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Cycles in Stone Mining and Copper Circulation in Europe 5500–2000 BC: A View from Space
Abstract
The authors of this article consider the relationship in European prehistory between the procurement of high-quality stones (for axeheads, daggers, and other tools) on the one hand, and the early mining, crafting, and deposition of copper on the other. The data consist of radiocarbon dates for the exploitation of stone quarries, flint mines, and copper mines, and of information regarding the frequency through time of jade axeheads and copper artefacts. By adopting a broad perspective, spanning much of central-western Europe from 5500 to 2000 bc , they identify a general pattern in which the circulation of the first copper artefacts was associated with a decline in specialized stone quarrying. The latter re-emerged in certain regions when copper use decreased, before declining more permanently in the Bell Beaker phase, once copper became more generally available. Regional variations reflect the degrees of connectivity among overlapping copper exchange networks. The patterns revealed are in keeping with previous understandings, refine them through quantification and demonstrate their cyclical nature, with additional reference to likely local demographic trajectories.
This chapter reviews the pre-existing evidence and interpretations for early mineral use and metallurgy in the Balkans from the earliest use of copper minerals at c. 6200 BC (Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic) to c. 3700 BC (end of the Chalcolithic). It presents the empirical and intellectual foundations upon which the data, analyses and interpretations of The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia project builds. The early metallurgy in this region encompasses the production, distribution and consumption of copper, gold, bronze, lead and silver, all being either pure metals or a natural alloy (tin bronze)1. The chapter initially defines the geographical and temporal scope under consideration before evaluating the archaeological and metallurgical evidence in relation to: mineral exploitation; mining; smelting, metals and metal artefacts; and metal circulation. Following each of these sub-sections is a summary of how The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia project oughtto contribute to this aspect of metallurgical activity, setting this in relation to the project’s six research questions as presented in Chapter 2. The chapter concludes by highlighting the dominant interpretative narratives relating to early metallurgy, metallurgists and societies in the Balkans that The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia project will evaluate, against all the available and relevant archaeological and metallurgical data.
Metal production evidence yielded during the excavation campaigns 2012 and 2013 in Belovode shows similar characteristic to the samples from the site studied and published previously (Radivojević 2012, 2013, 2015; Radivojević and Kuzmanović Cvetković 2014; Radivojević and Rehren 2016; Radivojević et al. 2010a). These are predominantly malachite mineral and ore samples, most likely roughly beneficiated (no samples larger than 2–3 cm in length, see Appendix B_Ch11), and very importantly, without any significant spatial pattern in the excavated area of Trench 18 or its extension (T18ext henceforth). These minerals were discovered in all areas, whether in living or economic spaces, inside the dwellings and other features, and across the excavation spits, which is why they have also been found by previous excavation campaigns (Šljivar 1993–2009).
Neolithic flint mines across northern Europe during the transition between the fifth and fourth millennia BC show similarities in their dating, extraction methods and morphology, as do contemporary forms of monumentality such as causewayed enclosures, earthen long barrows and megalithic tombs during this period. Recent research has identified further similarities in the expressions of art motifs within the mines. While certainly found during different excavations, most of these motifs incised in chalk have not been reported on. Following archival analysis, this paper details these similarities in motifs that extend between sites in the UK, Denmark, Belgium and potentially Poland, and perhaps increasingly over time to other, non-mining, sites. We argue that the practice of flint mining and incising of art motifs may indicate shared specific cultural beliefs at the beginning of the Neolithic in northern Europe that have not been previously recognized.
The last decade has seen the development of a range of new statistical and computational techniques for analysing large collections of radiocarbon (14 C) dates, often but not exclusively to make inferences about human population change in the past. Here we introduce rcarbon, an open-source software package for the R statistical computing language which implements many of these techniques and looks to foster transparent future study of their strengths and weaknesses. In this paper, we review the key assumptions, limitations and potentials behind statistical analyses of summed probability distribution of 14 C dates, including Monte-Carlo simulation-based tests, permutation tests, and spatial analyses. Supplementary material provides a fully reproducible analysis with further details not covered in the main paper.
