Bronze Age

The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) consists of techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those metals in order to cast bronze. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world.

Commencing approximately 3300 BC in the Fertile Crescent, the Bronze Age is the second of Christian Jürgensen Thomsen’s “the three-age system of European antiquity”, following the Stone Age and preceding the Iron Age. It was the third period in the development of material culture among the ancient peoples of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, following the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The dates of the period when bronze was used varied for different regions. The Bronze Age collapse, in the Near East, Asia Minor, the Aegean region, North Africa, Caucasus, Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean, was a transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, which was violent, sudden, and culturally disruptive. It was associated with the Sea Peoples, as discussed in the article on this topic.

Origins

The place and time of the invention of bronze are controversial, and it is possible that bronzing was invented independently in multiple places. The earliest known tin bronzes are from what is now Iran and Iraq and date to the late 4th millennium BC, but there are claims of an earlier appearance of tin bronze in Thailand in the 5th millennium BC. Arsenical bronzes were made in Anatolia and on both sides of the Caucasus by the early 3rd millennium BC. Some scholars date some arsenical bronze artefacts of the Maykop culture in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BC, which would make them the oldest known bronzes, but others date the same Maykop artifacts to the mid 3rd millennium BC.

Ancient Near East

The Bronze Age in the Near East is divided into three main periods (the dates are very approximate):

• EBA - Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BC)
• MBA - Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BC)
• LBA - Late Bronze Age (c.1600-1100 BC)
• Each main period can be divided into shorter subcategories such as EB I, EB II, MB IIa etc.

Metallurgy developed first in Anatolia, modern Turkey. The mountains in the Anatolian highland possessed rich deposits of copper and tin. Copper was also mined in Cyprus, the Negev desert, Iran and around the Persian Gulf. Copper was usually mixed with arsenic, yet the growing demand for tin resulted in the establishment of distant trade routes in and out of Anatolia. The precious copper was also imported by sea routes to the great kingdom of Mesopotamia.

The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of urbanization into organized city states and the invention of writing (the Uruk period in the fifth millennium BC). In the Middle Bronze Age movements of people partially changed the political pattern of the Near East (Amorites, Hittites, Hurrians, Hyksos and possibly the Israelites). The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competing powerful kingdoms and their vassal states (Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites, Mitanni). Extensive contacts were made with the Aegean civilization (Ahhiyawa, Alashiya) in which the copper trade played an important role. This period ended in a widespread collapse which affected much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.

Iron began to be worked already in Late Bronze Age Anatolia. The transition into the Iron Age c.1200 BC was more of a political change in the Near East rather than of new developments in metalworking.

Indian Bronze Age

The Bronze Age on the Indian subcontinent began around 3300 BC with the beginning of the Indus Valley civilization. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus Valley, the Harappans, developed new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead and tin.

East Asia

China

Bronze artifacts have been discovered at the historic site of Majiayao culture (3100 BC to 2700 BC) of China. However, it is commonly accepted that China's Bronze Age began at around 2100 BC during the Xia dynasty.

The Erlitou culture, Shang Dynasty and Sanxingdui culture of early China used bronze vessels for rituals as well as farming implements and weapons.

Southeast Asia

In Ban Chiang, Thailand, (Southeast Asia) bronze artifacts have been discovered dating to 2100 BC.

In Nyaunggan, Burma bronze tools have been excavated along with ceramics and stone artefacts . Dating is still currently broad . ( 3500 BC - 500 BC )

Korean peninsula

The Middle Mumun pottery period culture of the southern Korean Peninsula gradually adopted bronze production (circa 700-600? BC) after a period when Liaoning-style bronze daggers and other bronze artifacts were exchanged as far as the interior part of the Southern Peninsula (circa 900-700 BC). The bronze daggers lent prestige and authority to the personages who wielded and were buried with them in high-status megalithic burials at south-coastal centres such as the Igeum-dong site [4]. Bronze was an important element in ceremonies and as for mortuary offerings until AD 100.

Aegean

The Aegean Bronze Age civilizations established a far-ranging trade network. This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with the tin to produce bronze. Bronze objects were then exported far and wide, and supported the trade. Isotopic analysis of the tin in some Mediterranean bronze objects indicates it came from as far away as Great Britain.

