Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age: Transcultural

0 downloads 0 Views 1MB Size Report
Oct 16, 2011 - axis mundi model (Eliade, 1957), which also framed ...... The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of .... Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa oblata. Iaşi:.
European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014, 602–633

Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age: Transcultural Warriorhood and a Carpathian Crossroad in the Sixteenth Century BC HELLE VANDKILDE Department of Archaeology, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark

The breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA) c. 1600 BC as a koiné within Bronze Age Europe can be historically linked to the Carpathian Basin. Nordic distinctiveness entailed an entanglement of cosmology and warriorhood, albeit represented through different media in the hotspot zone (bronze) and in the northern zone (rock). In a Carpathian crossroad between the Eurasian Steppes, the Aegean world and temperate Europe during this time, a transcultural assemblage coalesced, fusing both tangible and intangible innovations from various different places. Superior warriorhood was coupled to beliefs in a tripartite cosmology, including a watery access to the netherworld while also exhibiting new fighting technologies and modes of social conduct. This transculture became creatively translated in a range of hot societies at the onset of the Middle Bronze Age. In southern Scandinavia, weaponry radiated momentous creativity that drew upon Carpathian originals, contacts and a pool of Carpathian ideas, but ultimately drawing on emergent Mycenaean hegemonies in the Aegean. This provided the incentive for a cosmology-rooted resource from which the NBA could take its starting point. Keywords: Bronze Age, culture change, transculture, cosmology, creative translation, hot society

INTRODUCTION From the beginning to the end of the Bronze Age, Nordic-type metalwork clustered in Scandinavia’s southern hotspot zone. However, the northern metalworkpoor zone showed a similar cultural belonging, albeit through an immensely rich pictorial realm of tales carved into rock. The present contribution will scrutinize how southern Scandinavia came to form a cultural zone of its own and especially explore how this remarkable formation was concurrent with distant historical pathways.

© European Association of Archaeologists 2014 Manuscript received 10 November 2013, accepted 27 March 2014, revised 1 March 2014

Early links with the Carpathian Basin stand out from within the record as was noted in previous research by Lomborg (1960) and by Vandkilde (1996: 143, 223–56). I have recently (Vandkilde 2014b) pinpointed Nordic Bronze Age Period IB (NBA IB) between c. 1600 and 1500 BC as the birth of the NBA, as it comprised all the essential material and social features by which the entire era was characterized. In their recent study, Kristiansen and Larsson (2005: 128–86) described the period 1800–1400 BC as formative for both the Nordic and the

DOI 10.1179/1461957114Y.0000000064

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

603

European Bronze Age. In their view, it was during this broader era that chiefly lineages emerged, sustained by wideranging elite networks and a new suncosmology in addition to prestige technologies of metalworking and particularly horse-chariot war gear: ‘ … it represents the formation of the so-called steppe corridor linking the Altai with the Carpathians, and ultimately China with Europe’ (Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005: 181). The overall role of the Carpathian Basin as a cultural melting pot sustained by a network of hillforts has been addressed in several studies that often include Eurasian Steppe or Aegean connections as an underlying theme (e.g. Sherratt, 1994; David, 1997, 2007, 2010; Boroffka, 1998; Hänsel & Machnik, 1998; Earle & Kristiansen, 2010; Úhner, 2010). More specifically, the question addressed below is how the emergence of the NBA as a cultural koiné was linked to distant regions and in particular the Carpathian Basin, which is framed by the Carpathian mountains on three sides and, roughly, the Danube River towards the west. The argument will be presented that Carpathian connections commenced on a smaller scale in NBA IA c. 1700–1600 BC, but were particularly lively, influential and culturally formative in NBA IB c. 1600– 1500 BC. In NBA II, the first true highlight of the NBA, an aftermath is suggested in which Carpathian connections may have continued but left a cultural impact only barely discernible in the now fully-matured and uniform Bronze Age culture of southern Scandinavia. Although NBA II has been frequently described as the true kick-off phase of the NBA on the grounds that it rose from the Central European mature Tumulus culture of the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries BC, this article will argue that it was the preceding period that was historically decisive in this manner. Hence, the analytical

focus will be NBA IB and the sixteenth century BC. The Nordic development in metallurgy and metalwork from c. 2350 BC onwards co-occurred with socio-cultural changes (Vandkilde, 1996, 2014b). This correspondence can imply that metal objects, metalworking, and their added values should be located within the web of causes and effects that led to a millennium of Bronze Age accomplishments within a number of different domains. The desire for metal was doubtless of key importance but can hardly in and of itself account for the emergence of the NBA or its position as an affluent and clearly distinguishable material-cultural koiné within Europe. It is therefore pertinent to look at the archaeological record for additional gamechangers within Scandinavia as well as its European setting. For over a millennium, the para-historical (Hawkes, 1954) NBA was structurally tied to the rest of Europe. The Nordic perspective taken below has cultural and cosmological echoes with conceptual input from cultural anthropology as well as globalization studies.

CREATIVE TRANSLATIONS, TRANSCULTURE AND HOT SOCIETIES Three theoretical entries can be suggested as appropriate tools with which to think about this whole era of socio-cultural transformation, namely the concepts of creative translations, transculture, and hot societies. These concepts form a neat juncture between the specific and micro-scale with the more general and macro-scale at the onset of the MBA in temperate Europe. First, ‘creative translation’ is a highly appropriate term by which to recognize objects that were neither imports nor truly indigenous by tradition. The NBA IB is rich in such objects, especially as regards those manufactured in bronze. Their

604

particular value may have stemmed from the creative combination of local and foreign traits in terms of material, form, and decoration. That is to say, these items could be considered highly unique translations of the originals. This understanding fits well with the idea of a hot social climate described below. According to Benjamin’s (1968) seminal essay and later elaborations (Nicolaescu, 2004) material translations possess considerable autonomy from the originals. In fact, the translations can almost replace the original, which may itself be a translation of something else. Creative translations of material culture can sometimes be followed across wide geographical distances. An excellent example of this phenomenon can be found with the Hajdúsámson–Apa swords, which were in many cases locally manufactured rather than imported from the Carpathian Basin. These first-generation swords in the Carpathian Basin were in turn highly creative translations of contemporaneous swords and daggers with decorated blades in the Aegean. Creative translations are most certainly rooted in the directional transfer of finished objects and raw materials. Intangible ideas were probably co-travelers, as was the knowledge that related to the various technological, social, and religious innovations. Although these seem to manifest and coexist in an intertwined fashion, it will be proposed here that the very successful cultural transmission and creative translations of innovative metalwork that appeared at the threshold to the European MBA, c. 1600 BC, occurred due to the added value of new religious ideas concerning the constitution of the cosmos. These novel ideas were not necessarily directly transplanted, but were rather tailored to fit local traditions of culture. It is important in this respect to note that Whitehouse (1995, 2004) understands religion as a constellation of cultural information that is created, transmitted, and transformed across time

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

and geographical distances. While material culture can spread rapidly, meanings may not travel in the same haste and in their original condition, as noted early on by Spier (1921) in his study of the sun dance of the Plain tribes. A common ground in social organization and language—such as the Indo-European communities from Mycenaean Greeks in the south to the people inhabiting southern Scandinavia— would presumably facilitate a more complete transfer of tangible and intangible novelties. Second, the subject of transculture constitutes an additional window into the world of Bronze Age Europe. It may be argued that early metalwork and its ideological connotations were essentially transcultural or obtained concrete elements of transculturality because of an in-built desirability as well as the fact that the metals from which these objects were made had also travelled long distances across cultural borders from the mining areas of Europe. Transculture can best be understood as a fashion or as a sort of meta-culture (Epstein, 2005); it is an intercultural crossover which moves quickly over wide geographical distances. In some cases, material culture is designed at the outset to be highly mobile, as exemplified in the EBA by the so-called Ösenhalsringe (Vandkilde, 2005). A transcultural flow, however, implies both the displacement and placement of materials and their connotations in a repetitive, albeit translated, pattern (cf. Inda & Rosaldo, 2008). Early metalwork makes a good example of transculture that was creatively transformed locally by means of a process we can trace in geographical space. Third, the southern range of the NBA region was a particular hotspot, or rather it consisted of numerous such hotspots. Other such hotspot regions existed in Europe at the same time, for example the Carpathian Basin with its network of fortified nodes of

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

tells and hill-top settlements. According to the original conceptualization as proposed by Lévi-Strauss (1966: 233–40) ‘hot’ refers to the idea that societies could be either cold or hot, depending whether the predominant societal mode was reproductive or transformative in terms of its traditions. Sahlins (1985: xii) elaborated on the concept by suggesting that ‘hot societies’ were structured in a performative mode with a social climate of creativity, mobility, and entrepreneurship (Sahlins, 1985; cf. Vandkilde, 2007: 15–18). A ‘hotspot’ may therefore be a suitable description for a socio-economic hub that received and forwarded culture in an intensive and somewhat unpredictable manner. Long-lasting, intensified interactions may underlie the establishment of a cultural koiné that would mean an inter-community, or oikoumene (cf. Horden & Purcell, 2000: 27), sharing a canon of culture and associated rites while at the same time maintaining local and regional particularities. This does not imply that there were formalized relations of political power and domination. It is, in fact, quite unlikely that Nordic distinctiveness, emerging in NBA IB and unfolding in NBA II, was due to state formation processes comparable to those in contemporaneous China, the Levant, or Greece (cf. Trigger, 2003; Smith, 2006; Manning, 2008; Shelmerdine & Bennet, 2008). Rather, a koiné was glued together by something that was likely more than what would, strictly speaking, be implied by ‘transculture’. A koiné may thus have emerged through a common interest in certain desirable transcultural objects and the cultural capital with which they were associated. In the Scandinavian case, connectivity was primarily enabled by water traffic in a manner comparable with that of the Mediterranean region (cf. Horden & Purcell, 2000). Likewise, we should of course not imagine bounded or enclosed identities (Damm, 2012).

