THE FIRST LAKE-DWELLERS OF LITHUANIA: LATE BRONZE AGE PILE SETTLEMENTS ON LAKE LUOKESAS

Summary.   Lake Luokesas in Lithuania has become the centre of attention in northern European wetland archaeological research after the discovery of two Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pile dwellings. Their unique location, chronology and building techniques have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of important aspects of wetland communities in later prehistoric Europe.     

A NEW BRONZE AGE HOARD FROM MARIESMINDE AT LANGESKOV ON FUNEN,DENMARK

A hoard was discovered at Mariesminde near the centre of the Danish island Funen in 2003 during trial excavations. A pot containing 27 bronzes was later excavated in the museum laboratory. The bronzes were stacked disorderly, with a large piece of sheet bronze at the bottom. The objects consisted of broken rings, several so-called ‘Hohlwulstringe’ or hollow rings, a socketed axe, plus 13 casting cakes and three casting runners. No less than four rings are types new to Scandinavia and reflect connections with the Italian peninsula and further away. The hoard's mixture of broken objects, casting runners and cakes classifies it as a scrap hoard. It is dated to the Bronze Age period VI (Montelius), prominently indicated by the hollow rings. The findspot of the hoard was only c. 200 m from the well-known period IV hoard Mariesminde I with the largest collection of gold vessels from Funen. The metal analyses open new perspectives and indicate an origin in the Alps or the Erzgebirge for most of the collection.     

BRONZE AGE ARCHAEOLOGY AND COSMOLOGY: DIALOGUES AT THE CROSSROADS

The article is a historiographical exposé on lifelong scientific dialogues between Klavs Randsborg and the author that have shaped the current understanding of Nordic Bronze Age beliefs. Through the demonstration of wide‐ranging contacts across Europe and beyond – till Egypt and Mesopotamia, the article shows how these interactions have nourished the Nordic cosmology and tastes and impacted local ideologies. Metals, amber and glass were not only coveted commodities but engines of lively communication networks.     

POTS, HOUSES AND METAL: TECHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS AT THE BRONZE AGE TELL AT SZÁZHALOMBATTA, HUNGARY

Summary.   At the Bronze Age tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary, techniques used for making pottery echo those used in other media. Pottery and architecture have a close relationship. Not only were both made of clay, but methods of making pots echo those used for building. Similarly, pottery and metalwork share common themes and technologies for working with clay and bronze. Since choices made by potters are not solely confined to the environment, raw materials and tools, but are also socially and culturally defined, by implication the transfer of know-how must be situated within social networks between people. This paper considers how the identification of technical relationships between different media at Százhalombatta can be used to explore social relations in Bronze Age society, thereby suggesting relationships that work on both technical and social levels.     

THE MINOAN FALLACY: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND MORTUARY BEHAVIOUR ON CRETE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BRONZE AGE

We are becoming increasingly aware of regional data patterning in the archaeological record of Prepalatial Crete, yet a theoretically informed and methodologically systematic study assessing the significance of such differences is still lacking. This article investigates variation through the rich mortuary record of the period and explores the significance of such diversity for our understanding of Prepalatial Crete. A detailed analysis using mortuary data reveals a complex spatial and temporal variation in the record which raises questions about social, political and ideological differences between communities on the island during the early periods of the Early Bronze Age. Prepalatial Crete emerges from this analysis as a complex context resulting from an intricate combination of local and regional histories and trajectories and far from the unified culture that the term 'Minoan' implies.     

PRODUCTION,EXCHANGE, AND SOCIO-POLITICAL COMPLEXITY ON BRONZE AGE CYPRUS1

Summary. During the centuries 1700–1400 BC, the archaeological record of the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus shows a number of significant innovations: urban centres with public and ceremonial architecture, differential burial practices, writing, an intensification of metallurgical production and export, extensive trade relations with the surrounding cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, fortifications, ‘mass’burials, and increased finds of weaponry. Documentary evidence from Egypt, the Levant, and the Aegean sheds further light on these developments. These changes represent the transformation of an isolated, village-based culture into an international, urban-oriented, complex society. One of the key questions to consider is why these developments in Cyprus lagged so far (400-1200 years) behind those of the island's neighbours: Egypt, Crete, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia. Using concepts from development economics and political anthropology, and models developed by archaeologists working on similar problems elsewhere, this study attempts to explain the process of change and innovation apparent in the Cypriot archaeological record of 1700–1400 BC.     