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

The Minoan civilization based from Knossos appears to have coordinated and defended its Bronze Age trade.

One crucial lack in this period was that modern methods of accounting were not available. Numerous authorities[citation needed] believe that ancient empires were prone to misvalue staples in favor of luxuries, and thereby perish by famines created by uneconomic trading.

Collapse

How the Bronze Age ended in this region is still being studied. There is evidence that Mycenaean administration of the regional trade empire followed the decline of Minoan primacy. Evidence also exists that supports the assumption that several Minoan client states lost large portions of their respective populations to extreme famines and/or pestilence, which in turn would indicate that the trade network may have failed at some point, preventing the trade that would have previously relieved such famines and prevented some forms of illness (by nutrition). It is also known that the breadbasket of the Minoan empire, the area north of the Black Sea, also suddenly lost significant portions of its population, and thus probably some degree of cultivation in this era.

Mycenaean sword found in Eastern EuropeRecent research has discredited the theory that exhaustion of the Cypriot forests caused the end of the bronze trade. The Cypriot forests are known to have existed into later times, and experiments have shown that charcoal production on the scale necessary for the bronze production of the late Bronze Age would have exhausted them in less than fifty years.

One theory says that as iron tools became more common, the main justification of the tin trade ended, and that trade network ceased to function as it once did. The individual colonies of the Minoan empire then suffered drought, famine, war, or some combination of these three factors, and thus they had no access to the far-flung resources of an empire by which they could easily recover.

Another family of theories looks to Knossos itself. The Thera eruption occurred at this time, 70 miles north of Crete. Some authorities speculate that a tsunami from Thera destroyed Cretan cities. Others say that perhaps a tsunami destroyed the Cretan navy in its home harbor, which then lost crucial naval battles; so that in the Minoan chronology of the event (c. 1450 BC) the cities of Crete burned and the Mycenaean civilization took over Knossos. If the eruption occurred in the late 17th century BC (as most chronologists now think), then its immediate effects belong to the Middle Bronze to Late Bronze Age transition, and not to the end of the Late Bronze Age; but it could have triggered the instability which led to the collapse first of Knossos and then of Bronze Age society overall. One such theory looks to the role of Cretan expertise in administering the empire, post-Thera. If this expertise was concentrated in Crete, then the Mycenaeans may have made crucial political and commercial mistakes when administering the Cretans' empire.

More recent archaeological findings, including on the island of Thera (more commonly known today as Santorini), suggest that the center of Minoan Civilization at the time of the eruption was actually on this island rather than on Crete. Some think that this was the fabled Atlantis (a map drawn on a wall of a Minoan palace in Crete depicts an island similar to that described by Plato and similar too to the form Thera very likely had prior to its explosion). According to this theory, the catastrophic loss of the political, administrative and economic center by the eruption as well as the damage wrought by the tsunami to the coastal towns and villages of Crete precipitated the decline of the Minoans. A weakened political entity with a reduced economic and military capability and fabled riches would have then been more vulnerable to human predators. Indeed, the Santorini Eruption is usually dated to c.1630 BC. And, the Mycenaean Greeks first enter the historical record a few decades later c.1600 BC. Thus, the later Mycenaean assaults on Crete (c.1450 BC) and Troy (c.1250 BC) are revealed as but continuations of the steady encroachments of the Greeks upon the weakened Minoan world.

Each of these theories is persuasive, and aspects of all of them may have some validity in describing the end of the Bronze Age in this region.

Europe

The picture from Fritz Koch-Gotha shows a midsummer night solstice celebration ((Sommer) Sonnenwendfeier) with sun cross.

Germanic peoples of the Bronze Age, c. 1600 B.C.

Central Europe

In Central Europe, the early Bronze Age Unetice culture (1800–1600 BC) includes numerous smaller groups like the Straubingen, Adlerberg and Hatvan cultures. Some very rich burials, such as the one located at Leubingen with grave gifts crafted from gold, point to an increase of social stratification already present in the Unetice culture.

All in all, cemeteries of this period are rare and of small size. The Unetice culture is followed by the middle Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC) Tumulus culture, which is characterised by inhumation burials in tumuli (barrows). In the eastern Hungarian Körös tributaries, the early Bronze Age first saw the introduction of the Mako culture, followed by the Ottomany and Gyulavarsand cultures.