Cette étude présente les plus anciens objets métalliques découverts dans le Centre-Nord de la France. Il s'agit de confronter la situation dans cette région, consommatrice de métal, avec celle désormais mieux connue des premières régions productrices de métal. L'inventaire des objets métalliques, mené à partir de la base de données « occupations » du PCR « Le e millénaire avant J.-C. dans le Centre-Nord de la France : définitions et interactions des groupes culturels » a permis de recenser objets métalliques pouvant être rattachés au e millénaire avant notre ère (Néolithique récent et final). Le métal est tout d'abord exclusivement réservé à la parure (Néolithique récent), puis les formes se diversifient progressivement, avec l'émergence des premières armes et outils à la fin de la période. Si cet inventaire nous conduit à livrer quelques données préliminaires sur les haches et les poignards, il permet surtout de lancer une étude approfondie des perles métalliques, qui se distribuent en deux grands types, les perles en tôle et les perles massives, afin de répondre aux trois questions suivantes : quand apparaît le métal, d'où provient-il et sous quelle forme circule-t-il ? Il n'existe à ce jour aucune trace probante d'activité métallurgique dans la région considérée avant le milieu de l'âge du Bronze, et le cuivre arrive à l'évidence sous une forme déjà manufacturée pour l'ensemble du e millénaire. Les perles en tôle sont incontestablement les premiers objets métalliques en circulation dans le Bassin parisien. Si la datation du collier découvert dans la sépulture collective de Vignely se confirme, il faudrait alors classer ces neuf perles en tôle de cuivre parmi les plus anciens objets métalliques jamais découverts en France (XXXIV e siècle av. J.-C.). Il faut remarquer que les perles en tôle ont été majoritairement découvertes dans les hypogées de la Marne, c'est-à-dire dans la zone qui a justement livré le plus de sépultures collectives attribuées au groupe culturel Seine-Oise-Marne (Néolithique récent). L'ensemble des données indique que ces objets en tôle proviennent d'Europe centrale ou septentrionale. Les perles massives sont quant à elles clairement issues du midi de la France (Languedoc, Causses, Cévennes). Nous proposons de les associer au Néolithique final (deuxième moitié du e millénaire av. J.-C).
This study presents the most ancient metallic artefacts discovered in the Paris Basin. Its purpose is to compare the Paris Basin, a metal consuming region, with other regions well known as being among the first metal producing regions. Forty-eight metallic artefacts from Northern France have been registered in our database, which can be quite securely dated from the rd millennium BC (recent and final Neolithic in French chronology, Chalcolithic in European terminology). Metallic artefacts from recent Neolithic contexts consist only of ornamental pieces, whereas the second half of the rd millennium brings the emergence of the first weapons and small tools. Here, we present some preliminary remarks on axes and daggers, but our main subject is a detailed study of the ornaments. These ornaments consist only of metallic beads. We have distinguished two main types: the sheet beads and the massive beads. We attempt to answer to the following three main questions: When did the metal first appear, where did it come from, and how did it circulate? No remains of metallurgical activity exist in the Paris Basin before the middle of the Bronze Age (Fort-Harrouard). Moreover, our studies indicate with a high degree of certainty that copper arrived in the form of finished artefacts during the entire rd millennium BC. Sheet beads are undoubtedly the first metallic artefacts to circulate in the Paris Basin. The metallic beads discovered in the Vignely collective burial (Seine-et-Marne) could be among the most ancient artefacts ever discovered in France (th century BC). The Marne hypogea zone, the richest region for recent Neolithic collective burials in Northern France (Seine-Oise-Marne group), provides most of the sheet beads. Morpho-typological considerations, relative or absolute dating of the archaeological contexts, the identification of the metalworking processes in use, and the measured metal composition, indicate a Central/Northern European provenance for these beads. Massive beads clearly originate from the South of France (Languedoc, Causses, Cévennes). We propose to associate these massive beads only with final Neolithic contexts (nd half of the rd mill. BC).
Neolithic stone axeheads from Britain provide an unusually rich, well-provenanced set of evidence with which to consider patterns of prehistoric production and exchange. It is no surprise then that these objects have often been subject to spatial analysis in terms of the relationship between particular stone source areas and the distribution of axeheads made from those stones. At stake in such analysis are important interpretative issues to do with how we view the role of material value, supply, exchange, and demand in prehistoric societies. This paper returns to some of these well-established debates in the light of accumulating British Neolithic evidence and via the greater analytical power and flexibility afforded by recent computational methods. Our analyses make a case that spatial distributions of prehistoric axeheads cannot be explained merely as the result of uneven resource availability in the landscape, but instead reflect the active favouring of particular sources over known alternatives. Above and beyond these patterns, we also demonstrate that more populated parts of Early Neolithic Britain were an increased pull factor affecting the longer-range distribution of these objects.
New radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling have refined understanding of the character and circumstances of flint mining at Grime's Graves through time. The deepest, most complex galleried shafts were worked probably from the third quarter of the 27th century cal bc and are amongst the earliest on the site. Their use ended in the decades around 2400 cal bc, although the use of simple, shallow pits in the west of the site continued for perhaps another three centuries. The final use of galleried shafts coincides with the first evidence of Beaker pottery and copper metallurgy in Britain. After a gap of around half a millennium, flint mining at Grime's Graves briefly resumed, probably from the middle of the 16th century cal bc to the middle of the 15th. These 'primitive' pits, as they were termed in the inter-war period, were worked using bone tools that can be paralleled in Early Bronze Age copper mines. Finally, the scale and intensity of Middle Bronze Age middening on the site is revealed, as it occurred over a period of probably no more than a few decades in the 14th century cal bc. The possibility of connections between metalworking at Grime's Graves at this time and contemporary deposition of bronzes in the nearby Fens is discussed.
