Metal Casting Equipment in the Bronze Age Burials in Europe

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the finds of foundry implements in the Bronze Age burials in Europe. In addition, it revises criteria for identifying burials of metalworkers. In all probability, complexes where the professional sphere of the buried is represented only by tools associated with metal work and by those with a full set of tools suitable for work should be attributed to those of metalworkers. As a result of comparison of aspects and dynamics of this phenomena, common and specific characteristics of Eastern Europe, on the one side, and Central and Western — on the other, have been revealed. Burials with casting equipment in Europe first emerged in the Late Aeneolithic Age and existed in the Early Bronze Age. In the Middle Bronze Age, this tradition was widespread in the south of Eastern Europe, especially among the Catacomb cultures. In Central and Western Europe, in contrast, burials of metalworkers are almost totally absent in the Middle Bronze Age. Casting equipment in the funerary context emerged anew in Central and Western Europe in the Late Bronze Age. However, these finds are mostly located in the burial grounds and are connected with the burials. In Eastern Europe, only one Late Bronze Age complex with casting equipment is known. Nevertheless, in Transural region, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan they existed in the same period. These complexes are very different from the Middle Bronze Age burials of metalworkers. Overall, discrepancies in the development of this phenomenon in the eastern and western European regions are related to their cultural development in the course of the Bronze Age.