II.

Europe and Western Asia

A.

Chalcolithic Period

An earlier phase (in the 5th and 4th millennia bc or even before), when copper metallurgy was being adopted by Neolithic cultures in the Near East and south-eastern Europe, is sometimes called the Copper Age (or “Chalcolithic” or “Eneolithic”). Copper, obtained from nodules of locally available copper or from copper ores, was used to make ornaments and weapons (such as flat axe-blades), but was too soft or brittle to be truly useful. It could be cold-hammered into shape to make rough tools or beads; or it could be cast (melted and poured into a mould). Copper may originally have been a prestige material since, unlike stone, copper ore is not ubiquitous and needed to be mined and smelted (heated to separate the metal from the rock). Temperatures of about 800° C (1500° F) that were required for smelting were provided by the high-temperature kilns developed for firing fine pottery. Casting made it possible to produce larger and more complex objects such as hammer-axes. Crucibles and slag dating from the 4th millennium bc have been found at sites in the Balkans, and copper mines are known from a number of sites in Europe and the Near East; the best known are at Rudna Glava in Serbia, already in use by 4500 bc, where shafts up to 20 m (65 ft) deep follow veins of malachite. The prestige of copper is reflected in the trade networks of this time, when axes from the Balkans were carried as far as Hungary and even Denmark, which had no metal deposits of its own.

The development at this time of more hierarchical societies with rich elites is clearly seen in Copper Age cemeteries such as that of Tiszapolgár in Hungary, where the poorest graves contained only pottery and flints, while the wealthy were accompanied by copper and gold objects. The most spectacular example is the 4th-millennium cemetery of Varna, Bulgaria, with its extraordinary quantity of goldwork. One grave alone contained 1.5 kg (over 3 lb) of gold objects.

B.

Bronze Working

Sometimes, low percentages of other elements such as arsenic were naturally present in the copper ore, and were found to make the metal easier to cast and harder when set. But it was by adding about 10 per cent tin to the copper that a far harder alloy—bronze—was produced, which was easy to cast (it flowed more easily) and could be made into many different shapes. It also held a hard, sharp cutting edge which could be resharpened, while worn or broken tools could be melted down and recast. Most bronze objects—swords, spearheads, axes, knives, pins, and brooches—were made by casting. Other objects such as shields were made by hammering sheets of metal into shape.

Bronze metallurgy originated in western Asia in the 4th millennium bc, and spread throughout the Old World in the 3rd millennium. (It may have been discovered independently in eastern Asia around 2000 bc. See South East Asia, below). By about 1200 bc even everyday objects were being made of bronze, and large mining complexes sprang up. The use of stone and flint, meanwhile, declined.

C.

Trade and Status

Since tin ores are even rarer than copper ores, they were highly prized, and were traded great distances from their sources in Anatolia and in western and south-western Europe. The widespread adoption of bronze brought about sweeping social and economic changes, with the appearance of prospectors and miners, and long-distance trade in metal ingots (pieces of metal of standardized shape and weight that could be melted down and cast, or used in trade). Along the trade routes there arose craft centres as well as large fortified settlements. Control of this trade brought tremendous economic and political power and conferred social status. Some areas appear to have become wealthy through acting as middlemen in the trade: one example is the Wessex Culture of southern England, which seems to have been dominated by warrior-chiefs whose tombs, under circular barrows (mounds) contain extremely rich grave goods of gold, bronze, and amber.

Modern experiments have shown that bronze tools and weapons are generally not much sharper than their equivalents in flint. The adoption of bronze was, therefore, probably closely linked to social status: not only were the materials sometimes difficult to obtain (and hence presumably expensive), but bronze is a shiny gold-coloured metal which can also be richly decorated. Like gold itself, it was an ideal vehicle for the display of personal power and wealth, and was popular among the prehistoric aristocracy for jewellery and ornaments, as well as for often profusely decorated weapons and for tools.

Scandinavia is a particularly interesting area during the Bronze Age. Despite a lack of metal deposits, it underwent a cultural revolution, needing to import all its copper and tin—and probably exporting Baltic amber in exchange. Bronze must therefore have had tremendous prestige. A huge amount was brought in and local craftsmen took to working the new material. Huge hoards of bronze objects have been found as offerings in bogs, including spearheads, axes and lurer, great bronze horns. In the early Scandinavian Bronze Age, richer members of society were buried with grave goods in oak tree-trunk coffins beneath barrows. Some of these burials have been preserved extraordinarily well, and contained fine examples of woollen clothing: simple cloaks for men, and skirts and tunics for women.

