We present results of the largest multidisciplinary human mobility investigation to date of skeletal remains from present-day Denmark encompassing the 3 rd and 2 nd millennia BC. Through a multi-analytical approach based on 88 individuals from 37 different archaeological localities in which we combine strontium isotope and radiocarbon analyses together with anthropological investigations, we explore whether there are significant changes in human mobility patterns during this period. Overall, our data suggest that mobility of people seems to have been continuous throughout the 3 rd and 2 nd millennia BC. However, our data also indicate a clear shift in mobility patterns from around 1600 BC onwards, with a larger variation in the geographical origin of the migrants, and potentially including more distant regions. This shift occurred during a transition period at the beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age at a time when society flourished, expanded and experienced an unprecedented economic growth, suggesting that these aspects were closely related.
In recent years, extensive archaeological studies have provided us with new knowledge on wool and woollen textile production in continental Europe during the Bronze Age. Concentrations of large numbers of textile tools, and of zooarchaeological evidence suggesting intense sheepherding, hint at specialized centres of wool production during the Bronze Age. The aim of this paper is to discuss whether engagement with this economic activity was facilitated by the introduction of new foreign sheep types, possibly from the Eastern Mediterranean, where well-established wool economies existed, or by using local sheep, or a mixture of local and non-local types. A small-scale genetic pilot study, presented in this paper, primarily aimed at testing the DNA preservation, and thus the genomic potential in Bronze Age sheep remains provides evidence of both mitochondrial haplogroups A and B among Bronze Age sheep in Hungary. This result could hint at sheep herds with mixed origin but further in-depth studies are necessary to address this. We aim to promote scholarly interest in the issue and propose new directions for research on this topic.
Over the (slightly more than) two decades that the European Journal of Archaeology (formerly the Journal of European Archaeology) has been in print, we have published a number of excellent and high profile articles. Among these, Paul Treherne's seminal meditation on Bronze Age male identity and warriorhood stands out as both the highest cited and the most regularly downloaded paper in our archive. Speaking informally with friends and colleagues who work on Bronze Age topics as diverse as ceramics, metalwork, landscape phenomenology, and settlement structure, I found that this paper holds a special place in their hearts. Certainly, it is a staple of seminar reading lists and, in my experience at least, is prone to provoke heated discussions among students on topics as far ranging as gender identity in the past and present, theoretically informed methods for material culture studies, and the validity of using Classical texts for understanding prehistoric worlds. Moreover, in its themes of violence, embodiment, materiality, and the fluidity or ephemeral nature of gendered identities, it remains a crucial foundational text for major debates raging in European prehistoric archaeology in the present day.
a Sølvi Helene Fossøy finished her master's degree at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Spring 2012. She investigated Scandinavian Bronze Age textiles, focusing on transmission of handicraft. b Sophie Bergerbrant completed her doctoral thesis in archaeology in 2007 at the University of Stockholm. Her research specialty is the costume of Bronze Age Europe. She currently holds a postdoctoral position. in Spring 2012. She investigated Scandinavian Bronze Age textiles, focusing on transmission of handicraft. Sophie Bergerbrant completed her doctoral thesis in archaeology in 2007 at the University of Stockholm. Her research specialty is the costume of Bronze Age Europe. She currently holds a postdoctoral position. AbstractT his article will present new data on corded skirts from Bronze Age Scandinavia, providing an opportunity to discuss variation within this clothing type and creativity in its production. In the past this has mainly been considered based on the fully preserved skirt found in the oak-log coffin burial from Egtved, Denmark. This article includes the evidence of less well-preserved corded skirts to show that there is much more variation than previously thought in the way they were created. It is argued that this was an arena in which prehistoric textile craftspeople might show off their creativity.
The objective of this article is to study cloth and appearance in the Bronze Age based on the evidence from a previously overlooked oak-log coffin find, the Nybøl burial. The textiles have been investigated and our results compared with cloth from four well-known oak-log coffins: Muldbjerg, Trindhøj, and Borum Eshøj graves A and B. Our analysis demonstrates that this burial contained the coarsest cloth on record to date from the Scandinavian Bronze Age, and that it included some cloth items that are not previously known from the above-mentioned graves. The items of clothing the different textiles may have derived from are discussed, as well as the appearance of the deceased in relation to Bronze Age society. We conclude that this burial contained a previously unknown costume type, but that it is a variation of the others rather than an entirely new category.
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