605

COMPARATIVE CHRONOLOGY 1600 BC

AROUND

The analysis proceeds from the original definition of NBA IB (Vandkilde, 1996: 147–60, 223–56) and thrives on the improved comparative chronology which appeared in the wake of the discovery of Nebra. A consensus now prevails about overall chronological links and developments (cf. Meller & Bertemes, 2010; Meller et al., 2013). Meller and his team date the Nebra hoard to c. 1600–1500 BC, with the Sky disc, two Hajdúsámson–Apa swords, two high-flanged axes, nick-flanged chisel, and jewellery (based inter alia on a radiocarbon dating of birch bark within the hilt of one sword; Meller, 2010: 56; Meller et al., 2013: 488–493). Nebra tallies with NBA IB as the metalwork and dates are strikingly similar (cf. Vandkilde, 2014b; S. Hansen, 2010). Correspondingly, the related Mad’arovce-Otomani-Füzesabony-Gyulavarsánd groups of settlements in the Carpathian Basin have radiocarbon dates between 1730 and 1500 BC (Bátora, 2000; Görsdorf et al., 2004). These groups divide into a classical phase, Br A2b, broadly covering the seventeenth century BC and a post-classical phase, the so-called Koszider period Br B, broadly covering the sixteenth century BC. Especially the latter period concerns us here, with metalwork hoards such as Nitriansky Hrádok, Koszider I–III, Simontornya, Spišský Štvrtok, Barca, Hajdúsámson, Apa, Oradea, Paulis, Téglás, Ighiel, and Zajta (see Vandkilde, 1996: 142; David, 2002: 910–11). It is also within this same period that dark-polished pottery and bone and antler pieces with swirling patterns occur (David, 2007: 415). An additional note to the comparative chronology: The final EBA phases Br A2c–Br A3 are distinguishable in Danubo-Carpathian burials and are also fairly distinct in the sequence of hoards. Following the metalwork chronology of David (2002) for the Carpathian

606

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Table 1 Chronological table with NBA IB and the sixteenth century S. Scandinavia NBA IA Br. A2b

BC

as its centrepiece

Carpathian Basin

BCE

Events

Mad’arovce-Otomani-Füzesabony-Gyulavarsánd— Classical phase

1700

NBA IB Br. B

‘Koszider period’ with Hajdúsámson-Apa-Zajta-Ighiel metalwork ∼ Mad’arovce-Otomani-FüzesabonyGyulavarsánd—Post-classical phase

1600

Thera

Br. C

Tumulus culture/impact with Percica-Forró metalwork

1500/1465 1300 1200

Tumulus

Br. A2c/A3

NBA II

NBA III Br. D-Ha A1 Urnfield culture/impact with Ópályi and related metalwork

Basin and Central Europe, the Koszider metalwork with the groups of Hajdúsámson–Apa–Zajta hoards clearly succeeds the Br A2c–Br A3 phase and thereby initiates the MBA Br B. In Scandinavia, the Br A2c–Br A3 steps are difficult to identify, but logically should belong at the transition NBA IA/IB. When sticking to David’s (2002) Central European chronology, NBA IB (as defined in Vandkilde, 1996) as well as the Nebra hoard correlate entirely with Br B. This more certain chronological framework is in accordance with the new radiocarbon chronology 1550–1500 BC dating the emergence of the MBA Tumulus culture (Müller & Lohrke, 2009), hence the same time or a little later than Nebra and overall corresponding to NBA IB. The recent high-precision dating of the Danish Bronze Age placing NBA II between 1500/ 1465 and 1300 BC (Olsen et al., 2011: 268– 71) is another recent achievement, which accords with the comparative chronology here presented in outline (Table 1). The high-precision dating of the eruption of the Thera volcano to 1613 ± 13 BC (Friedrich et al., 2006; Friedrich, 2013) furthermore corresponds, it seems rather accurately, to the onset of the following suite: NBA IB, the Nebra assemblage, the Koszider Br B phase of the Carpathian Basin, and LM IB/LH IIA in the

Urnfield

Aegean. The Theran eruption took place at the very end of LM IA, after which LM IB/LH IIA commenced (Shelmerdine & Bennet, 2008; Brogan & Hallager, 2011; Sørensen et al., 2013). In the concluding address, the possible implications of volcanic disaster will be outlined. SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA—A BIPARTITE BUT COHESIVE REGION TIED TO THE REST OF BRONZE AGE EUROPE Any form of cohesive culture across southern Scandinavia can only have been created through maritime contacts. The sea binds this region together, uniting long stretches of coast and numerous islands. Throughout the NBA, not only settlements but also metalwork, burials, and hoards were tied to coastal areas, fjords, archipelagos, and major internal waterways (Oldeberg, 1974: 92; Larsson, 1986: 28, 168, 171; Engedal, 2010). Moreover, fresh and saltwater ship-borne traffic constituted a precondition for connections with the rest of Europe. The reliance on water transport is testified by numerous Bronze Age ships on rock and bronze (Kristiansen, 2004). Southern Scandinavia is a diverse region divided into two geographical parts (Figure 1) of which the northern has

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

607

Figure 1. Cultural geography of the NBA with its two zones. Metalwork as well as rock imagery occur most densely near the coast, emphasizing the maritime coherence of the NBA. Image: H. Vandkilde.

coniferous forests, metallogenic mountains, and rocky ground, whilst the southern has fertile agricultural lowlands and deciduous forests. The latter is here labelled a hotspot zone, because it contains an amazing amount of metalwork in addition to concentrations of wellequipped burials in turf-built mounds (cf. Holst & Rasmussen, 2013) and valuable items thrown into wetlands for reasons tied to belief and ritual. It is further distinguished by abundant sources of flint, and it is—very importantly within a Bronze

Age context—along these coasts that amber could be collected. Metalwork production in the northern zone was less intensive. The region had a stronger cultural emphasis on rock carvings (Ling, 2008; Skoglund, 2013). Bronze and rock, however, can be considered as different media that tell the same story. In the Bronze Age, the greater area of southern Scandinavia came to share cosmologies and religious traditions, although the materialization of these concepts differed between the northern and southern zones

608

(Willroth, 1985; Kaul, 2004, 2005; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005; Goldhahn, 2007; Ling, 2008). Despite rich local copper ore in middle and northern Scandinavia, there are few, if any, metal-analytical signs that these were put to use. Trace element analysis has demonstrated a remarkable coherence between Scandinavia and Europe in the composition of copper-based alloys throughout the Bronze Age (Cullberg, 1968; Vandkilde, 1996, 1998; Liversage, 2000; Rassmann, 2000). Current lead isotopebased research confirms that Scandinavian Bronze Age metallurgy relied on other European sources from beginning to end (Ling et al., 2012, 2014; Melheim, personal communication). The argued importance of the Carpathian Basin for the onset of the NBA should be understood within a broad Eurasian setting. This included commerce with metals and other raw materials along a few routinized routes from Scandinavia across Europe (Ling et al., 2014: 129). Potential transfer of culture-traits should also be taken into account. Transmission of culture need not have functioned in total dependence on trade in raw materials: regular transfer and use of copper ores from particular mines in west, central, and south Europe, as now especially testified by lead isotope analyses (Ling et al., 2014), do not necessarily mean a corresponding cultural impact from those same regions. One variable is local receptivity and taste; another is the channels, methods, and distances of transfer: commercial trade in metals and amber could have operated in a mode deviating from cultural transmissions in general. This clear disposition linking southern Scandinavia with the rest of Europe applies to both Nordic zones described above. Over the long term, Nordic socio-cultural formations were related to major European trends. However, they did so while at the same time retaining a distinct style of their own.

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

TOWARDS AROUND

A NORDIC TURNING POINT 1600 BC—IN A EUROPEAN SETTING

Understanding the historical pathways and the formation of a cultural koiné in the greater region of southern Scandinavia requires a deep and broad perspective. Statistics allow us to infer that this region had already entered the metallurgical scene c. 2350 BC, by the indications of initial metalworking in Late Neolithic I (Br A1) and most particularly in Late Neolithic II from around 2000 BC (Br A2a). The latter changed around 1700 BC into NBA IA (Br. A2b), which shared similarities mainly with earlier periods. It was NBA IB that was a turning point in terms of the formation of the NBA: it broke with the past in crucial ways while expanding on trends already in place as regards metallurgy and exogenous links. When examining the progression of change over time in the Scandinavian hotspot zone, it becomes eminently clear that the availability of metal (Figure 2) was moderate in the early periods. It increased markedly in NBA IB, which indeed presents the onset of the peak later reached in NBA II. This quantitative increase of NBA IB was accompanied by a new qualitative variability in metalwork production (Figure 3), to be discussed in the next section. The geographical distribution of metal objects across Scandinavia conveys a telling picture. Even allowing for unknown factors relating to curation and recycling, it is remarkable how the number of metal objects drastically decreased immediately to the north of the hotspot zone in Denmark and Scania (Vandkilde, 2014b: figs. 2A and B). This confirms that the northern zone truly was poor in early metal objects. However, this is a picture with modifications: NBA IB stands out as quantitatively different from the foregoing periods across southern Scandinavia, in the

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

Figure 2. A significant increase in the availability of metal characterizes both zones in NBA IB c. 1600 BC. Calculated by metal weight (kg) while correcting for the differing lengths of periods. Image: H. Vandkilde.

hotspot zone as well as in the northern zone. NBA IB is then the first period with a consistent and distinct presence of metalwork in both zones. Assessing technological skills around 1600 BC, metallurgy in NBA IB built entirely on a uniform-looking sulphide copper type (‘ostalpines Kupfer’), arsenic and nickel in terms of predominant trace elements (Krause, 2003). This may reflect a preference for chalcopyrite and/or technological advances in the refinement of complex deep-lying copper ore. Across Europe, this achievement was first introduced c. 1700 BC and co-occurred with the establishment of a tradition for alloying with tin (e.g. Vandkilde, 1998, 2007; Pernicka, 2010). The emergent NBA relied on central European copper sources as well as those from Atlantic Europe. In terms of cultural response, however, the Western European–British connection is clearest in the earliest Bell Beaker related metalwork of LN I. This relation is still culturally visible

609

in LN II, especially through imports of British–Irish developed bronze flat axes and, in a hybridizing manner, in the period’s local low-flanged axes (Vandkilde, 1996: 66–92). Henceforth, during NBA IA–NBA II and despite the continued use of Western European ore sources (Ling et al., 2014), British cultural traits are hard to distinguish in the metalwork. By contrast, connections with Central Europe are culturally distinct from the onset of metalworking traditions in Scandinavia. LN II metalwork is specifically related to the EBA Únětice complex, and a strong Central European orientation characterized NBA IA as well as later periods. From 1600 BC and throughout the NBA, contact with remote Iberian and Aegean communities is revealed in glimpses in the Nordic cultural sphere (e.g. Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005; Vandkilde, 2013). The addition of Mediterranean ores precisely in NBA IB with continuation until c. 900 BC (Ling et al., 2014: 120) could then have had a historical significance of importance for understanding NBA commencement and maintenance. Around 1700 BC in NBA IA, the Carpathian Basin for the first time becomes distinguishable in the Nordic record when spearheads entered the repertoire. The socketed spearhead prominently present in NBA IA hoards referenced faraway places: it originated in the seventeenth century BC from the overarching Seima-Turbino metalwork complex, which stretched across the Steppe zone between the Urals and the Carpathians (cf. Anthony, 2007: 412; Koryakova & Epimakhov, 2007: 106). This great novelty used the latter region as a gateway from which it unfurled into the European interior and northwards into Scandinavia. The socket-spearhead idea and the complex casting technology it required may have reached southern Scandinavia from the Carpathian Basin, if not necessarily directly. This particular link is thus likely to have

610

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Figure 3. Three main styles (A–C) of NBA IB metalwork, each incorporating elements traceable to the Carpathian-Koszider styles of Hajdúsámson–Apa and Au–Zaita (data from Vandkilde, 1996). Image: H. Vandkilde.

commenced on a small scale in the seventeenth century BC, but not earlier. Moreover, the multi-lined curved figure, occasionally ornamenting the curved dagger blades and spoon-shaped flanged axes of NBA IA, also demonstrates the first contacts with the Danubo-Carpathian region. In the sixteenth century BC, this simple curved pattern flourished into a rich vocabulary of complex

swirling figures applied to ceramics, bronze, gold and bone/antler. These designs thrived in social environments from early Mycenaean communities in the Peloponnese to fortified settlements of the Carpathian Basin and western nomads of the Steppe corridor. Such designs, and arguably their meanings, even travelled northwards into southern Scandinavia.

