of the area ensued along with disappearing of copper–bronze–arsenic metallurgy.[14] 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,[15] with agricultural production, maybe also human labour, controlled by the larger hilltop settlements,[16] and the elite using violence in practical and ideological terms to clamp down on the population.[17] Ecological degradation, landscape opening, fires, pastoralism, and maybe tree cutting for mining have been suggested as reasons for the collapse.[18]

The culture of the

oppida mode of settlement.[19]

Atlantic Europe

See also: Atlantic Bronze Age, Prehistory of France § The Bronze Age, and Prehistoric 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 in

Mediterranean
. 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.

In the context of Atlantic Bronze Age on Iberian Peninsula, and according to radiocarbon dating, the Early Bronze Age began on the Northern Iberian Plateau in 2100 cal. BC and Late Bronze Age in 1350 cal. BC.

Burials.[23][24]

Gallery

Maps

Artefacts

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Also known as Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture

References

  1. ^ a b "Ancient Greece". British Museum. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2015-05-06.
  2. doi:10.1017/S0003598X0004984X
    .
  3. ^ Waldman, C., & Mason, C. (2006). Encyclopedia of European peoples. Infobase Publishing. pp. 524.
  4. ISBN 978-0199873609
    .
  5. ISBN 9781107067134
    .
  6. ^ Schofield 2006, pp. 71–72
  7. ISBN 9780892368679
    .
  8. ISBN 0-415-36336-5. Archived
    from the original on 2016-05-03. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
  9. doi:10.1017/S0003598X0004984X. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2018-11-19. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  10. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5. Archived
    from the original on 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  11. ISBN 978-0684806686. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2016-01-09. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
  12. ISBN 1-85074-477-7
    ., p. 81-88
  13. ISBN 978-1-78925-627-7
    .
  14. ^ Carrión et al. 2007, p. 1472.
  15. doi:10.1007/s10963-008-9014-y
    .
  16. ^ Chapman 2008, pp. 208–209.
  17. ^ Legarra Herrero 2021, p. 52.
  18. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.03.013
    .
  19. ISSN 1435-0157
    .
  20. ISBN 9788496606289
    .
  21. ISBN 9781407315195
    .
  22. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.002
    .
  23. ^ Waddell, J. 1998. The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland. Galway.
  24. ^ Eogan, G. 1983. The Hoards of the Irish Later Bronze Age. Dublin
  25. doi:10.1017/eaa.2023.39
    .

External links
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