Metallurgy
– raw materials, technology and networks
The use of metals changed Europe. Some raw materials had to be brought over great distances, which meant that a system of exchange developed. Increased trade led to contacts between regions, evolution in means of transport and levelling of living conditions. As well as technical skills, cultural practices were adopted. Society split increasingly into ruling elites and lower classes dependent on them. Fortified power centres arose from which each region could be dominated. The new wealth created covetous desires, resulting increased conflict and the creation of a warrior caste. Religion had a decisive influence on people’s lives. Belief in a transcendent world controlled by the gods is reflected in sacrificial practices and how the dead were buried.
Deposits of Copper and Tin in the Bronze Age (2014) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Deposits of Copper and Tin
Spreading from the eastern Mediterranean area, special knowledge about mining and processing ores reached the whole of Europe. It was not until tin, present in only a very few deposits, was added that it was possible to make copper into the much harder bronze. This meant that robust swords and other large implements could now be made using the casting process.
Demand for metal products grew and the division of labour developed accordingly; farming of flocks and crops was no longer merely to cover people’s own needs but also to feed those involved in metal mining and working and in the transfer of goods, as well as the soldiers needed to protect them. Large-scale trade in metal was secured and co-ordinated within the tribal societies by the newly-forming elites.
Copper Axe Slovakia or Czech Republic, ca. 4,000 BCE
The copper axes from South-East Europe mark the beginning of the use of metals in our continent. Most originate from the Carpathian Basin, Serbia, Bulgaria and Moldavia. A few examples are also known from other places in the Balkan peninsular, Ukraine, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. They were already in use in the first third of the 5th millennium BCE and achieved their greatest distribution around 4,000 BCE, long before the start of the Bronze Age. As copper was an extremely valuable raw material at that time, these two axes are probably prestige objects.
Hoard of Bennewitz (Early Bronze Age, 1st quarter 2nd millennium BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Hoard of Bennewitz
Germany, 1st quarter 2nd millennium BCE
A hoard, or ‘wealth deposit’, usually denotes a group of similar or identical objects such as weapons, tools, vessels or jewellery which were always buried together. They are generally interpreted not as having been buried for safety in times of unrest but as votive hoards, gifts and sacrifices to the gods.
When it was found in 1879 this hoard comprised 279 almost identical flanged axes made of fahlore. The objects do not bear any tool marks and may be referred to as bars. Hoards of this kind and size are not rare for the early Bronze Age and indicate that large quantities of raw material were being traded throughout Europe even in the early 2nd millennium BCE.
Hoard of Crévic (Late Bronze Age, 10th century BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Hoard of Crévic
France, 10th century BCE
As well as broken and unusable objects, this hoard includes a bronzesmith’s implements such as a casting core for spearheads.
The composition of the hoard includes some ‘unfashionable’ items, which had gone out of fashion long before the hoard was buried in the 10th Century BCE, such as arm protection spirals. All this suggests that a metalworker deposited raw material and tools here.
Swords and lance (9th–8th century BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Rule
of the Warriors
In the third millennium BCE significant economic
and social changes occurred. Leading elites and the communities dependent on
them arose. The rulers secured their claim to power with military force.
Weapons also functioned as status symbols. In the graves their number and
quality bear witness to the position of the deceased in society. New fighting
techniques increased the chance of victory and were quickly adopted by
opponents.
Swords and Lance
Germany, 9th–8th century BCE
Swords developed from short thrusting weapons to long cutting weapons and the joining of the hilt and the blade was perfected. This was also the reason why defensive weapons such as shields, greaves, breastplates and helmets became more important towards the end of the Bronze Age.
Sword - Tréboul-Saint-Brandan type (Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1600–1300 BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Sword - Tréboul-Saint-Brandan type
France, ca. 1600–1300 BCE
This solid-hilted sword, probably found in the Rhône near Lyons is of a type and technology suggesting that it was made in Brittany. Almost identical comparable finds even suggest that there may have been a workshop there for high-value weapons like this.
Other sword finds of the same type moreover show that they predominantly had hilts made of wood and not bronze. So this example with a metal hilt was more than just a weapon, it was a high-value symbol of power.
Round Shield, Nipperwiese type (Late Bronze Age, 13th –12th century BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Round Shield of Schiphorst
Germany, 13th–12th century BCE
This relatively small, round shield of the Nipperwiese type is cast in a single piece and, unlike other shield types of the same period such as the Herzsprung type, was not reworked or beaten out. This means that it is extremely heavy for its relatively small diameter, at 1500 grams. Shields of this type are so far known from Southern England, the Middle Rhine and Northern Germany, so they had a wide distribution.
