Based on 550 metal analyses, this study sheds decisive light on how the Nordic Bronze Age was founded on metal imports from shifting ore sources associated with altered trade routes. On-and-off ...presence of copper characterised the Neolithic. At 2100-2000 BC, a continuous rise in the flow of metals to southern Scandinavia begins. First to arrive via the central German Únetician hubs was high-impurity metal from the Austrian Inn Valley and Slovakia; this was complemented by high-tin British metal, enabling early local production of tin bronzes. Increased metal use locally fuelled the leadership competitions visible in the metal-led material culture. The Únetice downfall c.1600 BC resulted for a short period in a raw materials shortage, visible in the reuse of existing stocks, but stimulated direct Nordic access to the Carpathian basin. This new access expedited innovations in metalwork with reliance on chalcopyrite from Slovakia, as well as opening new sources in the eastern Alps, along an eastern route that also conveyed Baltic amber as far as the Aegean. British metal plays a central role during this period. Finally, from c.1500 BC, when British copper imports ceased, the predominance of novel northern Italian copper coincides with the full establishment of the NBA and highlights a western route, connecting the NBA with the southern German Tumulus culture and the first transalpine amber traffic.
The rich and long-lasting Nordic Bronze Age was dependent throughout on incoming flows of copper and tin. The crucial turning point for the development of the NBA can be pinpointed as the second ...phase of the Late Neolithic (LN II, c. 2000-1700 BC) precisely because the availability and use of metal increased markedly at this time. But the precise provenance of copper reaching Scandinavia in the early second millennium is still unclear and our knowledge about the driving force leading to the establishment of the Bronze Age in southern Scandinavia is fragmentary and incomplete. This study, drawing on a large data set of 210 samples representing almost 50% of all existing metal objects known from this period in Denmark, uses trace element (EDXRF) and isotope analyses (MC-ICP-MS) of copper-based artifacts in combination with substantial typological knowledge to profoundly illuminate the contact directions, networks and routes of the earliest metal supplies. It also presents the first investigation of local recycling or mixing of metals originating from different ore regions. Both continuity and change emerge clearly in the metal-trading networks of the Late Neolithic to the first Bronze Age period. Artifacts in LN II consist mainly of high-impurity copper (so-called fahlore type copper), with the clear exception of British imports. Targeted reuse of foreign artifacts in local production is demonstrated by the presence of British metal in local-style axes. The much smaller range of lead isotope ratios among locally crafted compared to imported artifacts is also likely due to mixing. In the latter half of Nordic LN II (1800-1700 BC), the first signs emerge of a new and distinct type of copper with low impurity levels, which gains enormously in importance later in NBA IA.
This study examines the role of the Nuragic metal trade in the Mediterranean setting, seeking to advance the debate on this subject. Published metal-related data are considered alongside current ...interpretations. Although Sardinia is geologically rich in metals, including copper and lead (silver), scholars have nonetheless disagreed about the role of these metals in shaping the political economy of Nuragic Sardinia and its interaction with the outside world (c. 1350–720 BC). Traditionally the island has been seen as passively relying on the agency of foreign merchants from the eastern Mediterranean region. Lately, however, a divergent view has credited Sardinia with a more active and autonomous role in the Mediterranean marketplace. This study provides an analytical review of the complexity of such opinions, alongside isotope-derived and other archaeometallurgical evidence. As a scaffold for future inquiries, key features based on theoretical and historical perspectives are pulled together to form an exploratory model of Sardinia’s changing geopolitical position in the interlinked world of the Mediterranean between the Bronze and Iron Ages. The time around 1200 BC is identified as a major historical threshold.
In this article, we identify and discuss Nordic Bronze Age interspecies relationships through a relational approach that is open to ontologies that differ from our own. Drawing on bronze objects, ...faunal remains and rock art recovered from a multitude of Nordic Bronze Age sites (1700–500 BC), we outline the complex evolution and interactions of significant socioeconomic and cosmological elements such as the horse, the sun, the warrior, the sea and fish, and their relationships to life and death. We suggest that these elements may be seen as interconnected parts of an entangled whole, which represents a specific Nordic Bronze Age cosmology, which developed between 1600 and 1400 BC, and combined local, archaic world views and foreign influences.
During the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA), hybrid beasts contributed to cosmological and mythical narratives on the main media of metal and rock. These hybrids are composed of body parts from particular ...animals - including bull, bird, snake, horse and human - which entangle with particular objects or images. On metalwork, they appear especially on bronze razors but also on shields, bowls, combs, helmets and in the shape of figurines. Their main occurrence clusters in the later part of the NBA that is characterised by social change. Especially cremation as the total metamorphosis of the human body aligns with a nexus of analogues firmly linking interspecies composites with ideas of bodily fluidity and transformation. Overall, this may be understood as a way of perceiving, and potentially controlling, the world. NBA hybridising art does not indicate that the religion of the era is reducible to mere animism throughout, but society certainly retained and put to use properties of an animistic tradition. Supported by contextual data, the article proposes that the hybrids related to shared NBA myths and religious practices while also legitimising the privilege and leadership of the upper echelons of NBA societies.
This paper provides a discussion of the increasing amount of mobility data from the Early Nordic Bronze Age (Early NBA), c. 1600-1100 BCE with particular focus on NBA II and III (c. 1500-1100 BCE). ...As a male-oriented study, the intent is to develop current perspectives on gender roles in the Early NBA in relation to mobility. In order to achieve our aim, we conducted strontium isotope analyses and radiocarbon dating combined with an in-depth archaeological investigation of grave goods obtained from two male burials from the Vejle region, SE Jutland. To contextualise the case study results, we also conducted network analyses of male gear from burials and ritual deposits on a regional scale, which reveal differentiated roles among men in the upper social echelon. The warrior emerged as an overall identity for high-ranking males whilst differences in male weaponry interestingly suggest that a minimum of three kinds of warriors were distinguished, reflecting social roles in war and society. The results suggest that one of the individuals was local while the other might have moved. The overall aim is to demonstrate that robust results regarding gendered mobilities will depend on the combination of several methods, datasets and scales of inquiry.
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