Rewriting the Central European Early Bronze Age Chronology: Evidence from Large-Scale Radiocarbon Dating.

Philipp W Stockhammer,Ronny Friedrich,Ken Massy,Bernd Kromer,Jelena Radosavljević,Johannes Krause,Susanne Lindauer,Corina Knipper,Fabian Wittenborn,Peter F Biehl

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0139705

Abstract

The transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe has often been considered as a supra-regional uniform process, which led to the growing mastery of the new bronze technology. Since the 1920s, archaeologists have divided the Early Bronze Age into two chronological phases (Bronze A1 and A2), which were also seen as stages of technical progress. On the basis of the early radiocarbon dates from the cemetery of Singen, southern Germany, the beginning of the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe was originally dated around 2300/2200 BC and the transition to more complex casting techniques (i.e., Bronze A2) around 2000 BC. On the basis of 140 newly radiocarbon dated human remains from Final Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age cemeteries south of Augsburg (Bavaria) and a re-dating of ten graves from the cemetery of Singen, we propose a significantly different dating range, which forces us to re-think the traditional relative and absolute chronologies as well as the narrative of technical development. We are now able to date the beginning of the Early Bronze Age to around 2150 BC and its end to around 1700 BC. Moreover, there is no transition between Bronze (Bz) A1 and Bronze (Bz) A2, but a complete overlap between the type objects of the two phases from 1900–1700 BC. We thus present a revised chronology of the assumed diagnostic type objects of the Early Bronze Age and recommend a radiocarbon-based view on the development of the material culture. Finally, we propose that the traditional phases Bz A1 and Bz A2 do not represent a chronological sequence, but regionally different social phenomena connected to the willingness of local actors to appropriate the new bronze technology.

Highlights

The impact of technical innovations on the development of societies has been of central interest since the beginning of archaeological research
The transition from the Late Neolithic (LN) to the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in Central Europe has long been considered as a linear evolutionary development that led to a growing mastery of the new technology
For almost a hundred years, Early Bronze Age chronology has been dominated by an evolutionist paradigm that assumed a linear development from simple to elaborate bronze objects, whose chronological placement was based on a small number of radiocarbon dated burials since the 1980s

Summary

Introduction

The impact of technical innovations on the development of societies has been of central interest since the beginning of archaeological research. Critics have argued for a more complex, non-linear history of the spread and appropriation of bronze technology [4] [5] [6] [7] They have emphasized the relevance of social factors in this process and pointed to cases of belated appropriation of metallurgy. The small number of existing 14C dates have not so far substantiated these important doubts Despite these critical voices, researchers have continuously tried to synchronize the Reinecke system with the chronologies of the Únětice culture [12] [13]. With regard to Early Bronze Age material culture from Central Europe, a similar evolutionist perspective still prevails: simple bone objects–especially pins–were proposed to be the starting point of this development as their shapes seemed to foreshadow the later metal shapes [14]. It has already been acknowledged that only a large series of 14C-dated contexts may enable us to solve these long-standing problems of understanding cultural developments in the EBA

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion