Shifting networks and mixing metals: Changing metal trade routes to Scandinavia correlate with Neolithic and Bronze Age transformations

Abstract

Based on 550 metal analyses, this study sheds decisive light on how the Nordic Bronze Age was founded on metal imports from shifting ore sources associated with altered trade routes. On-and-off presence of copper characterised the Neolithic. At 2100–2000 BC, a continuous rise in the flow of metals to southern Scandinavia begins. First to arrive via the central German Únětician hubs was high-impurity metal from the Austrian Inn Valley and Slovakia; this was complemented by high-tin British metal, enabling early local production of tin bronzes. Increased metal use locally fuelled the leadership competitions visible in the metal-led material culture. The Únětice downfall c.1600 BC resulted for a short period in a raw materials shortage, visible in the reuse of existing stocks, but stimulated direct Nordic access to the Carpathian basin. This new access expedited innovations in metalwork with reliance on chalcopyrite from Slovakia, as well as opening new sources in the eastern Alps, along an eastern route that also conveyed Baltic amber as far as the Aegean. British metal plays a central role during this period. Finally, from c.1500 BC, when British copper imports ceased, the predominance of novel northern Italian copper coincides with the full establishment of the NBA and highlights a western route, connecting the NBA with the southern German Tumulus culture and the first transalpine amber traffic.

Emergence of monopoly–Copper exchange networks during the Late Bronze Age in the western and central Balkans

“…As pointed out in previous studies, the mining and smelting areas in North Italy had a dominant supply role for the whole of Italy and parts of the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age [105,106,115]. Recent studied have also demonstrated that copper from these regions was traded even to North Europe [28,116].…”

“…Zn was below the detection limit of 0.1% in all samples, which was due the spectral interference with copper. Sulfur was not measured [28].…”

“…The in-run precision of the measurement was typically 0.02 to 0.05% (2σ), depending on the isotopic ratio. The reference sample NIST SRM 981 was measured after each eight samples to check for instrumental drift and guarantee high-level precision and accuracy [28]. The methods are described in detail by Lutz and Pernicka [79] and Niederschlag et al [80].…”

“…In the periods prior to LBA, the copper from the deposits in Eastern Serbia and Bulgaria had a dominant role in the regional supply and exchange networks [22][23][24][25][26]. As a number of studies have demonstrated, during the Chalcolithic, the copper from the East Serbian Copper Belt between the cities of Majdanpek and Bor was not only the main source of raw material for the Balkans but was obviously also traded into central Europe and even further to the north [27,28]. The available data for the Early Bronze Age or 3 rd millennium BC indicate that the copper ore sources in the Balkans still played a significant role in the raw material procurement [29][30][31].…”

“…comparing their geochemical information with those of known ore deposits in the regions under study. The final theory based archaeometallurgical and archaeological interpretation focused on the discussion of the proposed provenance of the copper and its implications concerning alloying, recycling, metal circulation and exchange in a supra-regional perspective [28,81].…”