European Early Bronze Age

Abstract

The Early Bronze Age of temperate Central Europe (within the Danube drainage) is the period that witnessed some of the most dramatic and widespread social and economic transformations in European prehistory between the introduction of agriculture (at the advent of the 7th millennium b.c.) and the Roman conquest (at the turn of the modern era). During this period, social stratification, new social and religious ideologies, new technologies and modes of production, and a realignment of human adaptation to environment take place. There is evidence for incipient social stratification, more intensive agricultural production, more diversified domestic herding strategies, exploitation of the agriculturally marginal highland zone, dispersion of food-producing communities throughout the remaining unoccupied habitats, widespread adoption of metallurgy, and a clearer enunciation of male dominance in most cultural realms. The foundation of modern food production systems are consolidated. These changes set the stage for the earliest complex societies in temperate Europe, north of the Mediterranean littoral.