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Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistoric society, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifacts. These naturally-occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity.
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The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistoric society, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifacts. These naturally-occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in western Asia before 3000 BCE. The Bronze Age is regarded as the second part of a three-age system for prehistoric societies, though there are some cultures that have extensive written records during their Bronze Age. In this system, in some areas of the world the Bronze Age followed the Neolithic age. On the other hand, in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Neolithic age is directly followed by the Iron Age. In some parts of the world, a Copper Age follows the Neolithic Age and precedes the Bronze Age.
Origins
The place and time of the invention of bronze are controversial. It is possible that bronzing was invented independently in the Maykop culture in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BCE, which would make them the makers of the oldest known bronze; but others date the same Maykop artifacts to the mid 3rd millennium BCE. However, the Maykop culture only had arsenic bronze, which is a naturally occurring alloy. Tin bronze, which developed later, requires more sophisticated production techniques; tin has to be mined (mainly as the tin ore cassiterite) and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make the bronze alloy. The bronze age was a time of heavy metal usage.
Near East
Periodization for the Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East is as follows:
Bronze Age
(3300–1200 BCE) | Early Bronze Age
(3300–2000 BCE) | Early Bronze Age I | 3300–3000 BCE | | Early Bronze Age II | 3000–2700 BCE | | Early Bronze Age III | 2700–2200 BCE | | Early Bronze Age IV | 2200–2000 BCE | Middle Bronze Age
(2000–1550 BCE) | Middle Bronze Age I | 2000–1750 BCE | | Middle Bronze Age II | 1750–1650 BCE | | Middle Bronze Age III | 1650–1550 BCE | Late Bronze Age
(1550–1200 BCE) | Late Bronze Age I | 1550–1400 BCE | | Late Bronze Age II A | 1400–1300 BCE | | Late Bronze Age II B | 1300–1200 BCE | |
Mesopotamia
In Mesopotamia, the Bronze Age begins at about 2900 BCE in the late Uruk period,
spanning the Early Dynastic period of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian periods and the period of Kassite hegemony.
Ancient Egypt
In Ancient Egypt, the Bronze Age begins in the Protodynastic period, c. 3150 BCE.
- Early Bronze Age
- Middle Bronze Age
- Late Bronze Age
Levant
- Early Bronze Age
- Middle Bronze Age
- Late Bronze Age
Anatolia
Persian Plateau
Collapse
How the Bronze Age ended in this region is still being studied. There is evidence that Mycenaean administration of the regional trade empire followed the decline of Minoan primacy. Evidence also exists that supports the assumption that several Minoan client states lost large portions of their respective populations to extreme famines and/or pestilence, which in turn would indicate that the trade network may have failed at some point, preventing the trade that would have previously relieved such famines and prevented some forms of illness (by nutrition). It is also known that the breadbasket of the Minoan empire, the area north of the Black Sea, also suddenly lost significant portions of its population, and thus probably some degree of cultivation in this era.
Recent research has discredited the theory that exhaustion of the Cypriot forests caused the end of the bronze trade. The Cypriot forests are known to have existed into later times, and experiments have shown that charcoal production on the scale necessary for the bronze production of the late Bronze Age would have exhausted them in less than fifty years.
One theory says that as iron tools became more common, the main justification of the tin trade ended, and that trade network ceased to function as it once did. The individual colonies of the Minoan empire then suffered drought, famine, war, or some combination of these three factors, and thus they had no access to the far-flung resources of an empire by which they could easily recover.
Another family of theories looks to Knossos itself. The Thera eruption occurred at this time, 110 kilometers (70 mi) north of Crete. Some authorities speculate that a tsunami from Thera destroyed Cretan cities. Others say that perhaps a tsunami destroyed the Cretan navy in its home harbor, which then lost crucial naval battles; so that in the LMIB/LMII event (c. 1450 BCE) the cities of Crete burned and the Mycenaean civilization took over Knossos. If the eruption occurred in the late 17th century BCE (as most chronologists now think), then its immediate effects belong to the Middle Bronze to Late Bronze Age transition, and not to the end of the Late Bronze Age; but it could have triggered the instability that led to the collapse first of Knossos and then of Bronze Age society overall. One such theory looks to the role of Cretan expertise in administering the empire, post-Thera. If this expertise was concentrated in Crete, then the Mycenaeans may have made crucial political and commercial mistakes when administering the Cretans' empire.
More recent archaeological findings, including on the island of Thera (more commonly known today as Santorini), suggest that the center of Minoan Civilization at the time of the eruption was actually on this island rather than on Crete. Some think that this was the fabled Atlantis (a map drawn on a wall of a Minoan palace in Crete depicts an island similar to that described by Plato and similar too to the form Thera very likely had prior to its explosion). According to this theory, the catastrophic loss of the political, administrative and economic center by the eruption as well as the damage wrought by the tsunami to the coastal towns and villages of Crete precipitated the decline of the Minoans. A weakened political entity with a reduced economic and military capability and fabled riches would have then been more vulnerable to human predators. Indeed, the Santorini Eruption is usually dated to c. 1630 BCE. And, the Mycenaean Greeks first enter the historical record a few decades later c. 1600 BCE. Thus, the later Mycenaean assaults on Crete (c.1450 BCE) and Troy (c.1250 BCE) are revealed as but continuations of the steady encroachments of the Greeks upon the weakened Minoan world.