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

611

Throughout the prologue period of 800 years in Scandinavia, objects made of copper, bronze, and gold were deposited ritually in wetlands rather than in burials. A clear deviation from this deep-rooted tradition happened precisely in NBA IB. Rituals reliant on water nevertheless continued to play a major societal and religious role over the next several centuries. Indeed, wetland rituals involving metal objects count among the chief defining features of the entire NBA, particularly in the hotspot zone.

rituals associated with it. The most significant of Bronze Age weapons, the sword, made its first appearance at precisely this moment in time. Swords and long daggers were notably accompanied by spearheads as well as weapon axes. In addition, small objects for the warrior’s dress, body, and grooming call to mind a mature Bronze Age preoccupation with personal appearance (Treherne, 1995; Sørensen, 1997). The emphasis on high-class weaponry accords with a male ideal as leader of war and ritual while corresponding female ideal roles were not yet in place or are invisible in the record (cf. Bergerbrant, 2007). The founder burials placed centrally in mounds and with luxury metalwork may be seen as tribute to a group of males who were symbolic or de facto war leaders at their time of death and presumably undertook ritual and other tasks as well. Very elaborate warrior burials might contain, for example, a decorated pointed cane with handle; probably the metal part of a whip used by the charioteer to chivvy his team to increase speed (Figure 4). Such rich weapon assemblages are quite often accompanied by gold jewelry for both body and raiment. Other outstanding assemblages should be mentioned, such as the ritual deposit from Fårdrup (Sealand) with its exquisitely decorated shafthole axes and unique macehead, the two ritual deposits from Valsømagle (Sealand) with the full equipment of sword, spear, and axe (Vandkilde, 1996: 121–26, 232–38), and the two scimitars deposited in a bog at Rørby (Figure 10). Many swords occur as singly deposited items in wetlands. At Dystrup (Jutland), eight swords of Hajdúsámson–Apa type were deposited together (Rasmussen & Boas, 2006). Such finds suggest the presence of war leaders with or without their companions of warriors (Vandkilde, 2006, 2011, 2014a). The relative availability of metal had in fact not only increased considerably in NBA

CONFIGURING NBA IB WITH CARPATHIAN LINK

THE

Funerary consumption of rich metalwork made a literal breakthrough in NBA IB while turf-built mounds of considerable size began to appear (Vandkilde, 1996: 223–56, 289; Holst, 2006; Thrane, 2013). The rapid increase in wealthy burials testifies to a socially coupled ritual practice culminating in NBA II, which has been described in terms of megalomania (Thrane, 2013) and ‘herostrats’ (Holst et al., 2013). Social life became intrinsically linked to the consumption of metals and, arguably, also to the ideologies and cosmologies they enhanced. A sun-oriented religion in floruit formed part of it all (Kaul, 2004, 2005; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005). Overall, this denotes a break with a tradition anchored in Neolithic culture and suggests that the change we see in the archaeological record was engineered by a particular section of the population. Similarly, it was presumably a small segment of residents who engaged in what must have been a predominantly water-borne transportation of metals and other goods. This distinct change conceivably emerged from a male domain, since most NBA IB novelties reveal warrior’s gear as a foremost concern. Extraordinary bronze items were manufactured that belong entirely to the domain of warriorhood and

612

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Figure 4. NBA IB burial equipment of the Valsømagle Style (see Figure 3C): right, Strantved (Bovense, Funen) and left, Buddinge (Gladsakse, Sealand). Presumably founder’s graves. Such early mound burials are symbol-rich warrior burials, often equipped with gold ornament, belt hook, tweezers, spearhead, sword or dagger, axe and sometimes a fish hook and a pointed cane for chariot driving. The early palstave is adorned with an ogival-V figure (data from Vandkilde, 1996: figs. 247, 253). Image: H. Vandkilde.

IB. Variations in the metalwork now set new standards for the quality of craftsmanship in the metal sector while presumably also triggering parallel innovations in other crafts (cf. Roberts et al., 2008). The repertoire now included several interrelated categories, types, and styles of objects. The Sögel-Wohlde metalwork style (Figure 3B) appeared in southern Jutland and extended well into

northwestern Germany and the Netherlands. The Valsømagle metalwork style (Figure 3C) emerged in northern Jutland, Funen, Zealand, and Scania. By contrast, the paired Hajdúsámson and Fårdrup metalwork styles (Figure 3A) lacked clear regional preferences (Vandkilde, 1996: 250–57). In the hotspot zone, regional-stylistic differentiation was accentuated as a differential response to

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

613

cultural trends in a Europe where the MBA began to coalesce from the conjuncture of circumstances at the turn of the sixteenth century BC (Vandkilde, 2007). The regionality in the metalwork of the hotspot zone echoed Continental-European regional groupings and therefore also reflected culture flows and materials from northwestern so-called Sögel-Wohlde groups, from Central European early Tumulus groups extending west of the Middle Danube, as well as from Carpathian Mad’arovceOtomani-Fuzesabony-Gyulavarsánd groupings further towards the east. Regional particularities within a joint canon of culture were celebrated in the hotspot zone: NBA IB metalwork styles shared several material elements that taken together are recognizable as ‘Nordic’, albeit often being translations of exogenous traits all pointing towards the Carpathian Basin. Chief among these NBA IB objects with a Carpathian signature was the sword, but also spearheads and metal shafthole axes can be included. All NBA IB metalwork styles reached the northern zone. However, they did so without regional preferences and were more thinly distributed, as was emphasized above. Local coastal hubs in the north nevertheless boasted fine pieces of metalwork which count among the first clear signs that the northern zone was engaged in the cultural consumption of metal objects. Metalwork in near coastal areas co-occurred with a markedly increased concern with the carving of long-ships into prominent rock surfaces near the sea (Ling, 2008; Goldhahn, 2013: 446; Skoglund, 2013). These same rocks continued to be focal areas for cults throughout the NBA. However, it is worthy of note that this had already taken off by approximately 1600 BC. In summary, NBA IB continued the metalworking traditions that had been previously established. However, it revitalized and developed them to a considerable extent, particularly with regard to input

from the Carpathian Basin. While a general orientation towards Central Europe crystallized, the Carpathian Basin stands out as provider of novel warriors’ gear and the cultural stimuli linked thereto. In comparison with the preceding NBA IA, by NBA IB, the Carpathian link was firmly established, thereby ultimately incorporating the Aegean world in the Nordic sphere of interaction for the very first time. Recent isotope analyses of NBA IB metalwork confirm this (Ling et al., 2014), but the character of this initial Aegean incorporation remains to be tracked. The Carpathian link surfaces as a vehicle for the processes that led to the breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age in NBA IB. This coincided with the fact that metal items now occurred manifestly north of the hotspot zone, which would also suggest that these events were linked. Rich warrior assemblages and particular weaponry in association with cosmological symbols take centre stage in the suite of events that created the NBA, as shall be argued below. By NBA II, Carpathian features had been completely absorbed in the local metalwork, which has by then unfolded as a distinct Nordic style without manifest regional divisions. THE CARPATHIAN CRUCIBLE— TRANSCULTURAL WARRIORHOOD IN INTERSECTED HOT SOCIETIES The time around 1600 BC was a breaking point within an interconnected Europe that may have consisted of numerous hot societies. This may not be an unduly exaggerated description of the social situation on the brink of the MBA: new kinds of transculture flowed across wide distances comprising raw materials and metal-technological knowledge, but, as shall be argued, also a novel form of religion-infused warriorhood which materialized via new forms of weaponry boasting cosmology-rooted ornaments. A reformed

614

understanding of how the world was constituted travelled along with those more tangible items as they were transferred over long distances. Transcultural flows can be said to have linked together temperate Europe while supplementary branches reached spheres of mutual interaction in the Aegean and even the Eurasian Steppes (David, 2007). Metals most certainly constituted an essential component of the goods that were transported. However, amber must also have been a crucial commodity travelling north–south from Nordic-Baltic provinces to the Carpathian Basin, especially given that amber beads occur very commonly in Mad’arovce-Otomani-Füzesabony cemeteries (Bátora, 2000; Czebreszuk, 2007). Longdistance amber trade characterized the entire era of the European Bronze Age connecting the NBA hotspot with distant southern hubs (Jensen, 1994). This amber link included a number of hotspot regions across Europe (Rowlands & Ling, 2013: 519, fig. 8). In the society whose prominent dead were buried in the two shaft grave circles at Mycenae in 1800–1500 BC, amber seems to have signified the sun (Maran, 2011), hence favouring the argument of cross-cultural similarities in belief and cosmology around 1600 BC. The archaeologically visible transculture of luxuries may only have represented a small part of the goods that flowed long-distance. In addition to trade in amber and metals—and the human mobility by which their movement was preconditioned—it is possible that there were parallel exchanges involving horses and cattle and plants like millet, opium poppy, and gold-of-pleasure or even textiles like wool and (Mediterranean) silk. Such long-range trading would have arguably relied on stable institutions to be effective and safe (Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005). Weaponry, horse gear, and other items belonging to the warrior may constitute the upper hierarchy of the transmitted transculture. At the same time, these items

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

highlight a broad corridor of interaction from Carpathian Transylvania to Southern Scandinavia (Figure 5) with further links to the east and south (Figure 9). The wideranging spread of Hajdúsámson–Apa type swords and daggers and their various contemporaneous derivatives illustrates this channel of transfer, to/from Scandinavia/ Transylvania in the clearest manner, as they cover the entire route, albeit with highest density in the Carpathian Basin and in the Scandinavian hotspot zone. By comparison, Carpathian shafthole axes did normally not cross the Baltic Sea, but nevertheless inspired a Nordic version that gained great popularity: the solid Fårdrup shafthole axes with comparable geometries (Figure 3A; Vandkilde, 1996: 227–29). While some objects are clearly ‘the real thing’, such as some swords, horse-chariot gear, and unique items, most should be considered as derivatives. Such material translations in themselves form a linked pattern of responsive movements. This creative translation of exotic culture and knowledge would have been meaningful on several scales: local, regional, and macro-regional. In the sixteenth century BC the organization of warriorhood and fighting was reinforced by the new warfare technologies made possible by metal weaponry and horsedrawn vehicles (cf. Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005; Anthony, 2007), all of which are suggestive of war leaders and their close warrior companions. Novelties and identities became engaged in a process of mutual becoming. Weapons in comparable and rival styles were not only most assuredly symbolic in terms of social power, but were also practical devices for the clear identification of particular persons and groups. In the sixteenth century BC, the novelty of the sword played a crucial role in promoting an accentuated interest in warrior representations across Europe (cf. Kristiansen, 2002; Harding, 2007). Shafthole axes and spearheads were also prominent together, as was material culture