From around 2750 to 2500 BC, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 BC. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 individuals associated with Beaker-complex artefacts. We detected limited genetic affinity between Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Iberia and central Europe, and thus exclude migration as an important mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration had a key role in the further dissemination of the Beaker complex. We document this phenomenon most clearly in Britain, where the spread of the Beaker complex introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry and was associated with the replacement of approximately 90% of Britain’s gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the east-to-west expansion that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries.
While the series of events that shaped the transition between foraging societies and food producers are well described for Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here, we report genome-wide DNA data from 38 ancient North Europeans ranging from ~9500 to 2200 years before present. Our analysis provides genetic evidence that hunter-gatherers settled Scandinavia via two routes. We reveal that the first Scandinavian farmers derive their ancestry from Anatolia 1000 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The range of Mesolithic Western hunter-gatherers extended to the east of the Baltic Sea, where these populations persisted without gene-flow from Central European farmers during the Early and Middle Neolithic. The arrival of steppe pastoralists in the Late Neolithic introduced a major shift in economy and mediated the spread of a new ancestry associated with the Corded Ware Complex in Northern Europe.
The Mons Basin (Province of Hainaut, western Belgium) is a geologically rich region, particularly from the point of view of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary deposits, conducive to an important flint gathering activity during the whole regional Prehistory. Focusing on the Neolithic period, indications of flint procurement as early as the end of the 6th millennium have been recorded, but there are concrete evidences of mining sites in the region since the second half of the 5th millennium. Flint extraction activities have lasted at least until the second half of the 3rd millennium. According to literature and recent researches, eleven sites could be extraction sites, including the World Heritage site of Spiennes. This paper critically assesses the accuracy of the data available and focuses on the issue of the unequal function of these extraction sites and their socio-economic function for Neolithic communities. Is it really possible to establish a hierarchy between the extraction sites? Can different acquisition-production strategies be highlighted? These questions are dealt with by synthesizing the data concerning the methods of flint exploitation in the Mons Basin, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the products relative to the production intentions but also by addressing the issue of their importance in exchange networks.
The transition from hunter-gatherer-fisher groups to agrarian societies is arguably the most significant change in human prehistory. In the European plain there is evidence for fully developed agrarian societies by 7,500 cal. yr BP, yet a well-established agrarian society does not appear in the north until 6,000 cal. yr BP for unknown reasons. Here we show a sudden increase in summer temperature at 6,000 cal. yr BP in northern Europe using a well-dated, high resolution record of sea surface temperature (SST) from the Baltic Sea. This temperature rise resulted in hypoxic conditions across the entire Baltic sea as revealed by multiple sedimentary records and supported by marine ecosystem modeling. Comparison with summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites indicate that this temperature rise coincided with both the introduction of farming, and a dramatic population increase. The evidence supports the hypothesis that the boundary of farming rapidly extended north at 6,000 cal. yr BP because terrestrial conditions in a previously marginal region improved.
Complex networks analyses of many physical, biological and social phenomena show remarkable structural regularities, yet, their application in studying human past interaction remains underdeveloped. Here, we present an innovative method for identifying community structures in the archaeological record that allow for independent evaluation of the copper using societies in the Balkans, from c. 6200 to c. 3200 BC. We achieve this by exploring modularity of networked systems of these societies across an estimated 3000 years. We employ chemical data of copper-based objects from 79 archaeological sites as the independent variable for detecting most densely interconnected sets of nodes with a modularity maximization method. Our results reveal three dominant modular structures across the entire period, which exhibit strong spatial and temporal significance. We interpret patterns of copper supply among prehistoric societies as reflective of social relations, which emerge as equally important as physical proximity. Although designed on a variable isolated from any archaeological and spatiotemporal information, our method provides archaeologically and spatiotemporally meaningful results. It produces models of human interaction and cooperation that can be evaluated independently of established archaeological systematics, and can find wide application on any quantitative data from archaeological and historical record.
The focus of this study is the early part of the Late Neolithic Period in Denmark with particular emphasis on impact from the European Bell Beaker culture in the fi nal centuries of the third millennium BC. The history of research is briefl y reviewed and the published evidence of domestic and ritual practices and of material expressions are discussed in some detail. The underlying intention is to provide a preliminary conclusion useable as a framework for describing future research potentials and aims. Flint daggers and various other things and materials enriched with symbolic meanings, culture and knowledge were exchanged over northern central Europe and Scandinavia, but were diff erentially received locally. The specifi c cultural and social situation in northern Jutland – associated with a marked concentration of Beaker elements – can best be understood as dependent on a series of internal conditions such as rich sources of high quality fl int as well as on interaction with a wider Late Neolithic realm in southern Scandinavia and with late Bell Beaker and affi liated groups in western Europe.
A scenario of competing social identities is presented in which strategies were closely coupled to appropriation of new kinds of material culture and in some measure also new cultural and social practices. External impulses were continuously translated into a local cultural language. Future research into Beakers may benefit from an interpretive approach that combines analyses of archaeological data with social theories about the role of material culture in social practices, identifi cation strategies and cross-cultural connectivity.
