A Bronze Age battlefield? Weapons and trauma in the Tollense Valley, north-eastern Germany

Jantzen, Detlef; Brinker, Ute; Orschiedt, Jörg; Heinemeier, Jan; Piek, J.; Hauenstein, Karlheinz; Krüger, Joachim; Lidke, Gundula; Lübke, Harald; Lampe, Reinhard; Lorenz, Sebastian; Schult, Manuela; Terberger, Thomas

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00067843

Cited by 96 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, such population surplus would be a natural primary instigator for later migrations, especially if the settlement was abandoned, in part or entirely, during the 12th century BC. Such migrations correspond with evidence from Tollense in fertile Mecklenburg (Jantzen et al 2011).…”

Section: New Forms Of Settlement and Increasing Population Densitiessupporting

confidence: 84%

“…In the Nordic zone Mecklenburg rose to dominance during Period III, and it is therefore not surprising that hostilities would occur especially in this region, as witnessed in Tollense (cf. Jantzen et al 2011). In the following we shall therefore discuss in more detail the possible historical processes leading up to this major change in trade routes (and religious beliefs), accompanied by social disruption, warfare, and migrations, during the 13th-12th centuries BC.…”

Section: Warriors and Traders Of The Flange-hilted Sword 1300-1150 Bcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here a huge army of several hundred, perhaps several thousand, warriors met with a defending army, and a battle raged along the small river over several kilometres (Jantzen et al 2011;. The attackers apparently came from the south; Price (2014) shows that c. 50% was non-local, but this figure could be higher.…”

Section: New Forms Of Settlement and Increasing Population Densitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100bc

Kristiansen

Suchowska-Ducke

2015

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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The Bronze Age was the first epoch in which societies became irreversibly linked in their co-dependence on ores and metallurgical skills that were unevenly distributed in geographical space. Access to these critical resources was secured not only via long-distance physical trade routes, making use of landscape features such as river networks, as well as built roads, but also by creating immaterial social networks, consisting of interpersonal relations and diplomatic alliances, established and maintained through the exchange of extraordinary objects (gifts). In this article, we reason about Bronze Age communication networks and apply the results of use-wear analysis to create robust indicators of the rise and fall of political and commercial networks. In conclusion, we discuss some of the historical forces behind the phenomena and processes observable in the archaeological record of the Bronze Age in Europe and beyond.

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Section: New Forms Of Settlement and Increasing Population Densitiessupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Warriors and Traders Of The Flange-hilted Sword 1300-1150 Bcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: New Forms Of Settlement and Increasing Population Densitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100bc

Kristiansen

Suchowska-Ducke

2015

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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“…Violence and skull traumas have been reported in North European skeletal assemblages dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age (Fibiger et al, ; Fyllingen, ; Jantzen et al, ). Fibiger et al () report frequencies of skull trauma (including the mandible) of 9.4% and 16.9% in 378 individuals in Neolithic Sweden and Denmark, respectively, where ante mortem traumas were more frequently occurring among males.…”

Section: Step 4: Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Skull traumas are reported as frequently occurring in Middle Neolithic contexts in Sweden and Denmark (Fibiger, Ahlström, Bennike, & Schulting, ) and Bronze Age contexts in central Norway (Fyllingen, ) and northern Germany (Jantzen et al, ). A majority of traumas have occurred ante mortem and show different degrees of healing in the assemblages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Care and consequences of traumatic brain injury in Neolithic Sweden: A case study of ante mortem skull trauma and brain injury addressed through the bioarchaeology of care

Tornberg

Jacobsson

2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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A number of papers have provided insight into frequencies of violence‐related trauma, especially skull trauma, in Northern European skeletal assemblages dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Although the cases are often well described, they lack further discussion about the consequences of skull trauma for the injured individual and the implications for the surrounding society, especially considering severe skull trauma leading to traumatic brain injuries. In this paper, we address questions of trauma and care for one individual associated with the Swedish–Norwegian Battle Axe Culture who suffered from 2 severe ante mortem skull traumas probably leading to brain injuries. These questions are addressed using the Web‐based application and analytic tool Index of Care. We found that daily care, both short term with basic needs such as nutrition and grooming and long term with cognitive impairments, was available in the Neolithic society. Considering the frequent number of ante mortem skull trauma in the Neolithic and Bronze Age skeletal assemblages, traumatic brain injury was probably a common phenomenon. We argue that the care provided was a necessity for survival and maintenance of a socially sustainable society.

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Factors affecting attitudes toward migrants—An evolutionary approach

Schahbasi

Huber

Fieder

2020

American J Hum Biol

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Objective To understand migration from an evolutionary perspective, this phenomenon has so far been mainly investigated in animal species. We therefore aim to investigate the potential evolutionary roots of attitudes toward migrants in humans. Methods We used data from the European Social Survey (n = 83 734), analyzing attitudes toward migrants by performing ordinal mixed models. Results We found that men have a more restrictive attitude toward migration than women, which increases with age and is stronger with a child in the household. Attitude toward migrants is also more skeptical if migrants have a different ethnicity and are from poorer countries. Increasing education and religiousness are associated with a more positive attitude toward migrants, particularly toward migrants of different ethnicity and from poorer countries. Discussion Although migration flows are a hallmark of the human species, previous findings suggest that (pre‐)historic migration flows were at times accompanied by conflict and violence, while at the same time, they insured survival by allowing cultural exchange and the avoidance of inbreeding. Accordingly, we assume that contemporary attitudes toward migration are rooted in our evolutionary past. We discuss the respective behavioral patterns from an evolutionary perspective, arguing that both—a negative attitude as well as openness—make sense.

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A Bronze Age battlefield? Weapons and trauma in the Tollense Valley, north-eastern Germany

Cited by 96 publications

References 8 publications

Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100bc

Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100bc

Care and consequences of traumatic brain injury in Neolithic Sweden: A case study of ante mortem skull trauma and brain injury addressed through the bioarchaeology of care

Factors affecting attitudes toward migrants—An evolutionary approach

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