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

615

Figure 5. A sixteenth century BC long-range corridor transpires when mapping stylistically linked weaponry (NBA IB/Br B ∼ Koszider) from the NBA koiné to the Carpathian Otomani-Fuzesabony-Gyolavarsánd powerhouse (from data in Aner & Kersten, 1973–2014; Oldeberg, 1974; Vandkilde, 1996; David, 2002, 2010; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005; Moucha, 2005; Meller, 2010, 2013; Thrane, 2010). Image: H. Vandkilde.

linked to charioteering. Spectacular and roughly contemporaneous hoard and burial finds with fairly similar contents document the presence of an overarching interest in warriorhood from Mycenae, Hajdúsámson, and Zajta to Nebra, Rørby, and Valsømagle. Because of the esoteric symbols often carried by such arms, these weapons may

demonstrate that innovations in cosmology and religiosity invigorated the macro-scale spread of magnificent warrior gear. As mentioned above, weapons tend to share a preference for complex curved ornaments, which are arranged and combined in ways suggesting they were assigned special significance. These symbolic decorative

616

elements are traceable to a common pool of Carpathian motifs (Figure 6): multilined curved-ogival-V figures, spirals, concentric circles, and wavy garlands. These often combine with linear-geometric bands in addition to singular motifs of wheel-cross, circles with sunrays and fish. In the Carpathian homeland, this plethora of designs was particularly used on metal weaponry. The designs also appeared on other materials, notably on bone pieces for the bridling of horses and the ferrules of whip shafts used in chariot driving (Figures 4, 7–9; e.g. Lomborg, 1960; Piggott, 1965; David, 2002, 2007, 2010; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005). Certain Carpathian motifs on weaponry (Figure 6) and horse gear (Figure 8) could very well have been signs for the moon, stars, and sun (Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005; David, 2010) and hence have represented an upper skyworld, or perhaps the entire cosmos, as is likely to have been the case with the wheel-cross. Other motifs do not fit this interpretation but more likely refer to Oceanos, the World Sea (in maritime habitats), or the Great River (in riverine habitats), which bordered the visible world of sky and earth and shielded it from the otherworld. Analogous with other such cosmologies (for example, the one underlying Greek religion and mythology), this waterway may then have been thought to lead to the otherworld where the human dead dwelled. The golden ships of the Nebra disc support this suggestion, as they occur attached to the circumference of the bronze circle: they are thus depicted sailing the Oceanos, which clearly encircles sun, moon, and stars. This understanding dovetails with Meller’s (2010: 64, fig. 30) model. Meller builds on the imagery of the Nebra disc and plausibly argues for a tripartite division of the cosmos while also at the same time integrating the idea of an all-encompassing waterway. This is a

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Figure 6. Téglás hoard (Hajdú-Bihar, Transylvania). The sword has two fish in the space between hilt and the blade, which carries the customary curved-ogival-V, or fish-shaped, figure. Like other Carpathian disc-butted axes, the Teglas axe has narrow face ornamentation terminating in a fish-shaped figure placed near the cutting edge while the broad face has the meandering swirl, perhaps symbolizing the eternal flow of Oceanos. By contrast, sun-ray ornamentation adorns the sword’s hilt-button, the axe’s disc-butt, and shaft-tube. In this way, both the upper and nether realms of cosmos are represented in appropriate order (after David, 2002: Taf. 126). Reproduced by kind permission of Wolfgang David.

version of the cross-culturally common axis mundi model (Eliade, 1957), which also framed religious life in the ancient Near East (R. Hansen, 2010).

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

617

Figure 7. Pair of bridle cheek-pieces of antler from Østrup Bymark (Roskilde, Sealand; cf. Jensen, 2006). They date to NBA IB on the grounds that they relate to local metalwork styles (Figure 3A–C), but have close parallels in the Carpathian Basin and likely originated there (Figures 8 and 9). Image: H. Vandkilde.

mimicking waves and moving water, as also found on the sword blade from Vreta in Sweden (Berger et al., 2010: 766 fig. 22) whereas the mid-rib of one of the Nebra swords is plastically wave-shaped (Meller, 2010: 51–52, fig. 20–21). Small fish-figures were also integrated within the elaborate decorations as exemplified by the sword and disc-butted battle-axe from the Transylvanian hoard of Téglás (Figure 6). The curved-ogival-V figures occur in a number of sizes, variants, and applications, which may suggest they were sometimes thought of as separate signs or doubly as both fish and water flow. The fish can even be seen to pull the stream towards the deadly tip of the sword or towards the cutting edge of the axe, in which direction the otherworld presumably lay. Such symbols and images on deadly weaponry denote the ever-presence of a supernatural force. Great weapons may make great warriors. However, those warriors would nonetheless need robust symbols for protection, efficacy in the killing of foes, the preparation of an otherworldly life, or the expression of their affiliation with a certain religion. Indeed, weaponry, warriors, and death make a significant cross-cultural trilogy. Warriors and soldiers know that death is always a likely outcome of war, which is one of the reasons for which war and warfare are more often than not imbued with rituals and religiosity (Vandkilde, 2011, 2014a). The importance of the Carpathian Basin with Transylvania cannot be overestimated as a region where manifold cultural encounters took place; it was a meeting point which thrived on the reception and further transmission of innovations and knowledge. The Carpathian Basin was a formidable cultural crucible sustained by the intersection of a number of networks which stemmed from Central and Northern Europe, the Aegean, and the Pontic-Caspian Steppes. The most important martial innovation of the seventeenth century BC—the socketed spearhead —previously passed through the same

The wavy and sometimes swirling garland —a predominant motif on Carpathian metalwork and equestrian bone items—makes sense as a symbolic reference to Oceanos, and should furthermore be associated with the nexus of warrior, chariot, and horse. The characteristic curved-ogival-V figures are centrally placed as the main or sub-motif on the swords, axes, and spearheads from this period hence accentuating the outline shapes of these items (cf. Jockenhövel, 2005). This particular figure can be best interpreted as a representation of the flow of this particular waterway, the point of the ‘V’ indicating the prolonged stream of the watercourse into the otherworld. On the eponymous swords from Hajdúsámson and Apa, the curved-ogival-V has a strikingly wavy outline, arguably

618

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Figure 8. Bridle cheek-pieces and whip handle ferrules of antler retrieved at Carpathian hill-top and tell settlements. However, the piece shown in the middle row, first from right, is from an early Mycenaean tomb at Kakovatos, Peloponnese. As ferrules relate to the cheek-pieces, both may have belonged in the horse-chariot domain (data from David, 2007: CIII: f2–f3, r1–r3, t–u, v8–v9, CV: d3, e). Reproduced by kind permission of Wolfgang David.

juncture and subsequently reached distant places including southern Scandinavia. The hot social climate characterizing the sixteenth century BC culminated in the formation of the MBA Tumulus culture, which emerged in the immediate Central European periphery of the Carpathian Basin. This may have happened through violent interactions with eastern and southern tells and other fortified settlements which were then abandoned (David, 2007: 416). In summary, material and immaterial elements were fused in this Carpathian

intersection into a transcultural product that represented something immensely attractive to the identification strategies taking place in faraway places, including southern Scandinavia, 1000 km to the north. NBA ORIGINS AND RELIGIOSITY— CREATIVE TRANSLATIONS OF CARPATHIAN NOVELTIES The NBA IB marks the onset of the Bronze Age in Scandinavia and this

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

619

Figure 9. Map of decorated bone/antler bridle cheek-pieces and whip handle equivalents (Figures 7 and 8). They are often local translations that remained faithful to the originals (from data in Piggott, 1965; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005; David, 2007). Image: H. Vandkilde.

beginning concurs with the introduction of novelties which were essentially influx traceable to the Carpathian Basin. Spirals were adapted to a small and exclusive group of weapons perhaps dating from the latter half of the period. Intricate combinations of surface-blanketing geometric patterns and the curved-ogival-V figures also adorned NBA IB weapons. In total, these various elements all had demonstrable links to the Carpathian Basin (Lomborg, 1960: 51–146; cf. Vandkilde, 1996: 252–57; fig. 274). Likewise, depictions of fish and flows of water occur in both regions’ metalwork (Figures 3, 6 and 11). Such fishy and watery designs may ultimately link with the marine styles of pottery, weaponry, and frescoes in the

contemporaneous Aegean LBA, and the same goes for spiral designs. An outspoken preference for conspicuously curved decorations and geometries, including spirals and fish, then occurred across wide distances from the Aegean over the Carpathian Basin to southern Scandinavia. Intensified large-scale intercultural mobility was obviously the cornerstone of this, hence enabling transcultural flows of desirable objects, materials, new metallurgical techniques, and less tangible issues. Imports such as the so-called throne from Bålkråka (Knape & Nordström, 1994) and swords that are close derivatives of Hajdúsámson–Apa originals testify to the transportation of goods from the Carpathian–Transylvanian crossroad (Figure 5).

620

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Figure 10. One of a pair of scimitars from a bog at Rørby (Holbæk, Sealand). The blade takes the shape of a ship and carries a manned long-ship of plank-built NBA type, possibly the earliest known of this specific type. Such scimitars are Nordic but adapt Carpathian decorative elements, including the ogival-V figure and geometrics (from data in Aner & Kersten, 1973–2014: Vol. 2, no. 617). Image: H. Vandkilde.