Im Verlauf der Forschungsgeschichte der letzten 100 Jahre bildete sich zwischen der Vorderasiatischen
und Europäischen Prähistorischen Archäologie mehrmals die Hypothese einer zeitlichen Vorrangstellung der
Kupfermetallurgie Vorderasiens gegenüber derjenigen Südosteuropas heraus. Ursache hierfür waren nicht der Fundstoff
und seine absolute Datierung, sondern die unterschiedlichen Definitionen des Begriffs der Kupferzeit in beiden
Fächertraditionen, die irrige Ansprache einiger tatsächlich kaltgehämmerter Schlüsselfunde in Vorderasien als Hinweise
auf Kupferguss und die weitgehende Nichtbeachtung neolithischer kaltgehämmerter Kupferartefakte Südosteuropas
sowie die unterschiedlich verlaufene Einbeziehung von 14C-Daten und ihrer Kalibration anhand von Baumringkurven
in beide Fächer. Aktuelle, Neudatierungen berücksichtigende Kartierungen der Kupferfunde Vorderasiens und Europas
zeigen, dass kaltgehämmerte Kleingeräte und Schmuck nicht nur eine Erscheinung der Primären Neolithisierung ab
dem 11. Jt. v. Chr. in Vorderasien sind, sondern auch als Bestandteil des „Neolithischen Pakets“ im Zuge der Sekundären
Neolithisierung um ca. 6000 v. Chr. bis nach Südosteuropa gelangten. Erste Hinweise auf Kupferschwergeräte
und Kupferguss treten demnach ab ca. 5000 v. Chr. in einem archäologisch derzeit nicht feiner aufzugliedernden Horizont
zeitgleich in einem von Südosteuropa bis Vorderasien reichenden Gebiet auf, so dass derzeit kein eindeutiges
Ursprungsgebiet der frühen Kupfer-Metallurgie identifiziert werden kann. Allerdings legt das ungleich höhere Fundaufkommen
in Südosteuropa nahe, dass diese Region eine Rolle als Innovationszentrum innehatte. Im weiteren Verlauf
bis in die Mitte des 4. Jt. wird auch Mitteleuropa Teil der Entwicklung, doch anstelle einer kontinuierlichen Ausbreitung
zeigt sich bei chronologisch höher aufgelöster Betrachtung eher eine schrittweise Verlagerung von Funddichtezentren,
die mit einem Rückgang in der Bedeutung älterer Zentren verbunden ist.
During the excavation of a polycultural settlement on the Mariahilfbergl in Brixlegg, Tyrol,
copper slags and a few copper objects were found in a layer which is dated to the Late
Neolithic Münchshöfen culture (second half of the fifth millennium BC). The slags clearly
show that fahlores, probably of local provenience, have been heated to obtain copper metal.
This find represents the earliest evidence for pyrotechnological production of metal in central
Europe, which obviously began approximately as early as in southeastern Europe.
The revision of a series of information allows us to discuss some questions related to contacts between societies living North and South of the Alps between the beginning ofthe V millennium and the middle of the V millennium BC, period which coincides with the development of peasant societies and the gradual introduction of metallurgy. These finds often relate to jewels and prestige goods made of green stone from the Piedmont, flint from the Veneto and Trentino Pre-Alps, cor al and Mediterranean shells and they appear in funeral and household assemblages in Switzerland, South Germany and Austria. In addition, some identical ceramics found on both sides ofthe alpine chain, as well as different Mediterranean plant species discovered on some sites of Eastern Switzerland and South Germany confirm ease contacts during recent prehistory.
Dans une région couvrant une grande partie du bassin de la Seine, entre Provins et Le Havre, nous avons cherché à caractériser et à dater les différents types de production de haches : productions régionales en grès et en silex et importations de haches en roches alpines. A partir d'une documentation disparate, en majorité constituée de pièces hors contexte, une chronologie comparée des productions a pu être dégagée. Si les éléments de datation des grandes haches en silex sont maigres, la datation des minières et ateliers indique un plein développement au cours de la seconde moitié du Ve millénaire av. J.-C.
La typologie des pièces en silex ne montre pas d'influences directes des productions alpines, si ce n'est par la présence de rares imitations. L'absence de certains types de haches en roches alpines nous interpelle sur les raisons sous jacentes (lacunes chronologiques, rejets volontaires, concurrence de produits régionaux). De plus, des imitations indiscutables en grès-quartzite ne portent pas sur tous les types de haches alpines connus dans la zone d'étude (Durrington et Bégude sont majoritaires). D'autres imitations du type Bégude sont en dolérite diffusées depuis le Massif armoricain, dont celles en métadolérites armoricaines provenant vraisemblablement des carrières de Plussulien (Côtes-d'Armor). L'association en contexte d'habitat ou funéraire de divers matériaux régionaux, alpins et provenant d'autres régions, n'est pas comparable à la pratique de dépôts dans lesquels ils s'excluent à priori. Ces conditions conduisent à proposer qu'un statut distinct soit associé à ces objets, selon leur origine.