EARLY BRONZE AGE TIN PROCESSING AT KESTEL/GÖLTEPE,ANATOLIA

Chemical analysis of statistically significant numbers of samples including minerals, sediments, soil, host rock as well as powdered materials, crucible accretions and metal artefacts revealed information about the distribution of cassiterite at Kestel and the tin smelting processes that took place at Göltepe c. 2600 BC. Using the ancient technique of vanning for the isolation of tin ore (cassiterite), followed by assaying by blowpipe/charcoal block, as well as crucible smelting with a blowpipe, good tin metal suitable for alloying with copper to make bronze was obtained. There is every indication that tin was mined and smelted in the Early Bronze Age at the Kestel/Göltepe sites.     

HOARDS D'OEUVRES: OF METALS & MEN ON BRONZE AGE CYPRUS

Summary. Diverse streams of archaeological and metallurgical research have demonstrated that Cyprus was an important regional copper producer and supplier during the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, at least from 1700–1100 BC. Until recently, research into metallurgical production and exchange on Bronze Age Cyprus necessarily focused on technological change and chronological division. Metals' provenience studies have begun to mature, and economic approaches related to copper production and exchange have begun to appear. In stark contrast to recent literature on hoarding activity in Bronze and Iron Age Europe, virtually no attention has been paid to the manner in which metals enter the archaeological record. In response to a growing body of theoretical literature, this study examines the gift-commodity model and finds it wanting; instead the deposition of Cypriote hoards is considered from a politico-economic perspective, and in light of socio-historical and metallurgical data relevant to interregional developments in the contemporary Mediterranean world.     

BRONZE AGE BARROWS ON THE HEATHLANDS OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND: CONSTRUCTION, FORMS AND INTERPRETATIONS

The Bronze Age barrows on the downs of southern England have been investigated and discussed for nearly 200 years, but much less attention has been paid to similar structures in the areas of heathland beyond the chalk and river gravels. They were built in a phase of expansion towards the end of the Early Bronze Age, and more were constructed during the Middle Bronze Age. They have a number of distinctive characteristics. This paper considers the interpretation of these monuments and their wider significance in relation to the pattern of settlement. It also discusses the origins of field systems in lowland England.     

NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT ON THE BURIED FLOODPLAINS OF RUNNYMEDE

In reviewing the evidence from excavations at Runnymede Bridge this paper illustrates the potential of floodplains as archaeological resourceS. The topographic development of the local floodplain is outlined in relation to Flandrian sea level changes in the Thames estuary. Consideration is given to the role of the Middle Neolithic and Late Bronze Age occupations and the influence of physiographical and hydrological factors.     

PATTERN WITHOUT A PLAN: RETHINKING THE BRONZE AGE COAXIAL FIELD SYSTEMS ON DARTMOOR, SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND

Summary.   The coaxial field systems on Dartmoor are widely interpreted as the result of a relatively rapid period of planned land division during the middle centuries of the second millennium BC. This article seeks to challenge this notion of a 'planned landscape'. Using examples from southern (Shaugh Moor) and north-eastern (Kestor and Shovel Down) Dartmoor, it is demonstrated that the boundaries materialized existing structures in the landscape which had emerged through patterns of dwelling and long histories of tenure. In seeking to present a new narrative for the enclosure of the Dartmoor landscape, it is argued that tenure was articulated at a local level through the relationship between occupancy and ancestral ties to the land, and that land division was only possible because the forms of tenure and perceptions of landscape were already in place. The coaxial pattern emerged in a reflexive tradition of boundary construction rather than as part of a transformative plan or a conscious strategy to reorganize and enclose the moor.     

DATING THE AEGEAN LATE BRONZE AGE WITH RADIOCARBON: ADDENDUM

Additional comment on the new high-precision calibration curves and tables published after this article (Archaeometry 29 (1), 1987, 45–49) was in press.     

WATER CONTROL AND CEREAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BRONZE AGE IBERIAN PENINSULA: LA MOTILLA DEL AZUER

Summary.   Archaeological research conducted in the La Mancha region (central area of the Iberian Peninsula) has made it possible to identify motillas . This specific type of archaeological site consists of a central fortification surrounded by an inhabited area. They appear in high densities throughout the plains of this area, distributed at regular intervals and located in places where the phreatic level is closest to the surface and the water has low salinity. The strong relationship between sites and water has subsequently been supported by fieldwork, especially in the Motilla del Azuer settlement, where a complex well that was cut into the natural terrace to reach the phreatic level has been documented. Research has also demonstrated that the large-scale storage of cereals was another significant function. The quantity and capacity of the different storage systems documented in two large enclosures suggest that these sites were engaged in the control and management of cereals.