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

Abstract

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.

Mobile elites at Frattesina: flows of people in a Late Bronze Age ‘port of trade’ in northern Italy

“…Definitions of Frattesina as a ‘central place’, ‘primary node’, ‘port of trade’ or ‘ emporium ’ recur frequently in the scholarly literature (e.g. Pearce 2000; Bietti Sestieri 2008; Harding 2013; Kristiansen & Suchowska-Ducke 2015).

Figure 1.Aerial photograph of the Frattesina site (courtesy of the Regione Veneto website: ).

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Bronze Age wool: provenance and dye investigations of Danish textiles

“…Recent provenance investigations, applying new chemical protocols based on the strontium isotopic tracing system, indicate that skin and textile raw materials were traded during the Nordic Bronze Age (1700-500 BC) (Frei et al 2015a & b). The term 'trade' instead of 'exchange' is used here following terminology recently adopted for provenance analyses of Scandinavian metal artefacts and glass beads from the Nordic Bronze Age (Ling et al 2014;Kristiansen & Suchowska-Ducke 2015;Varberg et al 2015). The most recent example of wool provenance investigation is the study of the Danish Bronze Age elite female grave from Egtved, which demonstrated that the clothing was made of non-local wool (Frei et al 2015a).…”

The Provenance, Use, and Circulation of Metals in the European Bronze Age: The State of Debate

“…At the core of this long-standing debate is the relationship between European Bronze Age metals and societies, which consequently have been the subject of much scholarship, especially as metals can be used as a proxy for populations, trade systems, conflict, religious practices, and institutional dynamics. Emphasis continues to be placed on the multiple connections between metal objects, metal trade, and elites (e.g., Earle et al 2015;Kristiansen and Suchowska-Ducke 2015;Vandkilde et al 2015).…”

“…Fourthly, the development of use-wear analyses on Bronze Age objects is starting to see more widespread application as are better recording systems, fewer untested assumptions, and a greater awareness of the complexities of interpretations (see Dolfini and Crellin 2016;Gutiérrez-Sáez and Martín-Lerma 2015;Horn 2013;Kristiansen 1978Kristiansen , 1984Kristiansen , 2002Kristiansen and Suchowska-Ducke 2015;Kuijpers 2017Kuijpers , 2018Molloy 2008Molloy , 2009Molloy , 2010Molloy et al 2016;Roberts and Ottaway 2003;Uckelmann and Mödlinger 2011). What is required is an approach to analyzing and understanding Bronze Age metal circulation and use that can evaluate and further advance the established models and interpretations based on morphologies, typologies, and distributions of Bronze Age copper and bronze objects throughout Europe.…”

“…We can then add to this a considerable consumption of bronze sickles, weapons, and ornaments needed for use, replacements, and burial and hoard consumption; the figure for the deposition of swords alone around 1300 BC (Period II-III of the Nordic Bronze Age) ranges between 10,000 and 20,000 (Bunnefeld and Schwenzer 2011;Kristiansen and Suchowska-Ducke 2015). From these rough extrapolations, the annual imports of metal in the region must have been very high, at least from 1600 BC onward and would have required regular and well-organized trade expeditions.…”