The Copper Age Mondsee group is known from a number of lake settlements in Upper Austria and this material has been studied since the later nineteenth century. The present paper concentrates on the chemical analyses of copper artefacts, including impurities such as silver, nickel, arsenic and antimony, as well as lead isotopes. Possible sources of copper ores, from Alpine as well as the SE European sources, which may have been used in the manufacture of the Mondsee artefacts are also discussed.
This article seeks to clarify the reason for the flourishing of daggers during the first millennia of metal use in Europe. Flint daggers, usually characterized as direct copies of contemporary metal blades, circulated widely from around 4000 cal bc to 1500 cal bc in different parts of Europe. Among the best studied and most well-known flint dagger varieties are the early second millennium cal bc fishtail-handled varieties made in southern Scandinavia which are universally described as skeuomorphs of Central European metal-hilted daggers. In this paper, their putative skeuomorphism is re-evaluated through a close technological and contextual analysis, and a new way of conceiving of the relationship between fishtail flint daggers and metal-hilted daggers is proposed. Like most of the other widely circulating flint dagger types in Neolithic Europe, fishtail and metal-hilted daggers are produced through the application of specialized/standardized production processes and demonstrate a desire to cultivate special and perhaps circumscribed technologies on the part of the people who made and used them. This shared technological background is identified as the root of the ‘dagger idea’ which emerges in Europe at this period. Daggers, in any material, are identified as ‘boundary objects’ – things which bridge social boundaries, allowing people with different backgrounds to recognize similar values and ways of life in each other's cultures and which, consequently, facilitate communication and exchange, in this case of metal and of the technological concepts which were part of its adoption.
In a previous study we presented a new method that used summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for population levels, and Monte-Carlo simulation to test the significance of the observed fluctuations in the context of uncertainty in the calibration curve and archaeological sampling. The method allowed us to identify periods of significant short-term population change, caveated with the fact that around 5% of these periods were false positives. In this study we present an improvement to the method by applying a criterion to remove these false positives from both the simulated and observed distributions, resulting in a substantial improvement to both its sensitivity and specificity. We also demonstrate that the method is extremely robust in the face of small sample sizes. Finally we apply this improved method to radiocarbon datasets from 12 European regions, covering the period 8000 to 4000 BP. As in our previous study, the results reveal a boom-bust pattern for most regions, with population levels rising rapidly after the local arrival of farming, followed by a crash to levels much lower than the peak. The prevalence of this phenomenon, combined with the dissimilarity and lack of synchronicity in the general shapes of the regional SPDs, supports the hypothesis of endogenous causes.
This paper presents twelve new radiocarbon dates from copper mines at Monte Loreto in Liguria, northwest Italy, which indicate that extraction began around 3500 cal BC, making these the earliest copper mines to be discovered in Western Europe so far. The dates are placed in their regional context, with a discussion of results from Libiola and other sites associated with early copper mining.
RESUME Quinze ans apres les premieres decouvertes, un nouveau point des resultats et des objectifs est dresse. La poursuite des recherches sur le district minier-metallurgique prehistorique de Cabrieres (Herault) a permis de preciser l'anciennete de cette metallurgie (4310 ± 75 BP), les caracteristiques des minerais de cuivre, l'importance de cette exploitation (plus d'une dizaine de sites repertories), et suggere un renouvellement des problematiques regionales. Les premiers essais de metallurgie experimentale realises a l'Archeodrome de Beaune a partir des minerais de Cabrieres ont donne de fructueux resultats, et une premiere exposition permanente des decouvertes archeologiques est presente a l'Espace Museographique du Caveau de Cabrieres.
How did the emergence of hierarchical social structure that followed the domestication of plants and animals in the Neolithic actually come about? I suggest that material media were instrumental in this transformation, as culture was changed by incorporating such newmedia as landscape constructions and elaborate prestige objects. During the Neolithic transition in Thy, Denmark, local corporate groups formed, and, subsequently, Bronze Age chieftains came to power. Shifts in material culture suggest possible connections to these institutional changes, namely the materialization of property rights by burial monuments and permanent domestic architecture and the centralization of power through the controlled production of wealth objects. I conclude that, as part of social process, the nature of culture has been transformed by incorporating material culture with specific characteristics of scale, permanency, and control that were vital to institutional change.
