Daniel Berger

Curt Engelhorn Zentrum Archäometrie | CEZ Archäometrie · Laboratory for Material Analysis

The blades of the so-called Sögel-Wohlde-Kreis are the earliest sword forms of the Nordic Bronze Age. They suddenly appear as attributes of a culture in northern Germany and southern Denmark around 1600 B.C. without having local precursors in this region. Before that, there was no pronounced metal or bronze tradition in the "Nordic Circle", which is why the origin of the blades is generally seen in connection with imports from southern Germany or the Carpathian Basin. However, there are still controversial views in archaeological research as to exactly where the blades came from and what their archetypes were. The clarification of these aspects is of particular importance. On the one hand, it can provide crucial information about the development and establishment of (bronze) metallurgy in the Nordic Bronze Age, and on the other, it can give insights into the procurement of metal resources and the resulting trade and communication networks with other regions. The interdisciplinary research project “Origin, development and technology of the Bronze Age blades of the Sögel-Wohlde-Kreis" is dedicated exactly to these aspects. The Sögel and Wohlde blades as key finds of the Nordic Circle and their supposed precursors in southern Germany and the Carpathian Basin are being investigated archaeometallurgically on a larger scale for the first time. In addition to determining the chemical composition, 300 objects will be analysed for their lead, tin and copper isotope composition. The data and will provide information on the origin of raw materials (copper and tin) and on existing mixing and recycling practices. The latter aspects are best pursued using the multi-proxy approach mentioned above along with statistical evaluations, and we expect that this will allow us to uncover relationships between artefacts by establishing mixing lines. This in turn may ultimately answer the question of the origin of blades and the introduction of the sword idea in the Nordic Bronze Age. At the same time, the project fills a research gap, as metallurgical studies are largely lacking for the area under investigation.

This multidisciplinary project comprising archaeology, history, geochemistry, and geology aims at the decipherment of the enigma of the origin of a material that emerged in the third millennium BCE and gave an entire cultural epoch its name, namely the alloy of copper and tin called bronze. While copper deposits are relatively widely distributed there are only very few tin deposits known in the Old World (Europe, the Mediterranean basin and southwest Asia). Since the late 19th century archaeologists have discussed the question of the provenance of tin for the production of the earliest bronzes without any definite answer. The enigma has even grown over the past decades, because it turned out that the earliest bronzes appear in a wide area stretching from the Aegean to the Persian Gulf that is geologically devoid of any tin deposits. There is tin in western and central Europe and there is also tin in central Asia. Thus, tin or bronze seems to have been traded over large distances but it is unknown in which direction. Now a new method has become available that offers the chance to trace ancient tin via tin isotope signatures. It was found that the isotope ratios of tin exhibit small but measurable variations in nature making different tin deposits identifiable so that bronze objects can in principle be related to specific ore deposits. It is proposed to apply for the first time this new technology to characterize all known tin deposits in the Old World and relate them to bronze and tin artefacts of the third and second millennia BCE. This groundbreaking interdisciplinary study will increase our understanding of Bronze Age metal trade beyond surmise and speculation with vast implications for the reconstruction of socio-economic relations within and between Bronze Age societies. The impact will be a major advance in our understanding of the earliest complex societies with craft specialization and the formation of cities and empires.