Battlefield in the Tollense Valley (Late Bronze Age, 13th –12th century BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Battlefield in the Tollense Valley
Germany, 13th century BCE
The small river Tollense winds through an idyllic valley in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. There is nothing to betray the fact that a battle took place here between 1200 and 1300 BCE in the course of which at least 125 people lost their lives. The discovery in 1996 of a human upper arm bone with a flint arrowhead lodged in it led to the finding of Europe’s oldest known battlefield. Since then archaeologists and anthropologists have been studying the site.
As well as bones, most of which were no longer anatomically connected, two wooden clubs, numerous bronze and flint arrowheads and other artefacts have been found. Many of the bones, almost exclusively those of young men, show evidence of injuries caused by arrows or blows from blunt instruments.
Death
and the Afterlife
According to Bronze Age beliefs, the deceased person went to a world beyond. Grave goods were supposed to show the person’s status even beyond death. The expense of the grave construction and the burial made the person’s rank visible in the afterlife. Burial rites could vary from region to region and period to period. Bodies were sometimes placed in a laid-out position and sometimes in a squatting position, and sometimes completely cremated. The number and composition of the grave goods varied as well, as did the form of the grave monuments. As well as smaller groups of burial mounds there were cemeteries with hundreds of graves which were hardly marked on the surface. It may be assumed that there were still more funerary customs which left no archaeological traces.
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Grave Goods from Burial Mounds
Germany, 14th century BCE
These artefacts were found in a Middle Bronze Age burial mound cemetery near Passau in Lower Bavaria. Although they do not all come from one burial mound, they show very clearly what objects were favoured for putting in the grave of a man of higher social standing in that period - ceramic vessels, sword, dagger and a spearhead. Graves from this period with a comparable collection of ‘masculine’ grave goods have been found in many parts of Bronze Age Europe and adjoining regions.
Princely Tomb of Seddin (replicas) (Late Bronze Age, 9th–8th century BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Princely Tomb of Seddin
Germany, 9th–8th century BCE
One of the most splendid Late Bronze Age graves in Germany was discovered not far from Berlin in 1899. 63 m across and 10 m high, the burial mound at Seddin is one of Europe’s outstanding Bronze Age archaeological monuments. The valuable and sumptuous grave goods indicate a kind of king or lord who was buried in about 800 BCE with two probably young women. An ancient local legend told of King Hinz who was supposed to lie buried under the ‘Hinze Hill’ in three coffins, with his wife and a loyal maidservant.
Symbols
of Power
As trading relationships became more intensified, people’s world view widened as well. Common values arose across different regions together with the need to achieve the same lifestyle as that enjoyed by more highly-developed civilisations. Status symbols were part of the way rulers presented themselves and were also offered up to the gods. These included sceptres in the form of axes or halberds, splendid weapons, jewellery and horse-drawn carts with expensive harnesses. Gold and bronze vessels were used at drinking feasts and for rituals.
Halberd (Early Bronze Age, 1st quarter 2nd millennium BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Halberd of Kanena
Germany, 1st quarter 2nd millennium BCE
Halberds are thought to be symbols of status and power from the Early Bronze Age and are found in many parts of Europe. They typically have a dagger-like blade which is riveted at right-angles to a shaft. The point is often rounded, leading to the general assumption that these were not primarily used as weapons. This example was found together with a solid-hilted dagger in 1908, but it is not clear whether this was a hoard or a grave.
Menhir of Tübingen-Weilheim (Early Bronze Age) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Halberd of Kanena
Germany, 1st quarter 2nd millennium BCE
Near Weilheim, not far from Tübingen, an unusual find was made during the building of a house in 1985. The bulldozer brought to light several pieces of an Early Bronze Age menhir, originally about 4.5 metres in height, from a depth of 1.5 metres.
On the side which once faced west five halberds are depicted in bas-relief. This status symbol occurring throughout Europe is also found on other rock figures of the same period in, for instance, Northern Italy.
Hoard of Bronze Objects
Germany, ca. 1,000 BCE
This hoard, found in the late Nineteenth Century in the course of gardening work is unique because of its composition. On the one hand, it includes sumptuous items of a woman’s jewellery – pendants, armbands and a neck ring. On the other hand, the set of vessels suggests a connection with ritual drinking feasts.
Golden Collar (Late Bronze Age, ca. 900 BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Golden Collar
Lower Austria, ca. 900 BCE
There are three such gold collars in the museum, which are thought to be from three different hoards found close together. They were found together with gold wire and necklaces of bone and amber beads and shells. They are particularly important in terms of both crafting and cultural history and probably belonged to a woman of high social status.
They are decorated with circular ornamentation and thus similar to the roughly contemporary Berlin Gold Hat and Eberswalde golden bowls.
Belief
and Symbols
Everyday life and religion were closely bound together in the Bronze Age. Transcendental powers were presumed to influence people’s fates and seemed to be omnipresent. As in the Christian veneration of saints there were amulets and small idol figures which were supposed to protect the faithful. A commonly worshipped sun god was symbolised by a circle or a wheel. The water birds found in many depictions as overcoming the elements of water, air and earth presumably mediated between the worlds. As migratory birds disappearing in the autumn and returning in the spring they were also symbols of rebirth.
Vessel from the Gold Treasure of Eberswalde (replica) (9th–8th century BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Depictions of gods in human form only existed in the south and the north of Europe. Symbols were largely used for cult purposes in Bronze Age Central Europe. Sacrificial ceremonies were a central element in the lives of people in the Bronze Age. With no knowledge of rational explanations, people believed that supernatural forces were responsible for the course of the world and their own destinies. To ensure the gods’ continued favour sacrifices were made to them. Temple buildings as the houses of the gods only existed in the Mediterranean region. The people in continental Europe took rivers, moors, springs, caves, rock crevices, mountain spurs and other prominent landscape features or places chosen according to astronomical requirements to be sacred places where ceremonies regularly took place involving fire sacrifices of field crops and animals. Frequently they also placed valuable metal objects at geographically inconspicuous locations which were personally important only to the giver.
Gold Treasure of Eberswalde (replicas) (9th–8th century BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Gold Treasure of Eberswalde
Germany, 9th–8th century BCE
The Eberswalde gold hoard was found in 1913 and is to this day the biggest find of gold in Germany. The owner bought it from the finders for 10,000 Reichsmarks and made it “available” to Kaiser Wilhelm II more or less voluntarily. After 1918 the treasure came into the Berlin Museum and was taken away to Moscow in 1945 as spoils of war whereit is still in storage today.
There are sun and circle symbols on the vessels which are similar to those on the Gold Hat.
Well Inventory of Berlin-Lichterfelde
Germany, ca. 1000 BCE
There are many prehistoric sites in the Berlin metropolitan area, including a Bronze Age settlement on the Teltow Canal which was excavated in 1958 and 1960, where a hollow oak trunk was found filled with around 100 offerings of clay pots.
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It is not clear from the excavation finds whether this was an old well lining which was subsequently used as a shaft for making offerings, representing a connection to chthonic gods, or whether the hollow trunk was used from the outset for ritual purposes.
Pendant of the Pilinyer Culture
Finding place unknown, 13th century BCE
This pendant bears religious symbols typical for the Late Bronze Age – between two spoked wheels hangs a sun symbol and the surrounding crescent with four ribs can be interpreted as a sun barque, the vehicle on which the sun travels across the sky. Pendants of this kind are very rare and are limited to the area of the Pilinyer Culture in Southern Slovakia.
Ceremonial Chariot Germany, 1st quarter 1st millennium BCE
A large number of wagons and socket implements decorated with water bird protomes, probably used in a religious context, have been found in Eastern Germany and Western Poland. Two such cult wagons are known from Burg in the Spreewald region, which were purchased by Rudolf Virchow at the end of the 19th Century. One, as he said himself, “as it was about to be made into a children’s toy”. These wagons, too, were looted and are now in Moscow.
Belt disc (Late Bronze Age, c. 1000 BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Belt Disc of Heegermühle
Germany, ca. 1000 BCE
This decorated belt plate was found in 1889 during building work together with Late Bronze Age dress ornaments and socketed implements with water bird protomes. The central spine is surrounded by concentric rib, spiral and star patterns. A similar pattern of stars can be seen on the tip of the Berlin Gold Hat. There was an iron object found in this hoard which is unusual and the earliest evidence of iron use in northern Central Europe.
Golden Ceremonial Hat ("Berlin Gold Hat") (Late Bronze Age, 1000–800 BCE) by Artist unknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Bronze
Age Gold Hats
The 'Berlin Gold Hat' is one
of the most important products of Bronze Age goldsmithing. Its origin is
unclear. It was acquired from the antiques market in 1996 in order to secure
this significant work of art for posterity and make it accessible to the
public. Up to now, three other gold hats are known, two from South Germany and
one from France. The Berlin Gold Hat, too, probably originates from north of
the Alps. Only very few finds from the Bronze Age yield so much information
about power symbolism, religious beliefs and technical mastery.