This long-range movement along rivers (Swieder, 2013) and crossing seas (Østmo, 2008) must have given rise to the rich culture of creative translations evidenced in Scandinavia between 1600 and 1500 BC. True imported items occur but rarely in NBA IB, especially in contrast to earlier periods. Instead, creative translation was practiced as a means of appropriating the exotic and foreign. Metal objects testify to a mentalité of experimentation involving the continual renewal of the forms and decoration of weaponry such as swords, scimitars, daggers, spearheads, and weapon axes. These often recall Carpathian weapons. The Nordic series of swords and daggers are clearly reminiscent of the Hajdúsámson–Apa or Au–Zaita types of swords in the Carpathian Basin; some Nordic swords even incorporate elements

from both these types. Similarly, the Fårdrup and Valsømagle types of weapon axes can be interpreted as radical Nordic translations of the elegantly shaped Carpathian weapon axes (Figures 3A and 6; see David, 2002). At first sight, NBA IB metalwork appears somewhat stereotypical. On the other hand, it is difficult to find two weapons that are completely alike (cf. Sørensen, 2012). A closer look suggests that each weapon possessed individual qualities —even a spirit—of its own (Pearce, 2013). It would be to the point to say that variation was strategically performed within a common NBA idiom. Indigenous tradition and transmitted innovation from abroad quite obviously interacted in highly creative, even hybridizing, ways (Vandkilde, 2010). This responsive behaviour must surely also

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

621

have applied to the concurrent flow of exogenous ideas and cosmologies. The ritual contexts and constituent of NBA IB weaponry suggest that there was a similar link between warfare, warriors, and religious beliefs as was present in the Carpathian Basin. Symbols were introduced in NBA IB which referred to a celestial skyworld associated with the sun (Kaul, 2005): wheel-cross (on dress pins), concentric circles, the spiral itself, and spirals arranged in a whirling grid. These may also make sense as representations of the entire cosmos and the cycle of life and death. The puzzling occurrence of fish shapes, and seemingly also swirling waterways, is likely to be associated with a netherworld, as argued above. This ‘place’ may have been perceived as having been situated beneath and around the human world: a place accessible through or by means of water. The arguments previously brought forward in this article have pinpointed a tripartite cosmology as central to the beliefs and ideas circulating in and out of the Carpathian Basin around 1600 BC. The innovative material traits seen in translation during NBA IB are likewise suggestive of a cosmology dividing the world into the realms through which segments of NBA society understood the itinerary of life and death. The realms of the skyworld, the earth, and the netherworld were likely thought to be connected at certain points in the landscape, notably at the seashore, in certain ponds and lakes, or along rivers believed to be liminal points, zones, or routes of transfer. It is within this broad context that the custom of depositing weapons in watery places should be interpreted (Bradley, 2000; Vandkilde, 2013). Inasmuch as wetland depositions were a chief component of the Bronze Age in a large part of Europe, their significance to our understanding of Bronze Age beliefs is hard to exaggerate. Kaul (2005) and Bradley

& Nimura (2013) likewise argue for the presence of a Bronze Age belief in a divided cosmos. Water has recently been presented as the very medium through which human beings and inalienable objects travelled to the otherworld (Vandkilde, 2013). The Hjortspring plank-built ship (CrumlinPedersen & Trakadas, 2003) was ritually deposited in a lake on Als in southern Denmark with war gear still on board and thus bears witness to the continuation of this belief into the early Iron Age. The ship imagery of one scimitar from Rørby (Figure 10) could be the earliest symbolic representation of travelling to the netherworld on water while also boasting the invention of the plank-built ship for long-distance travelling. The blade includes an image of a double-sterned longship— fully manned with a crew of 36 paddlers— as it allegedly sails the Oceanos. The meandering flow of the water course is shown by the upper and lower panel with a wavy band. The ship’s trajectory would have brought it towards the spiralling tip of the sword where obstacles blocking its passage would have had to be conquered. An associated symbolic manifestation occurs in one of the Valsømagle weapon hoards, which includes fish imagery on the large spearhead and a fishhook (Figures 3 and 11). A fish hook is also present in the accoutrement of the warrior buried at Strantved (Figure 4) and other contemporaneous or slightly later weapon burials, where the fish hook seems out of place unless understood as an otherworldly symbol. The fashionable curved-ogival-V shape, itself roughly fishshaped, decorates sword blades, as well as the Fårdrup type shafthole axes and the palstaves, albeit more sporadically. The equally ogival shape of the swords, dagger blades and spearheads of the period may likewise have signified the otherworld, or rather water-borne movement towards the beyond. By NBA II, spirals had become hugely fashionable almost as a Nordic

622

Figure 11. Images of ships, fish, and materials of the sea may refer to the otherworld: Eight fish are depicted on the huge spearhead from the eponymous site of Valsømagle (Ringsted, Sealand); the spearhead shape in itself recalling a fish. The fish hook from the same locality can be understood as a link to the realm of the dead. Four fish occur on the blade of a Valsømagle-type spearhead from Gotland (Sweden) found together with another spearhead. Fish imagery recurs on the shafthole-axe from Uhe (Vejle, Jutland) (from data in Aner & Kersten, 1973–2014, Vol. 2, nos. 1097–98, Vol. 9, no. 4452; Oldeberg, 1974: no. 2117). Image: H. Vandkilde.

brand, whilst a stereotypical and much simplified version of the curved-ogival-V figure is still discernible on the blades of the now unambiguously Nordic metal-hilted swords. In close analogy with Rørby, the carving of ships where rock meets seawater was an

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

entirely new tradition founded in the northern zone (Ling, 2008), and with impact far into Arctic Scandinavia. In the northern zone, Stone Age rock imagery with animalistic motifs occurs especially in Bohuslän and south Norway (Gjedde, 2010: 178, fig. 90), which are mostly known for their rich Bronze Age imagery on rock with ships in large numbers: the first tradition may well have ceased when the second emerged (Gjedde, 2010). In Arctic Scandinavia, by comparison, most rock art is animalistic and Stone Age. Only at key sites such as Nämforsen and Alta, long-ships of NBA type are occasionally depicted (Gjedde, 2010: 240– 394, 397 fig. 282). This remarkable turn north of Scandinavia’s hotspot zone may well have been inspired by the same Carpathian link that renewed the making of weapons and warriors. More concretely, the east Scanian early pictorial sites of Simris and Järestad may have posed inspirational material, as their use began around 1600 BC, perhaps even 1700 BC but not earlier (Skoglund, 2013). Here, imagery on rock near the seashore includes early ship representations as well as males wielding oversized axes whose form seems reminiscent of Carpathian shafthole axes with crested butt (see David, 2002: Plates 59–67; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005: 202, fig. 89). The nearby site of Kivik may be similarly considered as an inspirational cult place at which activities also commenced around this time or slightly later (Goldhahn, 2013). Apart from the prevailing ships, images of chariots, horses, fish, and axes, amongst other things, were incorporated in the Kivik pictorial panels also showing the divided worlds of cosmos (Goldhahn, 2013). Ships and weapons were communicated in different media, but likely had the same otherworldly significance. The ships depicted on rock and on bronze were believed to transport dead souls to the

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

623

netherworld (Kaul, 2005). It is plausible however that these early ship images had a double meaning tied to both imagined and corporeal travelling, hence were rooted in the real world of maritime travel to foreign lands. A brief note on the horse: not only was it an animal of practical use in travelling and warfare, but it was also commonly attributed extra qualities as a transgressor of boundaries between this world and other realms (such as Odin’s Sleipnir in the Viking Period). In NBA IB, the horse was not yet dominant within cultural expressions (see MetznerNebelsick, 2003), but is nevertheless a candidate for inclusion among the list of novelties which originated from the Carpathian Basin (Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005). Belt hooks are sometimes adorned with a horse head (Figure 3A). The whip handles mentioned above in the burials at Strantved and Buddinge correspond with Carpathian bone versions (Figures 4 and 8). A pair of imported antler bridle cheek-pieces from a bog at Østrup near Roskilde in Zealand also testifies to horse handling (Thrane, 1999; Figure 7). The Østrup cheek-pieces share the geometric zone-organized ornamentation with other Carpathian bone cheek-pieces and bone whip-handles, notably showing a meandering line swirling around circles with a central dot, sometimes genuine running spirals and spiral hooks in addition to meandering double lines compressed into circumferential bands. These designs are typical of the Otomani-Fuzesabony-Gyolavársand culture and associated metalwork styles (David, 2002, 2007), and even adorn material culture inside and above the shaft graves in the two circles in Mycenae (Karo, 1930–33; Mylonas, 1972–73; David, 2007). It was precisely decorations like this that were translated to decorate locally made NBA IB metalwork (Figure 3A–C). To summarize, close connections between the Carpathian Basin and NBA IB

transpire in terms of weapons and horsechariot gear as well as images rooted in a shared cosmology. Novel forms of religiosity were introduced and locally adapted in Scandinavia. This concurs with social change, which was especially evident from the striking appearance of mound-inserted rich burials with symbol-rich warrior equipment as well as a number of outstanding assemblages of weaponry ritually deposited in wetlands and, last but not least, rock carving activities on prominent rocks near the Bronze Age waterline. As the Carpathian link co-occurred with new social and ritual technologies in both Nordic zones with a joint concern with carved ships and weaponry, it can be seen as a momentous catalyst in bringing the NBA koiné to its breakthrough.

CONCLUSION: SCANDINAVIA, THE CARPATHIAN BASIN AND THE AEGEAN WORLD The above analysis allows the following inference: the emergence of the NBA as a cultural zone in and of itself was historically interlinked with the Carpathian crossroad, particularly during the period with Koszider metalwork (Table 1). This could in turn mean a longer chain of linked socio-cultural change starting in the Aegean. Indeed, similar warrior gear with swirling cosmology-embedded designs embellishes the pinnacles of the material hierarchies across Europe with highlights in southern Scandinavia, the Carpathian Basin, and the Aegean. A widely shared Indo-European background may have facilitated a generally high degree of receptivity across Europe at this time, where the practice of creatively translating exogenous traits was rooted in directional transfer of raw materials. A suite of linked histories across Europe transpires, when attaching importance to the fact that the

624

time period in which it all began, c. 1600 BC, was a turning point on a European scale. The precise timing may be debated, but it is here suggested that the link of change could ultimately have emanated from the early post-eruption Aegean with embryonic Mycenaean hegemonies. Cross-cultural demand for the raw materials of copper, tin, gold, and amber surely formed part of the engine that brought the NBA to its breakthrough c. 1600 BC. Recent results in lead isotope analysis identify routinized transports of raw materials across Europe, basically an Atlantic route and a central European route, both of them linking up with an Aegean trade network (Ling et al., 2014). Both routes played a role this early, but culturally the second one stands out: the allure of outstandingly exotic and esoteric novelties has above been pinpointed as significant, as were the differential responses to such transculture within and between southern Scandinavia’s hotspot zone and northern zone. In all likelihood, flint and amber from the NBA hotspot zone were exchanged for other desirable items, such as metal (e.g. Rassmann, 2000). In briefly assessing the historical intricacies, two observations are deemed significant: first, the new kind of martial culture appeared roughly simultaneously in Scandinavia and in the Carpathian Basin, whilst such martiality already existed in the Aegean. This is amply evidenced by rich early Mycenaean graves displaying superior warriorhood with an abundance of warrior-chariot equipment and many of the same designs (Dietz, 1991: 106–84, 266, fig. 80, 321, fig. 93; Kilian-Dirlmeier, 1997). An initial direction of transfer with a start in the south is supported by the fact that swirling patterns and spirals have a deep ancestry in the Aegean. Marine and watery pictorial scenes also occur early on, and these lively designs changed towards stereotypy after the eruption (Sørensen