Each of these theories is persuasive, and aspects of all of them may have some validity in describing the end of the Bronze Age in this region.
Central Asia
The Altai Mountains in what is now southern Russia and central China have been identified as the point of origin of a cultural enigma termed the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon. It is conjectured that climatic problems in this region around the start of the second millennium BC created ecological, economic and political changes which triggered a rapid and massive migration of peoples westward into northeast Europe and eastward into southeast China, Vietnam and Thailand across a frontier of some 4,000 miles. This migration took place in just five to six generations and led to peoples from Finland in the west to Thailand in the east employing the same metal working technology and, in some areas, horse breeding and riding. It is further conjectured that this phenomenon may have been the medium through which the Uralic group of languages spread across Europe and Asia, ultimately producing 39 modern languages including Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and Lappish.
Indus valley
The Bronze Age on the Indian subcontinent began around 3300 BCE with the beginning of the Indus Valley civilization. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus Valley, the Harappans, developed new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze, lead and tin.
The Indian Bronze Age ends at the start of the Iron Age Vedic Period (1500–500 BCE). This is during the Harappan culture, which dates from 1700 BCE to 1300 BCE, that overlaps the transition period between the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age period. As a result, it is difficult to pinpoint the true end of the Indian Bronze Age.
Asia
China
Historians disagree about the dates that should be attached to a “Bronze Age” in China. The difficulty lies in the term “Bronze Age” itself, as it has been applied to signify a period in European and Middle Eastern history when bronze tools replaced stone tools, and were later replaced by iron ones. In those places, the medium of the new “Age” made that of the old obsolete. In China, however, any attempt to establish a definite set of dates for a Bronze Age is complicated by two factors: the early arrival of iron smelting technology and the persistence of bronze in tools, weapons and sacred vessels. The earliest bronze artifacts are found in the Majiayao culture site (between 3100 and 2700 BCE), and from then on the society gradually grew into the Bronze Age
Bronze metallurgy in China originated in what is referred to as the Erlitou (also Erh-li-t’ou) period, which some historians argue places it within the range of dates controlled by the Shang dynasty. Others believe the Erlitou sites belong to the preceding Xia (also Shia) dynasty. The U.S. National Gallery of Art defines the Chinese Bronze Age as the “period between about 2000 BCE and 771 BCE,” a period that begins with Erlitou culture and ends abruptly with the disintegration of Western Zhou rule. Though this provides a concise frame of reference, it overlooks the continued importance of bronze in Chinese metallurgy and culture. Since this is significantly later than the discovery of bronze in Mesopotamia, bronze technology could have been imported rather than discovered independently in China.
Iron is found in the Zhou period, but its use is minimal. Chinese literature dating to the 6th century BCE attests a knowledge of iron smelting, possibly making iron a Chinese invention, yet bronze continues to occupy the seat of significance in the archaeological and historical record for some time after this. Historian W. C. White argues that iron did not supplant bronze “at any period before the end of the Zhou dynasty (481 BCE)” and that bronze vessels make up the majority of metal vessels all the way through the Later Han period, or through AD 221.
The Chinese bronze artifacts generally are either utilitarian, like spear points or adze heads, or ritualistic, like the numerous large sacrificial tripods. However, even some of the most utilitarian objects bear the markings of more sacred items. The Chinese inscribed all kinds of bronze items with three main motif types: demons, symbolic animals, and abstract symbols. Some large bronzes also bear inscriptions that have helped historians and archaeologists piece together the history of China, especially during the Zhou period.
The bronzes of the Western Zhou period document large portions of history not found in the extant texts, and often were composed by persons of varying rank and possibly even social class. Further, the medium of cast bronze lends the record they preserve a permanence not enjoyed by manuscripts. These inscriptions can commonly be subdivided into four parts: a reference to the date and place, the naming of the event commemorated, the list of gifts given to the artisan in exchange for the bronze, and a dedication. The relative points of reference these vessels provide have enabled historians to place most of the vessels within a certain time frame of the Western Zhou period, allowing them to trace the evolution of the vessels and the events they record.
Southeast Asia
Dating back to the Neolithic Age,the first bronze drums, called the Dong Son drums have been uncovered in and around the Red River Delta regions of Vietnam and Southern China. These relate to the prehistoric Dong Son Culture of Vietnam In Ban Chiang, Thailand, (Southeast Asia) bronze artifacts have been discovered dating to 2100 BCE.
In Nyaunggan, Burma bronze tools have been excavated along with ceramics and stone artefacts. Dating is still currently broad (3500–500 BCE).