Golden Ceremonial Hat
Germany, 1000–800 BCE
What is especially fascinating is the ornamentation on the hat in which a complex counting system is encoded, enabling calendar calculations, especially the 19-year cycle of the sun and the moon. The hat is made from naturally occurring gold (placer gold) and is 745 mm tall and weighs 490 grams.
Golden ceremonial hat - brim ("Berlin Gold Hat") (Late Bronze Age, 1000–800 BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The very malleable gold sheet was folded on the inside around a band of bronze between the brim and the crown. The outer, folded edge of the brim includes a twisted bronze ring for stiffening.
To avoid any damage coming to the hat, a stuffing of perishable material such as wood or bark must have been fixed on the inside with organic adhesive such as resin or pitch. There was probably also a leather chin strap fixed to this inner stuffing.
Tools of a Metal Craftsman
Germany, 1000–800 BCE
In the course of the Bronze Age metallurgical techniques and skills were developed which can hardly be matched today. The cone of the Berlin Hat, for instance, is beaten paper-thin from a single piece of gold and carefully shaped with a fine tool. Metalworkers in the Late Bronze Age possessed such fine, sophisticated tools. Among the contents of a hoard found near Murnau in Upper Bavaria was a small stake anvil...
… and especially circular ribbed male (negative) and female (positive) punches just like the ones used for the circular patterns on the Gold Hat.
Golden Ceremonial Hat - Decoration ("Berliner Goldhut") (2010) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Ornaments of the Berlin Gold Hat
There are sky symbols on the Gold Hat. The star at the tip symbolises the sun, with the sickles and eye patterns representing the moon and Venus, while the circular ornaments can equally be interpreted as depictions of the sun or the moon.
Golden Ceremonial Hat - top ("Berlin Gold Hat") (Late Bronze Age, 1000–800 BCE) by UnknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The cycle of the sun determines day and night and the seasons, while the moon determines the division of the year into months and days. But the lunar year is eleven days shorter than the solar year. Even as early as the 2nd millennium BCE intercalary days were inserted to bring the solar and lunar cycles into alignment.
Golden Ceremonial Hat ("Berlin Gold Hat") (Late Bronze Age, 1000–800 BCE) by Artist unknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
This knowledge is reflected in the ornamentation of the Gold Hat. The stamped patterns should be read as a calendar. For instance, the number of circles in certain decorative areas equals the twelve lunar periods of 354 days.
If the patterns in other decorative areas are added, this gives the 365 days of the solar year. It takes 19 years for the solar year and the lunar year to align again. In the ornamentation of the hat the fact is encoded that seven lunar months need to be inserted into the 19-year cycle. Other calculations can be made as well, such as the dates of eclipses of the moon.
Vessels from the Gold Treasure of Eberswalde
Germany, 9th–8th century BCE
The vessels in the Eberswalde Hoard bear sun and circular symbols like those on the Gold Hat.
Some of these contain calendrical information as well. The base of a bowl is formed from ten or, counting the centre disc, eleven concentric circles topped by a band of 22 circular discs. This corresponds to the number of solar years (10+22=32) and together with the centre disc the number of lunar years (11+22=33) until the solar and lunar calendars are in alignment.
Golden Ceremonial Hat ("Berlin Gold Hat") (Late Bronze Age, 1000–800 BCE) by Artist unknownNeues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The golden hats show that in Europe, too, astronomical knowledge was combined with cult activities. Many other rituals were carried out on a large scale in a similar way. These included the ruler cult which probably came from Greece and, as evidence shows, reached as far as Northern Europe. The ruling elite were buried in stone chamber tombs beneath huge mounds, as shown by the evidence of the finds from one of these burials, the King’s Grave in Seddin.
But none of the gold hats comes from a grave. They were apparently worn over several generations and at some point buried in the ground in a sacred act to protect them from desecration and to place them in the realm of the gods. It seems that Bronze Age rulers combined worldly and spiritual power.
"Star Room", Neues Museum, Museum Island Berlin (1843/2009) by Friedrich August Stüler / David Chipperfield a.o.Neues Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The End of the Bronze Age
In about 800 BCE a new material began to replace bronze. Iron was harder and available almost everywhere, and so became Europe’s most important metal. This meant that traditional systems lost their meaning, sources of raw materials dried up, trade routes became forgotten, power was lost and new religious ideas gained importance. The Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age, which has completely new stories to tell.
Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Text: Dr. Bernhard Heeb
Concept: Merle Walter / Dr. Bernhard Heeb
Editing: Merle Walter
Translation: Büro Lance Anderson
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
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