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

et al., 2013): a pre-eruption example of watery vivacity is the Nilotic dagger (Mycenae, grave circle A, shaft grave V) dating to the LH IB—the seventeenth century BC (Dietz, 1991: 261–64). Indeed, such blades with sophisticated figural metal-inlays in the central section constitute likely models of inspiration for the Hajdúsámson–Apa kind of swords and daggers with curved-ogival-V figures on the blade. Some of these even integrate polychrome ‘painting in metal’ techniques (Berger et al., 2010). Second, after the volcano, Mycenaean martial culture gained ground across the Aegean: here may lie the outline of a reason why objects and ideas around 1600 BC began to travel regularly between the Aegean and the Carpathian meeting point and from there to Scandinavia. It is here highly significant that NBA IB metalwork for the first time bears witness to the use of Cypriote copper and designs traceable to an Aegean source. NBA IB is also in this respect a breaking point, albeit the Carpathian crucible seems to have been both mediator and transformer of Aegean culture-traits before they travelled northwards. The ‘thrones’ from Balkåkra in Scania and Hasfalva in Hungary are perhaps the clearest evidence of a direct connection between the Scandinavian hotspot zone and the Carpathian Basin. While commencing c. 1600 BC, NBA IB, in a manner of speaking, did not come into full fruition until c. 1500/1465 BC in NBA II, which is therefore justifiable as the first true highlight of the southern Scandinavian Bronze Age (Kristiansen, 1998; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005). In NBA II, however, the Carpathian connection is no longer culturally visible but rather completely absorbed in the now uniform Nordic koiné. Instead, clearer glimpses of Mycenaean cultural impact occur in Scandinavia (Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005). This is now sustained by the testimony of lead isotope analyses

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

625

(Ling et al., 2014). The Aegean seems from 1500 BC directly included in the Nordic sphere of interaction. The reach and effects of the Theran eruption have a long research history in Aegean archaeology, and wider international and historical consequences have lately begun to be discussed: according to Risch and Meller (2013: 610, table 1), the volcanic impact encompassed decline and growth as well as commencements across Eurasia. A major reason for recent advances is the high-precision dating of c. 1600 BC (Friedrich, 2013) for the volcanic eruption at the very end of the LM IA period. Presumably triggered by the suite of disasters in the immediate wake of eruption (e.g. Friedrich, 2013), political fragmentation began already during LM IB in Minoan Crete and its ports of trade (cf. Preston, 2008; Brogan & Hallager, 2011; Hatzaki, 2011; Knappett et al., 2011; Driessen, 2013; Sørensen et al., 2013). This process first culminated with the fire destructions at the very end of the LM IB phase c. 1500/1450 BC (cf. Brogan & Hallager, 2011): political power, and cultural prominence as such, slowly but surely moved from the Minoan oikoumene towards the Mycenaean mainland with its robust warrior aristocracies of Indo-European speakers and eventually allowed successful conquests and commercial expansion of Mycenaean states. The onset of the sixteenth century BC emerges as historically crucial due to the Aegean power shift the eruption expedited: across the Aegean world weaponry, warfare and warriors were from now on overtly celebrated. Mycenaean military-stately organization was intimately coupled to religion, and indeed substantially different from Minoan Crete (e.g. Palaima, 2008), and this suits the presented arguments very well. Still, one may wonder how much of all this was already inherent to societies in the Europe of the earliest second millennium

BC and how much was essentially novel. Possibly, the volcano changed people’s perspectives on their place in the world, and this coupled to the ensuing world-systemic transformation in the Aegean gave rise to extraordinary and successful transfer of a particular social construct spiced with cosmology and warriorhood. The latter were in turn easily adaptable to local and already hot social habitats. Finally, when addressing the historical significance of the Carpathian link, it may be concluded that this remote region provided a direct incentive for the cosmology-rooted resource from which the NBA took off. An even broader perspective is however necessary to comprehend why this happened precisely in the sixteenth century BC.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. PITN-GA 212402. Collaborations around the theme Forging Identitites—The Mobility of Culture in Bronze Age Europe have contributed much to the present article (http://www. forging-identities.com), which relates to perspectives taken in Vandkilde (1996, 1998 and 2014b). I am grateful to valuable remarks from three reviewers. Zsofia Kølcze provided information of relevance for Figure 5, and Samantha Reiter corrected my English: I thank them both for the improvements. Jeppe Boel Jepsen did Figure 7, while figures 1–5 and 9–11 were prepared by Louise Hilmar in cooperation with the author, who collected the underlying data. Furthermore, I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Wolfgang David for permission to use the illustrations in Figures 6 and 8. This article, first communicated at the Bradford conference in honour of Prof. Kristian Kristiansen, also owes much to

626

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

discussions with colleagues while working on Thera and Crete during summer 2013: Walter Friedrich, Annette Højen Sørensen, and Birgitta and Erik Hallager.

REFERENCES Aner, E. & Kersten, K. 1973–2014. Die Funde der älteren Bronzezeit des nordischen Kreises in Dänemark, Schleswig-Holstein und Niedersachsen, vol. 1–20. Neumünster: Wachholtz Verlag. Anthony, D.W. 2007. The Horse, the Wheel, and the Language. How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Oxford: Princeton University Press. Bátora, J. 2000. Das Gräberfeld von Jelsovce/ Slowakei: Ein Beitrag zur Frühbronzezeit im nordwestlichen Karpatenbecken. Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa Band 16 Teil 1–2. Kiel: Oetker/Voges. Benjamin, W. 1968. The Task of the Translator. An Introduction to the Translation of Baudelaire’s Tableaux Parisiens. In: H. Arendt, ed. Walter Benjamin Illuminations. Essays and Reflections. New York: Schocken Books, pp. 69–82. Berger, D., Schwab, R. & Wunderlich, C-H. 2010. Technologische Untersuchungen zu bronzezeitlichen Metallziertechniken nördlich der Alpen vor dem Hintergrund des Hortfundes von Nebra. In: H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16–21 Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 751–77. Bergerbrant, S. 2007. Bronze Age Identities: Costume, Conflict and Contact in Northern Europe 1600–1300 BC. Stockholm Studies in Archaeology no 43. Lindome: Bricoleur Press. Boroffka, N. 1998. Bronze- und früheisenzeitlichen Geweihtrensenknebel aus Rumänien und ihre Beziehungen. Eurasia Antiqua. Zeitschrift für Archäologie Eurasiens, 4: 81–135. Bradley, R. 2000. An Archaeology of Natural Places. London: Routledge.

Bradley, R. & Nimura, C. 2013. The Earth, the Sky and the Water’s Edge: Changing Beliefs in the Earlier Prehistory of Northern Europe. World Archaeology, 45 (2): 105–18. Brogan, T.M. & Hallager, E. eds. 2011. LM IB Pottery. Relative Chronology and Regional Differences. Acts of a Workshop Held at the Danish Institute at Athens in Collaboration with the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete, 27–29 June 2007. Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Vol. 11.1. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. Crumlin-Pedersen, O. & Trakadas, A. eds. 2003. Hjortspring: A Pre-Roman Iron-Age Warship in Context. Roskilde: The Viking Ship Museum. Cullberg, C. 1968. On Artefact Analysis. A Study in the Systematics and Classification of a Scandinavian Early Bronze Age Material with Metal Analysis and Chronology as Contributing Factors. Acta Archaeologica Lundensia Series prima in 4° 7. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt Verlag. Czebreszuk, J. 2007. Amber between the Baltic and the Aegean in the Third and Second Millennia BC (An Outline of Major Issues). In: I. Galanaki, H. Tomas, Y. Galanakis & R. Lafineur, eds. Between the Aegean and Baltic Seas. Prehistory Across Borders. Proceedings of the International Conference Bronze and Early Iron Age—Interconnections and Contemporary Developments between the Aegean and the Regions of the Balkan Peninsula, Central and Northern Europe. University of Zagreb, 11–14 April 2005. Liege: Université de Liège, pp. 363–69. Damm, C. 2012. Approaching a Complex Past: Entangled Collective Identities. In: N. Anfinset & M. Wrigglesworth, eds. Local Societies in Bronze Age Northern Europe. London: Equinox, pp. 13–30. David, W. 1997. Altbronzezeitliche Beinobjekte des Karpatenbeckens mit Spiralwirbel oder Wellenbandornament und ihre Parallelen auf der Peloponnes und in Anatolien in frühmykenischer Zeit. In: P. Roman, ed. The Thracian World at the Crossroads of Civilizations. Volume 1 of the Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Thracology. Bucharest: Institutul Roman de Tracologie, pp. 247–305. David, W. 2002. Studien zu Ornamentik und Datierung der bronzezeitlichen

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

627

Depotfundgruppe Hajdúsámson-Apa-IghielZajta. Teil 1–2. Museul National al unirii Alba Iulia Bibliotheca Musei Apulensis 18. Alba Iulia (Karlsburg/Weissenburg): Verlag ALTIP S.A. David, W. 2007. Gold and Bone Artefacts as Evidence of Mutual Contact between the Aegean, the Carpathian Basin and Southern Germany in the Second Millennium BC. In: I. Galanaki, H. Tomas, Y. Galanakis & R. Laffineur, eds. Between the Aegean and the Baltic Seas. Prehistory Across Borders. Proceedings of the International Conference Bronze and Iron Age Interconnections and Contemporary Developments between the Aegean and the Regions of the Balkan Peninsula, Central and Northern Europe. University of Zagreb, 11–14 April 2005. Liege: Université de Liège, pp. 411–20. David, W. 2010. Die Zeichen auf der Scheibe von Nebra und altbronzezeitliche Symbolgut des Mitteldonau-Karpatenraumes. In: H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16–21 Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 439–86. Dietz, S. 1991. The Argolid at the Transition to the Mycenaean Age. Studies in the Chronology and Cultural Development in the Shaft Grave Period. Copenhagen: The Danish National Museum, Department of Near Eastern and Classical Antiquities. Driessen, J. 2013. The Troubled Island … .15 Years Later. [online] 26 January 2013, Heidelberg [accessed January 2014]. Available at: Earle, T.K. & Kristiansen, K. eds. 2010. Organizing Bronze Age Societies. The Mediterranean, Central Europe & Scandinavia Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Eliade, M. 1957. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. New York: W.R. Trask, Harvest/HBJ Publishers. Engedal, Ø. 2010. The Bronze Age of Northwestern Scandinavia [online]. PhD thesis, University of Bergen [accessed September 2013]. Available at: .