Relatively recently, a hitherto unknown Bronze Age civilization, dating from the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia bc, and hence contemporaneous with the well-known civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and the Indus Valley, came to light in Bactria, the semi-desert steppe region of northern Afghanistan. It had previously been thought that this part of Central Asia had been uninhabited through the Bronze Age, but in the mid-1970s a wealth of objects in bronze, gold, silver, and semi-precious metals were appearing in antiquities markets. These objects, which had been plundered by villagers from burial sites in southern Bactria, included seals, vessels of stone and metal, pottery, and an astonishing variety of metalwork, most of it apparently not utilitarian, such as animal figurines, spectacular axes decorated with animals, and large pins with animal or geometric heads. Subsequent investigation led to the discovery of numerous important sites. The most important was the architectural complex of the Dashly Oasis, containing two major structures—a large rectangular walled area (the “palace”) and a circular building (the “temple”), with nine towers around its perimeter, which may have been defensive.

Dashly's “palace” may in fact have been a market place or bazaar, and its “temple” a caravanserai, since the Bactrians were nomads, and their region stood at the crossroads of the great caravan routes which joined Asia and Europe for millennia. Bactria clearly controlled commercial traffic along these routes and, like other wealthy cultures of the Bronze Age, it could amass concentrations of precious and prestige goods by controlling their flow.

The true extent of Bronze Age trade, however, is most clearly demonstrated by the wreck of a ship that sank off Cape Uluburun, in southern Turkey, in the 14th century bc. The ship was carrying a large consignment of copper, as well as other raw materials and a remarkable array of objects. It is likely that the ship had left Cyprus and was bound for the Aegean when it foundered. It was discovered in 1982 and excavations began in 1984.

The bulk of the cargo consisted of over 250 rectangular copper ingots. Scientific analysis has shown that the copper was mined in Cyprus, the main source of this vital metal (the Greeks called the island “copper”). The ship also carried ingots of tin, of as yet unverified origin. Texts suggest that the source may have been in Afghanistan. More exotic raw materials included ingots of blue glass which the Mycenaeans used for jewellery. Linear B tablets suggest that perfume would have been produced from the ton of terebinth resin on the ship, and furniture from the logs of Egyptian ebony, and from elephant and hippopotamus ivory.

Organic material in the wreck included the remains of acorns, almonds, figs, olives, and pomegranates. It is not clear whether the foodstuffs would have been traded or eaten. Some of the pottery was certainly for use on board but there was also a large jar in which a consignment of Cypriot pots had been carefully packed. Gold and silver jewellery and bronze tools and weapons have also been recovered from the wreck.

It is quite possible that much of the cargo was a royal consignment, destined for a Mycenaean palace, but there may also have been merchants on board, one of whom had used a wooden writing tablet to note deals. Speculation about the nationality of the ship seems somewhat pointless since the finds include Mycenaean, Cypriot, Canaanite, Kassite, Egyptian, and Assyrian objects, and the personal possessions of the crew were equally cosmopolitan: a telling reflection of trading activities in the European Bronze Age.

D.

Life in the Bronze Age

The agricultural way of life that had become established in the preceding Neolithic period continued. Ploughing appears to have become widespread, as shown by remains of implements as well as plough-marks under barrows, and depictions of ploughing in the rock art of the period. As populations grew and expanded, pressure on land increased, and agriculture spread. Soil erosion also increased: for example, in Cyprus a combination of deforestation, intensive agriculture, and pastoralism destabilized the fragile soil-cover on hillslopes in the early Bronze Age and led to the rapid deposition of sediment along coastal valleys.

Another trend towards the end of the Bronze Age was a growing emphasis on fortifications, hillforts being constructed in many upland areas of Europe. Bronze armour and helmets, and new types of weapons such as the very effective slashing sword, suggest that warfare had come to the fore. In some areas, the earlier types of inhumation in cemeteries or barrow graves were replaced by cremation, the ashes being placed in pottery vessels that were buried in large open cemeteries. The term “urnfield cultures” denotes the group of related European cultures that practised this rite in the Bronze Age.

One culture that displays many features typical of the Bronze Age, notably a concern with warfare, fortifications, and rich burials, is that of Mycenaean Greece in the late 2nd millennium bc. Its rulers were given extremely opulent burials with gold funeral masks; one skeleton alone was accompanied by 5 kg (11 lb) of gold. The epics written by Homer are a vivid account of the warfare and militarism of the age, while palace archives of clay tablets, written in the Linear B script, are the administrative records of a strongly centralized government. Settlements such as Mycenae itself have huge defensive walls built with massive blocks of irregularly shaped stone (a style of building known as Cyclopean).