Abstract
Traces of bronze casting – fragmented moulds and crucibles - frequently occur at Late Bronze Age settlements. These traces are often assumed to represent utilitarian domestic production, in contrast to more specialised workshop production at ritual or elite locations. Moreover, settlements have often been reduced to overall production units, while actual arrangements of bronze casting within sites has remained unexplored. The aim of this paper is to provide new insight into the organization of metalworking from an empirical and ‘bottom up’ perspective by examining the spatial and social contexts of bronze casting. The analysis draws on ten excavated sites in south-eastern Sweden and addresses three spatial levels: site, setting and framing. The study shows that domestic arenas often hosted varied and complex metalworking staged at various indoor and outdoor hearths located in the core areas of settlements. Rather than being conceptualized as levels, the organization of Late Bronze Age metalworking was a multifaceted, communicative and user-oriented practice. These insights have consequences for excavation methods as well as for the interpretation of the role of metalworking in society
Highlights
How bronze crafting was organized in society remains a relevant and vital question in Scandinavian Bronze Age research
Discussing settlements as overall production units has obscured the importance of crafting arrangements and spatial organization within these sites
The complexity of Late Bronze Age settlements and the way casting debris is distributed in them underlines the inadequacy of treating settlements as monolithic units
Summary
In the Scandinavian Late Bronze Age, with its increasing repertoire of bronze object types, bronze crafting is generally assumed to have consisted of two functional spheres of production: a mundane household sphere alongside more specialised ‘workshop’ production of politically significant weapons and ornaments (e.g. Oldeberg 1960:50; Weiler 1984:67–70, 1994; Levy 1991:66–68; Thrane 1993, 2013:750; Björhem & Säfvestad 1993:79; Jensen 2002:365; Kristiansen & Larsson 2005:225–227; Nørgaard 2014:38–39; Kristensen 2015; see Rowlands 1971, 1976; Howard 1983; Ó Faolaín 2004 for similar arguments in a British context). Settlements and farmsteads, with their longhouses and domestic activities, are generally assumed to be associated with the production of utilitarian objects (Kaul 1987:43; Björhem & Säfvestad 1993:79; Thrane 1993:47– 48; Earle 2002:311; Jensen 2002:365; Björk 2007:54; Goldhahn 2007:323; Nilsson 2011) This widespread occurrence of metalworking at a large number of Late Bronze Age settlements has often led to the question of whether or not these bronze crafting skills were widely known Melting bronze required furnaces (e.g. Svensson 1940:105–106; Renfrew 1976:190; Vahlne 1989; Burenhult ed. 1999:50–51; Jensen 2002:365; Diinhof 2006:11; Goldhahn 2007; Goldhahn & Oestigaard 2008:225)
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