In recent years archaeological finds and scientific analyses have provided increasing evidence for a very early beginning of copper production in the rich mining area of the Tyrolean Alps. The earliest findings derive from an excavation of a multi-phase settlement on the Mariahilfbergl in Brixlegg, which revealed evidence that a small amount of fahlores, probably of local provenance, was at least heated if not even smelted there in the Late Neolithic Münchshöfen culture (the second half of the fifth millennium bc). However, most copper finds of this horizon consist of low-impurity copper that most probably derives from Majdanpek in Serbia. This long-distance relationship is corroborated by typological features that link some aspects of the Münchshöfen culture with the Carpathian basin. Thus it is not yet clear if, at Brixlegg, actual copper production took place or, rather, an experimental treatment of the local ores. The typical fahlore composition, with arsenic and antimony in the per cent and silver and bismuth in the per mille ranges, appears in quantity only in the Early Bronze Age. Many thousands of Ösenringe are known from many central European Early Bronze Age sites, with a chemical composition typical of fahlores. At Buchberg near Brixlegg, a fortified settlement with slags from fahlore smelting proves that the local ores were indeed exploited. The lead isotope ratios of Ösenringe from the Gammersham hoard in Bavaria, which consist of fahlore copper, confirm this and suggest that copper mining and production in the Inn Valley reached a first climax during that period. In the Late Bronze Age, copper was produced at an almost industrial level.
The beginnings of extractive metallurgy in Eurasia are contentious. The first cast copper objects in this region emerge c. 7000 years ago, and their production has been tentatively linked to centres in the Near East. This assumption, however, is not substantiated by evidence for copper smelting in those centres. Here, we present results from recent excavations from Belovode, a Vinča culture site in Eastern Serbia, which has provided the earliest direct evidence for copper smelting to date. The earliest copper smelting activities there took place c. 7000 years ago, contemporary with the emergence of the first cast copper objects. Through optical, chemical and provenance analyses of copper slag, minerals, ores and artefacts, we demonstrate the presence of an established metallurgical technology during this period, exploiting multiple sources for raw materials. These results extend the known record of copper smelting by more than half a millennium, with substantial implications. Extractive metallurgy occurs at a location far away from the Near East, challenging the traditional model of a single origin of metallurgy and reviving the possibility of multiple, independent inventions.
This article, focused on a number of areas in Continental France, tries to evaluate the impact of metal production and its consumption on communities dating from the end of the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age.
Few metal discoveries have been made in the northern half of France. However, it is in the Paris Basin that the oldest metal objects have been discovered so far (second half of the 4th mill. BC). The region was exclusively a “metal consumer” during the whole 3rd mill. BC, and the use of metal in the Paris Basin remained a secondary phenomenon which had little or no effect on the mutation of the local cultural groups.
In contrast to the Paris Basin, the southern half of France could count on a wide range of copper ore resources.
The mining and metallurgical district of Cabrières-Péret in Languedoc developed its activities over a long period, starting during the late 4th mill. BC and declining at the end of the 3rd mill. BC. The study of this mining district reveals an integrated production site where zones for the extraction of the raw material were closely associated with metallurgical areas. The micro-region around Cabrières-Péret developed a cultural and economic activity particularly dynamic during this period, in which metal played an important role. Metal was therefore probably considered as having a high social value in that specific area.
Other models of copper production are known in Languedoc and the southern border of the Massif Central, such as the Al Claus settlement, a site featuring a small scale and occasional copper production, within the living units. Moreover, the study of the Neolithic metal objects discovered in Languedoc indicates that the diffusion was essentially local. These two facts, the Al Claus model and the local diffusion of copper objects, support the hypothesis of a multipolar production of copper, an alternative to the Cabrières model, where output of metal on social change was probably very low.
At the end of the 3rd mill. BC, a decline in metal production seems to have occurred on the southern border of the Massif Central. At the same time, ie the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, an increase in the exploitation of copper resources in the French Alps is to be noticed. Thus, the mining and metallurgical site of Saint-Véran (Hautes-Alpes) developed a specific high-yield metallurgical process similar to the one which spread over the whole Alpine zone throughout the Bronze Age.
According to an evolutionary interpretation, the Cabrières / Al Claus / Saint-Véran models can be used to represent the passage from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. This schema however implies that the phenomena succeeded each other in a defined period and in the same area. Does the model remain valid when the cultural areas are not connected and the phenomena not associated in time? The answer is quite obviously in the negative.
In this article we present the fragments of a crucible and a possible tuyère that provide evidence of early copper metallurgy in Scandinavia at least 1500 years earlier than previously thought. The technical ceramics were found in a cultural layer containing Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker pottery dating to around 3800–3500 bc beneath a long barrow dating to 3300–3100 bc . The presence of a copper alloy in the crucible is confirmed by three independent X-ray fluorescence analyses using both a hand-held and a stationary instrument, SEM-EDS analysis of a cross-section, as well as a Bruker Tornado μ-X-Ray-fluorescence scanner (μ-XRF). The transmission of metallurgy to southern Scandinavia coincided with the introduction of long barrows, causewayed enclosures, two-aisled houses, and certain types of artefacts. Thus, metallurgy seems to be part of the new networks that enabled the establishment of a fully Neolithic society.
New radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dates suggest a simultaneous appearance of two technologically and geographically distinct axe production practices in Neolithic Britain; igneous open-air quarries in Great Langdale, Cumbria, and from flint mines in southern England at ~4000–3700 cal BC. In light of the recent evidence that farming was introduced at this time by large-scale immigration from northwest Europe, and that expansion within Britain was extremely rapid, we argue that this synchronicity supports this speed of colonization and reflects a knowledge of complex extraction processes and associated exchange networks already possessed by the immigrant groups; long-range connections developed as colonization rapidly expanded. Although we can model the start of these new extraction activities, it remains difficult to estimate how long significant production activity lasted at these key sites given the nature of the record from which samples could be obtained.
The extent to which non-agricultural production in prehistory had cost-benefit motivations has long been a subject of discussion. This paper addresses the topic by looking at the evidence for Neolithic quarrying and mining in Britain and continental northwest Europe and asks whether changing production through time was influenced by changing demand. Radiocarbon dating of mine and quarry sites is used to define periods of use. These are then correlated with a likely first-order source of demand, the size of the regional populations around the mines, inferred from a radiocarbon-based population proxy. There are significant differences between the population and mine-date distributions. Analysis of pollen data using the REVEALS method to reconstruct changing regional land cover patterns shows that in Britain activity at the mines and quarries is strongly correlated with evidence for forest clearance by incoming Neolithic populations, suggesting that mine and quarry production were a response to the demand that this created. The evidence for such a correlation between mining and clearance in continental northwest Europe is much weaker. Here the start of large-scale mining may be a response to the arrival by long-distance exchange of high-quality prestige jade axes from a source in the Italian Alps.
Adze blades are found in settlements and burial sites of the Linear Pottery Culture. Some of these blades are made of the raw material actinolite- hornblende schist (AHS). Based on the percentage of blades made of AHS found on each site a test of autocorrelation and interpolation is applied to analyse the spatial distribution of this raw material. For measuring the connection between the provision of settelments and burial sites with AHS a rank correlation coefficient is calculated. These analyses provide means to characterize the exchange of AHS.
From the fourth millennium bc onward, flint dagger and long-blade workshops developed throughout Europe. Upper Turonian flint from the Grand-Pressigny region (western-central France) is one of the most emblematic examples of this type of lithic production from the end of the Neolithic. The function of long blades is poorly known and subject to debate. A sample of long blades and daggers was thus selected for microwear analysis, in order to record the technical tool functions of these remarkable productions from the end of the West European Neolithic. The main aim of this study is to determine whether these artifacts show any traces coming from use as tools for ordinary daily tasks, or whether they do not show wear-traces and could be interpreted as socially valued objects with no technical utility.
‘It is the slippery assemblages and the social traditions they represent, that we are trying to precipitate from the mass of beaker data’. Clarke 1970, 33
The pottery we collectively call ‘Beakers’ is united by the thread of a potting and style tradition, Wrapped up in that tradition are also expressions concerning what such a pot is for and who it may represent. Both style and those embedded meanings mutate through the long currency of British Beakers. Indeed, the newly emerging chronology for Beaker grave groups suggests that there was one critical point of rapid mutation in both pot form and associated artefacts. This phase is referred to as a fission horizon, c. 2250–2150 cal BC, and it underlines the difficulties that past schemes of steady evolution have run into.
In reviewing the continental background for Beaker-carrying cultures, a corridor of Bell Beaker/Corded Ware fusion is perceived along the southern flanks of the Channel. This created a modified spectrum of Beaker culture which stands at the head of the insular phenomenon. The long ensuing currency of Beaker pottery and Beaker graves in Britain does not hold up as a unified, steadily evolving entity. Instead, three ‘phases of meaning’ can be suggested: 1) Beaker as circumscribed, exclusive culture; 2) Beaker as instituted culture; 3) Beaker as past reference. The fission horizon initiates phase 2.
This study seeks to discuss the origins and early spread of metal technology in the central Mediterranean region. Neolithic and Copper Age evidence of metal-working and metal-using is first reviewed. It is claimed in particular that copper tools were first used, and probably also made, south of the Alps in the late Neolithic, and that complex polymetallic metallurgy developed in the early Copper Age after a short-lived intensification phase in the final Neolithic. In the second section, current models explaining the emergence of metallurgy in this region are then discussed, and a new proposal is put forward. This claims that metal technology, coming from eastern Europe, was imported into the whole of the east-central alpine region in the third quarter of the fifth millennium bc. Thence, it would have swiftly spread throughout northern Italy, central Italy, and Sardinia, and would have reached Corsica, southern Italy, and Sicily somewhat later. Finally, it is argued that the Copper Age metalworking communities dwelling in the western part of the central Mediterranean, and especially those located in west-central Italy, would have played a key role in transmitting knowledge of extractive metallurgy further west in the late fourth millennium bc.