Epstein, M. 2005. Re-placing Cultures. On Transculture. In: B.M. Knauft, ed. The Academic Exchange. Vol. 7, no. 5 [online] Re-Placing Cultures. A Dialogue Among Disciplines [accessed December 2013]. Available at: . Friedrich, W.L. 2013. The Minoan Eruption of Santorini around 1613 B.C. and Its Consequences. In: H. Meller, F. Bertemes, H.-R. Bork & R. Risch, eds. 1600— Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? 16oo—Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera-Eruption? Fourth Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, October 14–16, 2011 in Halle (Saale) 14. bis 16. Oktober 2011 in Halle (Saale). Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle Band 9. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 37–48. Friedrich, W.L., Kromer, B., Friedrich, M., Heinemeier, J., Pfeiffer, T. & Talano, S. 2006. Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627–1600 BC. Science 312 (5773): 548. Gjedde, J.M. 2010. Rock Art and Landscapes. Studies of Stone Age Rock Art from Northern Fennoscandia [online]. PhD thesis, University of Tromsø. [accessed December 2013]. Available at: . Goldhahn, J. 2007. Dödens hand—en essä om brons och hällsmed. Gotarc serie C— Arkeologiske skrifter no. 65. Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur. Gothenburg: Gothenburg University. Goldhahn, J. 2013. Bredarör på Kivik—en arkeologisk odyssé. Kalmar Studies in Archaeology, Vol. 9. Kalmar and Riga: Artes Liberales AB. Görsdorf, J., Marková, K. & Furmanék, V. 2004. Some new 14c data to the Bronze Age in Slovakia. Geochronometria, 2: 79–91. Hänsel, B. & Machnik, J. eds. 1998. The Carpathian Basin and the Eastern European Steppe. Nomad Mobility and Cultural Exchange During the Pre-Christian Metal Ages [4000–500 B.C.]. Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa. Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft e.V. Rahden/ Westfalen: Verlag Marie Leidorf. Hansen, R. 2010. Sonne oder Mond? Verewigtes Wissen aus der Ferne. In:

628

H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16–21 Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 953–62. Hansen, S. 2010. Der Hort von Nebra: seine Ausstattung. In: H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16–21 Februar 2005, Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 77–89. Harding, A. 2007. Warriors and Weapons in Bronze Age Europe. Budapest: Archaeolingua. Hatzaki, E. 2011. From LM IB Marine Style to LM II Marine Motifs. Stratigraphy, Chronology and the Social Context of a Ceramic Transformation: A Response to Maria Andreanaki-Vlazaki. In: T. M. Brogan & E. Hallager, eds. LM IB Pottery. Relative Chronology and Regional Differences. Acts of a Workshop Held at the Danish Institute at Athens in Collaboration with the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete, 27–29 June 2007. Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Vol. 11.1. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, pp. 75–92. Hawkes, C. 1954. Archaeological Theory and Method: Some Suggestions from the Old World. American Anthropologist, 56 (2):155–68. Holst, M. 2006. Tårup—A Round Dolmen and Its Secondary Burials. Journal of Danish Archaeology, 14:7–22. Holst, M. & Rasmussen, M. eds. 2013. Skelhøj and the South Scandinavian Bronze Age Barrows. Copenhagen: Jutland Archaeological Society and the National Museum. Holst, M., Rasmussen, M., Kristiansen, K. & Bech, J.-H. 2013. Bronze Age ‘Herostrats’: Ritual, Political, and Domestic Economies in Early Bronze Age Denmark. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 79:1–32. Horden, P. & Purcell, N. 2000. The Corrupting Sea. A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Inda, J.X. & Rosaldo, R. 2008. Tracking Global Flows. In: J.X. Inda & R. Rosaldo, eds. The Anthropology of Globalization, 2nd

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 3–46. Jensen, J. 1994. Nordens guld. En bog om oldtidens rav, mennesker og myter. København: Gyldendal. Jensen, S.H. 2006. Hestens Kulturhistorie i Norden. En syntese over hestens rolle i de forhistoriske samfund belyst ud fra det arkæologiske materiale (unpublished MA thesis, Aarhus University). Jockenhövel, A. 2005. Bronzezeitliche Dolche und Schwerter als Bilder auf Objekten? Zur Ikonographie einer Waffengattung. In: V. Spinai, C.M. Lazaroviá & D. Monah, eds. Scripta praehistorica. Miscellanea in honorem nonagenarii magistri Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa oblata. Iaşi: Studia Praehistorica, pp. 601–20. Karo, G. 1930–33. Die Schachtgräber von Mykenai. München: Verlag F. Bruckmann. Kaul, F. 2004. Bronzealderens religion. Studier af den nordiske bronzealders ikonografi. København: Nordiske Fortidsminder. Kaul, F. 2005. Bronze Age Three-Partite Cosmologies. Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 80: 135–48. Kilian-Dirlmeier, I. 1997. Alt-Ägina IV,3: Das mittelbronzezeitliche Schachtgrab von Ägina. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern. Knape, A. & Nordström, H.-Å. 1994. Der Kultgegenstand von Balkåkra. Stockholm: Swedish National Museum of Antiquities. Knappett, C., Rivers, R. & Evans, T. 2011. The Theran Eruption and Minoan Palatial Collapse: New Interpretations Gained from Modelling the Maritime Network. Antiquity, 85(329):1008–23. Koryakova, L. & Epimakhov, K. 2007. The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Krause, R. 2003. Studien zur kupfer- und frühbronzezeitlichen Metallurgie zwischen Karpatenbechen und Ostsee. Vorgeschichtliche Forschungen Band 24. Rahden/Westfalen: Verlag Marie Leidorf. Kristiansen, K. 1998. Europe Before History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kristiansen, K. 2002. Swords and Sword Fighters in the Bronze Age. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 21(4): 319–32. Kristiansen, K. 2004. Sea Faring Voyages and Rock Art Ships. In: P. Clark & B. Arnold, eds. The Dover Bronze Age

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

629

Boat in Context: Society and Water Transport in Prehistoric Europe. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 111–21. Kristiansen, K. & Larsson, T.B. 2005. The Rise of Bronze Age Society. Travels, Transmission and Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Larsson, T.B. 1986. The Bronze Age Metalwork in Southern Sweden. Aspects of Social and Spatial Organization 1800–500 BC. Archaeology and Environment, Vol. 6. Umeå: Umeå University. Leví-Strauss, C. 1966. The Savage Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ling, J. 2008. Elevated Rock Art. Towards a Maritime Understanding of Bronze Age Rock Art in Northern Bohuslän, Sweden. Gothenburg: Intellecta Solna Gothenburg University. Ling, J., Hjärthner-Holdar, E., Grandin, L., Billström, K. & Persson, P.-O. 2012. Moving Metals or Indigenous Mining? Provenancing Scandinavian Bronze Age Artefacts by Lead Isotopes and Trace Elements. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39:279–90. Ling, J., Stos-Gale, Z., Grandin, L., Billström, K., Hjärthner-Holdar, E. & Persson, P.-O. 2014. Moving Metals II: Provenancing Scandinavian Bronze Age Artefacts by Lead Isotope and Elemental Analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science, 41:106–32. Liversage, D. 2000. Interpreting Impurity Patterns in Ancient Bronze. Copenhagen: Nordiske Fortidsminder serie C. Lomborg, E. 1960. Donauländische Kulturbeziehungen und die relativen Chronologie der frühen nordischen Bronzezeit. Acta Archaeologica, 30 (1959):51–146. Manning, S. 2008. Proto-Palatial Crete. Formation of the Palaces. In: C. W. Shelmerdine, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 105–20. Maran, J. 2011. Bright as the Sun: The Appropriation of Amber Objects in Mycenaean Greece. In: H.P. Hahn & H. Weiss, eds. Mobility, Meaning and the Transformation of Things. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 147–69. Meller, H. 2010. Nebra: Vom Logos zum Mythos—Biographie eines Himmelbildes.

In: H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16–21 Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 23–73. Web ref [online] 4 October 2013. Accessed January 2013. Available at: . Meller, H. 2013. Der Hortfund von Nebra im Spiegel frühbronzezeitlicher Deponierungssitten. In: H. Meller, F. Bertemes, H.-R. Bork & R. Risch, eds. 1600—Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? 1600—Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera-Eruption? Fourth Archaeological Conference of Central Germany October 14–16, 2011 in Halle (Saale)14. bis 16. Oktober 2011 in Halle (Saale). Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle Band 9. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 493–526. Meller, H. & Bertemes, F. eds. 2010. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.–21. Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt. Meller, H., Bertemes, F., Bork, H.-R. & Risch, R. eds. 2013. 1600—Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? 1600—Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera-Eruption? Fourth Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, 14–16 October 2011 in Halle (Saale) 14. bis 16. Oktober 2011 in Halle (Saale). Tagungen des Landesmuseums fur Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt. Metzner-Nebelsick, C. 2003. Pferde, Reiter und Streitwagenfahrer in der Bronzezeit Nordeuropas. Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Ethnologie, Anthropologie und Urgeschichte, 24:69–90. Moucha, V. 2005. Hortfunde der frühen Bronzezeit in Böhmen. Praha: Archäologisches Institut der Akademie der Wissenschaften der Tschechischen Republik.

630

Müller, J. & Lohrke, B. 2009. Neue absolutchronologische Daten für die süddeutsche Hügelgräberbronzezeit. Germania, 87:25–39. Mylonas, G.E. 1972–73. Ho taphikos cyclos B ton Mycenon. The Archaeological Society at Athens Library Series Number 73, Vols. 1–2. Athens: The Archaeological Society at Athens. Nicolaescu, M. 2004. Circulating Images: The Translation of the Global into the Local. In: I. Vainovski-Mihai, ed. New Europe College GE-NEC Program 2000–2002. [online] Available at: [accessed January 2013]. Oldeberg, A. 1974. Die ältere Metallzeit in Schweden. Volume I. Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Olsen, J., Hornstrup, K.M., Heinemeier, J., Bennike, P. & Thrane, H. 2011. Chronology of the Danish Bronze Age Based on 14C Dating of Cremated Bone Remains. Radiocarbon, 53(2):261–75. Østmo, E. 2008. Some Notes on the Development of Shipbuilding and Overseas Connections in Scandinavian Prehistory. In: C. Childidis, J. Lund & C. Prescott, eds. Facets of Archeology. Essays in Honour of Lotte Hedeager on Her 60th Birthday. Oslo Archaeological Series, Vol. 10. Oslo: Unipub, pp. 265–74. Palaima, T. 2008. Mycenaean Religion. In: C. W. Shelmerdine, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 342–61. Pearce, M. 2013. The Spirit of the Sword and the Spear. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 23:55–67. Pernicka, E. 2010. Archäometallurgische Untersuchungen am und zum Hortfund von Nebra. In: H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16–21 Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 719–34. Piggott, S. 1965. Ancient Europe from the Beginnings of Agriculture to Classical Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Preston, L. 2008. LM II to IIIB Crete. In: C. Shelmerdine, ed. The Cambridge

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 310–26. Rasmussen, L.W. & Boas, N.A. 2006. The Dystrup Swords: A Hoard with Eight Short Swords from the Early Bronze Age. Journal of Danish Archaeology, 14:87–108. Rassmann, K. 2000. Vortrag zur Jahressitzung 2000 der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission. Die Nutzung baltischen Feuersteins an der Schwelle zur Bronzezeit—Krise oder Konjunktur der Feuersteinverarbeitung? Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission, 82:5–36. Risch, R. & Meller, H. 2013. Wandel und Kontinuität in Europa und im Mittelmeerraum um 1600 v. Chr. In: H. Meller, F. Bertemes, H.-R. Bork & R. Risch, eds. 1600—Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? 1600— Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera-Eruption? 4th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, 14–16 October 2011 in Halle (Saale)14. bis 16. Oktober 2011 in Halle (Saale). Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle Band 9. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 597–613. Roberts, S., Sofaer, J. & Kiss, V. 2008. Characterization and Textural Analysis of Middle Bronze Age Transdanubian Inlaid Wares of the Encrusted Pottery Culture, Hungary: A Preliminary Study. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35(2):322–30. Rowlands, M. & Ling, J. 2013. Boundaries and Connectivities: Mobility and Stasis in the Bronze Age. In: S. Bergerbrant & S. Sabatini, eds. Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen. British Archaeological Reports International Series 2508. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 517–29. Sahlins, M. 1985. Islands of History. London: University of Chicago Press. Shelmerdine, C.W. & Bennet, J. 2008. Mycenaean States. Economy and Administration. In: C.W. Shelmerdine, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 289–309. Sherratt, A. 1994. Core, Periphery and Margin: Perspectives on the Bronze Age. In: C. Mathers & S. Stoddart, eds. Development and Decline in the

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

631

Mediterranean Bronze Age. Sheffield Archaeological Monographs 8. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, pp. 335–46. Skoglund, P. 2013. Iron Age Rock-Art: A View from Järrestad in South East Sweden. European Journal of Archaeology, 16(4):685–703. Smith, M.E. 2006. How Do Archaeologists Compare Early States? Reviews in Anthropology, 35:5–36. Sørensen, A.H., Friedrich, W.L., Katsipis, S. & Søholm, K.M. 2013. Miniatures of Meaning and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Miniature Frescos from the West House at Akrotiri on Thera. In: H. Meller, F. Bertemes, H.-R. Bork & R. Risch, eds. 1600—Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? 1600— Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera-Eruption? Fourth Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, 14–16 October 2011 in Halle (Saale)14. bis 16. Oktober 2011 in Halle (Saale). Tagungen des Landesmuseums fur Vorgeschichte Halle Band 9. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 149–62. Sørensen, M.L.S. 1997. Reading Dress: The Construction of Social Categories and Identities in Bronze Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology, 5(1):93–114. Sørensen, T.F. 2012. Original Copies: Seriality, Similarity and the Simulacrum in the Early Bronze Age. Danish Journal of Archaeology, 1(1):45–61. Spier, L. 1921. The Sun Dance of the Plains Indians: Its Development and Diffusion. New York City: The Trustees of Columbia University. Swieder, A. 2013. Carpathian Basin, Oder, Baltic Sea. The Role of the Oder River as Communication Corridor at the End of the Early and the Beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. In: H. Meller, F. Bertemes, H.-R. Bork & R. Risch, eds. 1600— Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? 1600—Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera-Eruption? Fourth Archaeological Conference of Central Germany, 14–16 October 2011 in Halle (Saale)14. bis 16. Oktober 2011 in Halle (Saale). Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle Band 9. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 539–63.

Thrane, H. 1999. Ridedyret. Skalk, 1:12–14. Thrane, H. 2010. Contacts between Central and northern Europe. In: H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.-21. Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt. Thrane, H. 2013. Bronze Age Megalomania. In: S. Bergerbrant & S. Sabatini, eds. Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen. British Archaeological Reports International Series 2508. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 329–37. Treherne, P. 1995. The Warrior’s Beauty: The Masculine Body and Self-Identity in Bronze-Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology, 3(1):105–44. Trigger, B.G. 2003. Understanding Early Civilisations. A Comparative Study. New York: Cambridge University Press. Úhner, C. 2010. Makt och samhälle: politisk ekonomi under bronsåldern i Karpaterbäckenet. Gotarc Series B 54 (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Gothenburg). Vandkilde, H. 1996. From Stone to Bronze. The Metalwork of the Late Neolithic and Earliest Bronze Age in Denmark. Århus: Aarhus University Press. Vandkilde, H. 1998. Denmark & Europe: Typochronology, Metal Composition and Socio-Economic Change in the Early Bronze Age. In: C. Mordant, M. Pernot & V. Rychner, eds. L’atelier du bronze en Europe du XX au VIII siècle avant notre ère. Actes du colloque international ‘Bronze’ 96‘. Tome I (session de Neuchatel): Les analyses de composition du métal: leur apport à l’archéologie del’Age du Bronze. Paris: Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, pp. 119–35. Vandkilde, H. 2005. A Biographical Perspective on Ösenringe from the Early Bronze Age. In: T. Kienlin, ed. Die Dinge als Zeichen: Kulturelles Wissen und materielle Kultur. Internationale Fachtagung an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main 3.–5. April 2003. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 125. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, pp. 263–81. Vandkilde, H. 2006. Warriors and Warrior Institutions in the European Copper Age.

632

In: T. Otto, H. Thrane & H. Vandkilde, eds. Warfare and Society. Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, pp. 393–422. Vandkilde, H. 2007. Culture and Change in Central European Prehistory, 6th to 1st Millennium BC. Århus: Aarhus University Press. Vandkilde, H. 2010. Metallurgy, Inequality and Globalization in the Bronze Age— Discussant’s Commentary on the Papers in the Metallurgy Session. In: H. Meller & F. Bertemes, eds. Der Griff nach den Sternen. Internationales Symposium in Halle (Saale) 16.–21. Februar 2005. Tagungen des Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle. Halle (Saale): Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, pp. 903–10. Vandkilde, H. 2011. Bronze Age Warfare in Temperate Europe. In: S. Hansen & M. Müller, eds. Sozialarchäologische Perspektiven: Gesellschaftlicher Wandel 5000–1500 v.Chr. zwischen Atlantik und Kaukasus. Internationale Tagung 15.–18. Oktober 2007 in Kiel. Archäologie in Eurasien 24. DAI-Berlin & Darmstadt: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, pp. 365–80. Vandkilde, H. 2013. Bronze Age Voyaging and Cosmologies in the Making: The Helmets from Viksö Revisited. In: S. Bergerbrant & S. Sabatini, eds. Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and Herittage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen. British Archaeological Reports International Series 2508. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 165–77. Vandkilde, H. 2014a. Archaeology, Theory, and War-related Violence: Theoretical Perspectives on the Archaeology of

European Journal of Archaeology 17 (4) 2014

Warfare and Warriorhood. Oxford Handbooks Online. In: A. Gardner, A., M. Lake & U. Sommer, eds. History and Theory of Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. May 2014. http://www. oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxford hb/9780199567942.001.0001/oxfordhb-9 780199567942-e-027?rskey=c7TQfi&resu lt=11. Vandkilde, H. 2014b Cultural Perspectives on the Beginnings of the Nordic Bronze Age. Offa, forthcoming Whitehouse, H. 1995. Inside the Cult. Religious Innovation and Transmission in Papua New Guinea. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Whitehouse, H. 2004. Modes of Religiosity. A Cognitive Theory and Religious Transmission. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press. Willroth, K.H. 1985. Die Hortfunde der alteren Bronzezeit in Südschweden und auf den dänis- chen Inseln. Neumünster: Wachholtz.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Helle Vandkilde is an archaeology professor at Aarhus University in Denmark and currently director of the AU-Arts research programme ‘Materials, Culture and Heritage’. Address: Department of Archaeology, Institute of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, AU-Moesgaard, Moesgård Allé 20, DK-8270 Hoejbjerg, Denmark. [email: [email protected]]

Percée de l’Âge du Bronze nordique: guerriers transculturels et carrefour carpate au 16e siècle BC La percée autour de 1600 BC de l’âge du Bronze nordique (NBA) comme un koiné au sein de l’âge du Bronze européen peut être liée historiquement au bassin des Carpates. Le distinct caractère nordique impliquait un enchevêtrement de cosmologie et de statut guerrier, même s’il était représenté par des

Vandkilde – Breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age

633

médias différents dans la région hotspot (bronze) et la région du nord (pierre). Autour d’un carrefour carpate entre les steppes eurasiennes, le monde égéen et l’Europe tempérée de cette époque s’est formé un assemblage transculturel, rassemblant aussi bien les innovations matérielles qu’immatérielles provenant de différents endroits. Un statut supérieur de guerrier était lié à des croyances en une cosmologie tripartite, avec un accès aquatique aux enfers, et présentant également des nouvelles technologies de combat et des nouveaux modes de conduite sociale. Cette transculture fût traduite de façon créative dans de nombreuses sociétés chaudes lors du passage à l’âge du Bronze moyen. En Scandinavie du sud, l’armement se distingue par une créativité très importante empruntant des originaux, des contacts et un ensemble d’idées provenant des Carpates, mais qui se base en fin de compte sur les hégémonies mycéniennes émergentes en mer d’Egée. Ceci procurait le stimulus pour un point de départ ancré dans la cosmologie d’où pouvait émerger le NBA. Translation by Isabelle Gerges. Mots-clés: Âge de Bronze, changement de culture, transculture, cosmologie, traduction créative, société chaude

Der Durchbruch der Nordischen Bronzezeit: Transkulturelle Kriegerschaft und ein karpatenländischer Kreuzungspunkt im 16. Jh. v. Chr. Der um 1600 v. Chr. erfolgte Durchbruch der Nordischen Bronzezeit (Nordic Bronze Age, NBA) als Koiné innerhalb des bronzezeitlichen Europa kann historisch mit dem Karpatenbecken verbunden werden. Nordische Distinktivität brachte eine Verschmelzung von Kosmologie und Kriegerschaft mit sich, die sich allerdings in der Kernzone (Bronze) und der nördlichen Zone (Felsgestein) durch unterschiedliche Materialien abbildete. An einem karpatenländischen Kreuzungspunkt, der zu dieser Zeit zwischen den eurasischen Steppen, der ägäischen Welt und der gemäßigten Zone Europas bestand, entwickelte sich ein kulturell übergreifendes Inventar, in das materielle und immaterielle Innovationen aus verschiedenen Herkunftsgebieten einflossen. Die hochstehende Kriegerschaft war an Vorstellungen einer dreigeteilten Kosmologie geknüpft, die u. a. einen wassergebundenen Eingang in die Unterwelt umfasste, und zeigte zudem neue Kampftechnologien und Wege sozialer Führung. Diese übergreifenden Kulturphänomene wurden im Umfeld von‚ heißen Gesellschaften‘ am Beginn der Mittelbronzezeit frei übertragen. In Südskandinavien entstand Waffentechnik von großer Kreativität, die aus Originalen des Karpatenraums, Kontakten und einem Pool von karpatenländischen Ideen herrührte, doch letztendlich auf die entstehenden mykenischen Hegemonien in der Ägäis zurückgriff. Dies bot den Stimulus für eine kosmologiebasierte Quelle, aus der die Nordische Bronzezeit ihren Anfang nahm. Traslation by Heiner Schwarzberg. Stichworte: Bronzezeit, kultureller Wechsel, Transkultur, Kosmologie, freie Übertragung, heiße Gesellschaft