The late Bronze Age urnfield culture, (1300 BC-700 BC) is characterized by cremation burials. It includes the Lusatian culture in eastern Germany and Poland (1300-500 BC) that continues into the Iron Age. The Central European Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age Hallstatt culture (700-450 BC).

Important sites include:

• Eberswalde (Germany)
• Nebra (Germany)
• Biskupin (modern-day Poland)
• Vráble (Slovakia)
• Zug-Sumpf (Zug, Switzerland)

Northern Europe

In northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, Bronze Age inhabitants manufactured many distinctive and beautiful artifacts, such as the pairs of lurer horns discovered in Denmark. Some linguists believe that a proto-Indo-European language was probably introduced to the area around 2000 BC, which eventually became the ancestor of the Germanic languages. This would fit with the evolution of the Nordic Bronze Age into the most probably Germanic pre-Roman Iron Age.

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

Great Britain

In Great Britain, the Bronze Age is considered to have been the period from around 2100 to 700 BC. Immigration brought Celtic and Germanic people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicate that at least some of the immigrants came from the area of modern Switzerland. The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people and cultural change was significant. Integration is thought to have been peaceful as many of the early henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers. The rich Wessex culture developed in southern Britain at this time.

Additionally, the climate was deteriorating, where once the weather was warm and dry it became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, forcing the population away from easily-defended sites in the hills and into the fertile valleys. Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances.

The Deverel-Rimbury culture began to emerge in the second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400-1100 BC) to exploit these conditions. Cornwall was a major source of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the Great Orme mine in northern Wales. Social groups appear to have been tribal but with growing complexity and hierarchies becoming apparent.

Also, the burial of dead (which until this period had usually been communal) became more individual. For example, whereas in the Neolithic a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead, the 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual barrows (also commonly known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as Tumuli), or sometimes in cists covered with cairns.

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

Ireland

The Bronze Age in Ireland commenced in the centuries around 2000 BC when copper was alloyed with tin and used to manufacture Ballybeg type flat axes and associated metalwork. The preceding period is known as the Copper Age and is characterised by the production of flat axes, daggers, halberds and awls in copper. The period is divided into three phases Early Bronze Age 2000-1500 BC; Middle Bronze Age 1500-1200 BC and Late Bronze Age 1200-c.500 BC. Ireland, is also known for a relatively large number of Early Bronze Age Burials.

The Early Bronze Age: one of the characteristic artifact types of the Copper/Bronze Age in Ireland is the flat axe. There are 5 main types of flat axes, Lough Ravel c.2200 BC Ballybeg c.2000 BC, Killaha c.2000 BC, Ballyvalley c. 2000-1600 BC, Derryniggin c. 1600 BC and a number of metal ingots in the shape of axes.[2]

Americas

Andean Bronze Age

An Andean bronze bottle made by Chimú artisans from circa AD 1300.The Bronze Age in the Andes region of South America is thought to have begun at about 900 BC when Chavin artisans discovered how to alloy copper with tin. The first objects produced were mostly utilitarian in nature, such as axes, knives, and agricultural implements. Decorative work in gold, silver and copper was already a highly developed tradition, and as the Chavin became more experienced in bronze-working technology they produced many ornate and highly decorative objects for administrative, religious, and other ceremonial purposes.

See also

• Prehistory

Further reading

• Eogan, George (1983) The hoards of the Irish later Bronze Age, Dublin : University College, 331p., ISBN 0-901120-77-4
• Hall, David and Coles, John (1994) Fenland survey : an essay in landscape and persistence, Archaeological report 1, London : English Heritage, 170 p., ISBN 1-85074-477-7
• Pernicka, E., Eibner, C., Öztunah, Ö., Wagener, G.A. (2003) "Early Bronze Age Metallurgy in the Northeast Aegean", In: Wagner, G.A., *Pernicka, E. and Uerpmann, H-P. (eds), Troia and the Troad : scientific approaches, Natural science in archaeology, Berlin; London : Springer, ISBN 3-540-43711-8, p. 143–172
• Waddell, John (1998) The prehistoric archaeology of Ireland, Galway University Press, 433 p., ISBN 1-901421-10-4

External links

Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia Britannica: Bronze Age
• Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 Edition: Bronze Age
• Encyclopedia.com: Bronze Age