Flint daggers are a well-known and closely studied category of artefact found throughout western Europe during the final centuries of the Neolithic and the earliest phases of metal use. They are widely linked to the adoption of metal objects and metallurgy – in many cases being described as copies of metal daggers. In Britain, several hundred flint daggers have been recovered from a variety of contexts, among the best known of which are a handful of rich Beaker single inhumation burials. The British flint daggers were of great interest to early archaeologists, and were the subject of several publications in the early 20th century, most notably the seminal 1931 typochronology and catalogue by W.F. Grimes. However, despite 80 years of evolution in our understanding of the British Early Bronze Age, Beaker burials, European flint daggers, and lithic technology in general, little further attention has been accorded to the British flint daggers. This paper returns to the flint daggers deposited in British contexts. It proposes a new classification for British daggers, distinguishing between those probably produced in Britain and those brought in from elsewhere on the continent. It further examines the chaîne opératoire for these daggers based on their final form as no production locales are yet known and examines in detail the choices made in their deposition, not just in funerary contexts but on dry land and, most importantly, in wet contexts. Finally, it proposes a sequence of development for British flint daggers which links them technologically and morphologically to lanceolate Scandinavian daggers in circulation in the Netherlands. It is suggested that people in south-east Britain knowingly played up this Dutch connection in order to highlight a specific ancestral identity linking them directly to communities across the Channel.
The metal composition of bronze alloys has been routinely examined as a means of inferring the source of the ore. But bronze is recycled, and the quantity of some components, such as arsenic, is depleted every time the alloy is melted down. Since the Early Bronze Age of the British Isles was largely supplied from a single mine on Ross Island, Co. Kerry, tracking arsenic content shows the number of re-melts and this gives the object a biography and a social context. Applying this ingenious new procedure to their large database, the authors also winkle out other sources of supply and new insights about the technology involved.
This article summarizes and discusses recent research into the Danish Bell Beaker phenomenon c.2350-1950 BC. Its focus is on the meaning of material culture here represented by Bell Beakers and bifacial lanceolate flint daggers, both seen from a social perspective. The Bell Beaker pottery is known to have had a very wide distribution. However, questions remain as to why Bell Beakers were only adopted in some regions and what meaning this special pottery had? Similarly the Danish type I daggers, which were manufactured within the context of the Danish Bell Beaker phenomenon in the northern parts of Jutland, had a wide distribution. Daggers of this type, which in general denote male identity, were exported in vast quantities, especially to Norway and the western parts of Sweden. In both case studies the evidence from a Danish Bell Beaker settlement site excavated in recent years - Bejsebakken - plays a major part.
The Saint-Blaise/Bains des Dames stratified site in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, contains several occupations that span the Late
through Final Neolithic, including the Horgen, Lüscherz, and Auvernier-Cordé periods. As part of a study on prehistoric metallurgy
in western Switzerland, we compare the lead isotope ratios (multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer) and
elemental compositions (instrumental neutron activation analysis) of the site’s numerous copper finds to a database of corresponding
measurements for copper ores throughout Europe. The results show a considerable variation in copper compositions present at
the site, suggesting complex economic relationships and multiple chaînes opératoires during the time in question. Specifically, during the Final Neolithic, we distinguished ten coherent clusters, confirmed by both the elemental compositions
and lead isotope ratios. When compared to the Europe-wide database of copper ores, we observed significant changes in the
provenance of the copper through time that reflect equally significant changes in social, cultural, and economic interactions.
Daggers, Knowledge, and Power: The Social Aspect of Flint Dagger-Technology in Scandinavia 2350-1500 cal bc
- J Apel
Apel, J. 2001. Daggers, Knowledge and Power. The Social Aspect of Flint Dagger-Technology
in Scandinavia 2350-1500 cal BC. Uppsala: Wikströms.
Ćmielów - Krzemionki - Świeciechów. Związki osady neolitycznej z kopalniami krzemienia
- B Balcer
Balcer, B. 2002. Ćmielów -Krzemionki -Świeciechów. Związki osady neolitycznej z kopalniami
krzemienia. Warsaw.
Innovation and Tradition: The Structure of the Early Metal Production in the North Alpine Region
- M Bartelheim
Bartelheim, M., 2013. Innovation and Tradition. The Structure of the Early Metal Production
in the North Alpine Region In Burmeister, S., Hansen, S., Kunst, M., and Müller-Scheeßel, N.
(eds.): Metal Matters ; Innovative Technologies and Social Change in Prehistory and
Antiquity. Rahden: Leidorf 2013.
La necropoli di Remedello Sotto e l'età del Rame nella pianura padana a nord del Po
- R C De Marinis
De Marinis, R.C., 2013. La necropoli di Remedello Sotto e l'età del Rame nella pianura
padana a nord del Po. In De Marinis R.C. (ed.), L'età del Rame. La pianura padana e le Alpi al
tempo di Ötzi, pp. 301-351. Roccafranca (BS): Massetti Rodella editori.
How Equality Became Axed: Remarks on Exchange Networks and on the Division of Labour in the Central European Neolithic
- T Kerig
Kerig, T. 2018. How equality became axed: Remarks on exchange networks and on the
division of labour in the Central European Neolithic. In M. Benz and T. Helms (eds.), Craft
production systems in a cross-cultural perspective. Studien zur Wirtschaftsarchäologie 1, pp.
1-6. Bonn: Habelt.