Korean peninsula
The Middle Mumun pottery period culture of the southern Korean Peninsula gradually adopted bronze production (c. 700–600? BCE) after a period when Liaoning-style bronze daggers and other bronze artifacts were exchanged as far as the interior part of the Southern Peninsula (c. 900–700 BCE). The bronze daggers lent prestige and authority to the personages who wielded and were buried with them in high-status megalithic burials at south-coastal centres such as the Igeum-dong site. Bronze was an important element in ceremonies and as for mortuary offerings until 100.
Europe
Central Europe
In Central Europe, the early Bronze Age Unetice culture (1800–1600 BCE) includes numerous smaller groups like the Straubing, Adlerberg and Hatvan cultures. Some very rich burials, such as the one located at Leubingen with grave gifts crafted from gold, point to an increase of social stratification already present in the Unetice culture. All in all, cemeteries of this period are rare and of small size. The Unetice culture is followed by the middle Bronze Age (1600–1200 BCE) Tumulus culture, which is characterised by inhumation burials in tumuli (barrows). In the eastern Hungarian Körös tributaries, the early Bronze Age first saw the introduction of the Mako culture, followed by the Ottomany and Gyulavarsand cultures.
The late Bronze Age Urnfield culture, (1300–700 BCE) is characterized by cremation burials. It includes the Lusatian culture in eastern Germany and Poland (1300–500 BCE) that continues into the Iron Age. The Central European Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age Hallstatt culture (700–450 BCE).
Important sites include:
The Bronze Age in Central Europe has been described in the chronological schema of German prehistorian Paul Reinecke. He described Bronze A1 (Bz A1) period (2300-2000 BCE : triangular daggers, flat axes, stone wrist-guards, flint arrowheads) and Bronze A2 (Bz A2) period (1950-1700 BCE : daggers with metal hilt, flanged axes, halberds, pins with perforated spherical heads, solid bracelets) and phases Hallstatt A and B (Ha A and B).
Aegean
The Aegean Bronze Age begins around 3000 BCE when civilizations first established a far-ranging trade network. This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with the tin to produce bronze. Bronze objects were then exported far and wide, and supported the trade. Isotopic analysis of the tin in some Mediterranean bronze objects indicates it came from as far away as Great Britain.
Knowledge of navigation was well developed at this time, and reached a peak of skill not exceeded until a method was discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) to determine longitude around AD 1750, with the notable exception of the Polynesian sailors.
The Minoan civilization based from Knossos appears to have coordinated and defended its Bronze Age trade.
One crucial lack in this period was that modern methods of accounting were not available. Numerous authorities believe that ancient empires were prone to misvalue staples in favor of luxuries, and thereby perish by famines created by uneconomic trading.
Caucasus
Some scholars date some arsenical bronze artifacts of the Maykop culture in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BCE.
Great Britain
In Great Britain, the Bronze Age is considered to have been the period from around 2100 to 750 BCE. Migration brought new people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicate that at least some of the migrants came from the area of modern Switzerland. The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people and cultural change was significant. Integration is thought to have been peaceful as many of the early henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers. The rich Wessex culture developed in southern Britain at this time. Additionally, the climate was deteriorating, where once the weather was warm and dry it became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, forcing the population away from easily-defended sites in the hills and into the fertile valleys. Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands that appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. The Deverel-Rimbury culture began to emerge in the second half of the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1400–1100 BCE) to exploit these conditions. Cornwall was a major source of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the Great Orme mine in northern Wales. Social groups appear to have been tribal but with growing complexity and hierarchies becoming apparent.
Also, the burial of dead (which until this period had usually been communal) became more individual. For example, whereas in the Neolithic a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead, the Early Bronze Age saw people buried in individual barrows (also commonly known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as Tumuli), or sometimes in cists covered with cairns.
The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in England were discovered in East Cambridgeshire, where the most important finds were recovered in Isleham (more than 6500 pieces).
Bronze Age boats
Ireland
The Bronze Age in Ireland commenced in the centuries around 2000 BCE when copper was alloyed with tin and used to manufacture Ballybeg type flat axes and associated metalwork. The preceding period is known as the Copper Age and is characterised by the production of flat axes, daggers, halberds and awls in copper. The period is divided into three phases: Early Bronze Age (2000–1500 BCE), Middle Bronze Age (1500–1200 BCE), and Late Bronze Age (1200 – c. 500 BCE). Ireland is also known for a relatively large number of Early Bronze Age burials.
One of the characteristic type of artifact of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland is the flat axe. There are five main types of flat axes: Lough Ravel (c. 2200 BCE), Ballybeg (c. 2000 BCE), Killaha (c. 2000 BCE), Ballyvalley (c. 2000–1600 BCE), Derryniggin (c. 1600 BCE), and a number of metal ingots in the shape of axes.
Americas
The Inca civilization of South America independently discovered and developed bronze smelting . Later appearance of limited bronze smelting in West Mexico (see Metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica) suggests either contact of that region with the Incas or separate discovery of the technology.
See also
External links
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