The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

by Chris Fowler

  Copper axes of type Bocca Lorenza (or Gurnitz) are found in north-eastern Italy and may be dated to 4000–3800 BC on typological and metallurgical grounds (Klassen 2010) and on the basis of the stratigraphy of the Bocca Lorenza cave, where three were found (Pearce 2007, 42–46). As well as in north-east Italy, they are found in the Slovene Karst, the eastern Alps, the middle Danube, and the Carpathian basin (Klassen 2010).

  Copper working is attested in central Italy in the early fourth millennium: in Tuscany, at Neto-Via Verga (Volante 2003, 378), close to a copper ore outcrop, there is a crucible, slag, a possible metalworking hearth and an awl, datable to 3710–3370 BC; in the Marche, there is copper slag at Santa Maria in Selva (Silvestrini et al. 2002, 458). In the south of Italy, slag was found on the acropolis, Lipari island (off Sicily), and is dated 4315–3570 BC (Bernabò Brea and Cavalier 1980, 337, 339, 490).

  Perhaps the most significant evidence is for early fourth millennium BC copper mining, the oldest attested so far in western Europe (Maggi and Pearce 2005). In Liguria, north-west Italy, mining at Libiola dates to 3490–3120 BC, whilst dates from young-wood charcoal from the excavations at Monte Loreto document copper mining from around 3500 BC. Rescue excavations at Monte Loreto suggest mining may have begun even earlier, with a radiocarbon date of 3940–3700 BC (Campana et al. 2006, Table I). At Grotta della Monaca, Calabria, in the very south of Italy, malachite mining for pigments is attested in the fourth millennium BC (Larocca 2010). At Monte Loreto copper ore was mined in deep trenches, pits, and vertical shafts by fire-setting (heating the rock to shatter it) and using grooved hammerstones. The extracted rock was then broken up with hammerstones and sorted to separate out the ore. Techniques at the nearby Libiola mine are likely to have been similar: here wooden wedges, a shovel, an oak pick-handle, and stone hammers were found in a narrow artificial gallery. Hammerstones are also known from Grotta della Monaca, where they were used to break up stalagmites, stalactites, and calcite flows in the cave—malachite was also scraped from the cave walls. Hammerstones have been found at other sites in Calabria, suggesting there may be other undiscovered prehistoric mines in that mineral-rich region (Marino 2010).

  The Chalcolithic c. 3500–2500 BC

  Although the concept of a Chalcolithic (or ‘Copper Age’, or ‘Eneolithic’) is controversial in some parts of Europe, it is probably appropriate for the Italian evidence, where technological changes seem to be paralleled by social and cultural changes. The second half of the fourth millennium BC sees the development of four metallurgical areas: the Remedello culture of the Po plain, Rinaldone in Tuscany and Lazio, Gaudo in Campania, and Ozieri and Sub-Ozieri in Sardinia.

  The metalwork of the Remedello, Rinaldone, and Gaudo cultures consists primarily of daggers, halberds, and flat axes. It has been shown that whilst the flat axes are made of relatively pure copper, with less than 1% arsenic, the daggers and halberds have a higher arsenic content (De Marinis 1992); a similar pattern is found in the early copper-using Altheim, Pfyn, Cortaillod, and Mondsee groups of the circumalpine area (Ottaway 1982, 136–138, Table 12). Whether these differences reflect deliberate alloying or selection of different ores, it is likely that prehistoric metalworkers and those who used these artefacts were aware of the mechanical differences between the (copper) axes and the (arsenical copper) daggers and halberds; they would certainly have noticed differences in colour between the alloys (Pearce 2007, 84–86). Arsenical copper has many advantages: its casting properties are superior to those of pure copper and it can be work-hardened to strengths equivalent to tin bronze (Lechtman 1996).

  The Remedello culture is best known from individual burials in simple trench graves, and in particular from the cemetery at Remedello in Lombardy. Males are usually buried with daggers and arrows, with copper grave goods of daggers, axes, awls, and ornaments (Fig. 36.2); some silver ornaments are also known. The alluvial Po plain has no copper outcrops, but ores may be found in the Alps and Apennines to the north, west, and south (Pearce 2007, 53–62); indeed contemporary copper smelting is documented at a number of sites in the Trento basin (e.g. Acquaviva, Riparo Gaban, Romagnano Loch) by slag, crucibles, tuyères, and furnaces (Pearce 2007, 74–76). The chalcopyrite ores smelted came from the surrounding alpine valleys. The evidence from Acquaviva and Romagnano Loch shows a clear association between the use of rock shelters for metalworking and burial (Nicolis 2001, 36); the explanation for this association may lie in the magical nature of smelting, where powdered rock is transformed into liquid metal. There may have been quite large amounts of copper in circulation in Chalcolithic northern Italy: estimates for production at the Libiola and Monte Loreto mines, the latter of which was active into the mid third millennium BC, suggest a total production of about 748 tons of copper, or 515kg per year (Campana et al. 2006).

  FIG. 36.2. A Remedello type dagger and axe, Sabbione (Pearce 1991, Tav.V.17 and Tav.VI. 19).

  Statue-stelae, menhirs, and rock carvings from the mountains around the Po plain (outside the area of the Remedello culture) carry representations of what appear to be Copper Age metal artefacts, and indeed these are used to date them (Barfield 1998). Statue-stelae are found in five discrete groups—the Lunigiana, Aosta, the Valtellina, Valcamonica, and the Trentino Alto-Adige—and they appear to represent male and female ancestors. The symbol of the adult male appears to be the weapon, and males are depicted as warriors, armed to the teeth with daggers, halberds, and axes (Fig. 36.3). Some of the stelae themselves even have the shape of daggers (Bagolini 1981, 256). Copper weapons are also depicted in the rock engravings of the Valcamonica and Valtellina, and at Mont Bégo in the French Alpes-Maritimes (Barfield and Chippindale 1997). It is noteworthy that Remedello type triangular daggers, widely depicted in this art, do not seem to occur in the areas where the art is made (Nicolis 2001, 365, note 83). Halberds are generally held to have had ceremonial significance and to have been a status symbol, not least because of their depiction on statue-stelae, menhirs, and in rock art. Barfield (1969) suggests they originated in the Rinaldone culture of central Italy.

  FIG. 36.3. Statue stela n.1, Arco

  (copyright Ufficio Beni Archeologici, Provincia Autonoma di Trento).

  Perhaps the best known Copper Age artefact is the copper axe found with the Iceman (‘Ötzi’) near the high Hauslabjoch pass between Italy and Austria, and dated to about 3200 BC. This axe, which shows close parallels to one found in tomb 102 at Remedello (De Marinis 1992, 392–394), raises a number of questions about the role of metalwork in Copper Age society. In contrast with depictions of axes on statue-stelae or in rock-art, where dagger and axe blades are very visible, the axe is hafted in such a way that much of it is hidden—just 2.6cm of the 9.3cm long blade would have been visible (Barfield 1994, 20, fig. 3). This weakens the argument that such weapons were display objects, status symbols, and we might prefer to interpret the Iceman’s axe as a normal item of kit (just as his other equipment seems to be ideal for trekking at high altitudes). If it was indeed normal for a man travelling at an altitude of over 3,000m in the southern Alps to carry a copper axe, then this suggests that copper artefacts may have been much more common than appears from Copper Age contexts (Pearce 2007, 51–52). This supports the suggestion that large amounts of metal were mined at Libiola and Monte Loreto in the fourth and third millennia BC.

  The Rinaldone culture is also best known from burials, in trench graves, caves, and rock-cut tombs, and these are concentrated in two main areas: in the Fiora valley and around the Colline Metallifere, both concentrations correlating with the presence of metal ores (Barker 1981, 75, 86, fig. 24; Giardino 2013). Both individual and multiple burials are known, and metal finds consist of copper daggers, halberds, axes, awls, and ornaments. Antimony and silver ornaments are also documented. Rinaldone metalwork has higher percentages of antimony than Remedello or Gaudo artefacts, perhaps indicating the exploitation of local ores from the Colline Metallifere (Barker 1981, 86–88). Lead isotope analysis of a halberd and a dagger from San Cristoforo
delle Vertighe seems to confirm the use of Tuscan ores for Rinaldone metalwork though the exact outcrop has not been identified (Buresta et al. 2006). Possible crucibles have been found at Poggialti Vallelunga, Garavicchio, and Ponte San Pietro (Dolfini 2004, 215, note 61). Individual burials, generally males over 12 years of age, are equipped with flint arrowheads; some have a stone or copper weapon (axe, dagger, or battle-axe) for close quarters combat. Maleness again seems to be linked to a warrior (and/or huntsman) identity. Richer tombs have more weapons, two or three in copper, and occasionally also a halberd (Dolfini 2004, 227–229).

  Metal artefacts are rarer in the tombs of the Gaudo culture, consisting of daggers, blades, axes, pins, and awls. The burials, in rock cut tombs, are generally multiple, though high-status individual burials are known, such as the Tomb of the Chieftain at Mirabello Eclano, whose rich grave goods included three copper daggers and an axe (Barker 1981, 71–75; Bailo Modesti and Salerno 1998).

  At Millan/Milland in the Alto Adige/Südtirol, chalcopyrite ore was being smelted at 2870–2490 BC (Dal Ri and Tecchiati 2005, 7, 19) and at Tanzgasse at 2580–2235 BC (Dal Ri et al. 2004, 155–156, 158, Table XIV). Copper Age smelting is also known from two hilltop sites in the Fersina valley mining district of Trento province, at Montesei di Serso and Croz del Cius: a furnace was found at Montesei, together with a Beaker-phase axe mould and type Ig II awls, and a furnace and slag were found at Croz del Cius (Cierny et al. 1998, 26–27, figs 4–5).

  SARDINIA AND CORSICA

  The first development of metallurgy in Sardinia is still controversial (Mellis et al. 2007): copper and silver objects are known from Ozieri culture contexts datable to c. 4200–3500 BC (Skeates 1994, 14), but claims of slag at the site of Su Coddu have not been confirmed by analysis. Evidence for metalworking is more secure in the Sub-Ozieri phase of the second half of the fourth millennium BC, with the finding of a crucible from the site; this phase sees the consolidation of metalworking in the southern part of Sardinia, with an increase in metal artefacts and a corresponding decrease in obsidian tools (Skeates 1994, 29; Lo Schiavo et al. 2005).

  The earliest metalworking in Corsica is from Terrina, a settlement dating to sometime between 3250 and 2400 BC (Camps 1988; Pearce 2013). Little is known of third-millennium metallurgy in the island, though the archaeological record sees a move to defensive sites (Lewthwaite 1985).

  MEDITERRANEAN FRANCE

  Copper use and mining appear together around the late fourth/early third millennium BC in the Languedoc, west of the Rhône, where copper ores outcrop around the southern edge of the Massif Central. Chalcolithic copper mining and smelting are documented at a number of sites in the mining district of Cabrières (mines at Pioch-Farrus, Roussignole, and Bellarade, smelting at Roque-Fenestre and at the settlement of La Capitelle du Broum) (Ambert et al. 2009). Here tetrahedrite fahlore was mined with hammerstones and firesetting; the copper produced, rich in antimony and silver, is typical of Chalcolithic copper in the Languedoc. Further west, hammerstones and Chalcolithic (or Bronze Age) pottery have been found at the mine of Bouco-Payrol whilst smelting of copper sulphide at Al Claus (dated 2470–2200 BC) suggests mining of the local Chalcopyrite ores of the Villefranche-de-Rouergue fault (Ambert et al. 1998; Mille and Carozza 2009, 153–156, 162–164).

  Radiocarbon dates are lacking for the earliest metalwork to the east of the Rhône, in Provence, where the first copper objects, such as the Remedello-type dagger from Orgon (Courtin and Sauzade 1975), may be imported. In the second half of the third millennium copper metalwork becomes more common in Provence, with beads, awls, some flat axes, and daggers.

  Mining of bornite, a copper rich sulphide, is documented in the second half of the third millennium BC at Saint-Véran, high in the Alps. Organic preservation is good, with wooden props or shoring and goat-horn picks preserved along with stone hammers and picks; firesetting was probably used. Ore processing (beneficiation) and smelting was carried out at the Pinilière rock shelter next to the mine and some 350m below at La Cabanne des Clausis (Barge et al. 1998). The site lies 3km from the Italian border and local rock engravings depict Remedello daggers, suggesting that the miners may not have come from the French side of the Alps (Mille and Carozza 2009, 159).

  Statue-menhirs depicting warriors with copper weapons may, like the Italian stelae, have depicted ancestors (D’Anna 1998), and the rock engravings from Mont Bégo in the Alpes Maritimes depict Chalcolithic copper weapons, many of Italian types.

  Although Chalcolithic copper artefacts (beads, daggers, flat axes, awls) and evidence for metalworking are abundant in Languedoc in early third-millennium contexts, they are mostly small and decorative, occurring primarily in tombs in the uplands close to the copper outcrops; metal tools do not replace stone and bone artefacts (Gutherz et al. 2005; Mille and Carozza 2009, 160–161). Whilst production at Al Claus was low-level, domestic, and probably occasional, at Cabrières it was on a different scale and seems to correlate to the development of fortified settlements nearby, such as Puech Haut and Roquemengarde (where the earliest metal objects are found); however, metal production and the distribution of products seem to be regional in scale (Mille and Carozza 2009, 165–168). In the second half of the third millennium BC, Beaker contexts are relatively poor in metalwork (Ambert 1998, 67–68), though Palmela-type points seem to document trade in finished objects from Iberia.

  CONCLUSIONS

  The social role played by copper artefacts and metallurgy in the late Neolithic and Chalcolithic societies of the western Mediterranean is not as simple as current models maintain. As we have seen, copper may not always have been valuable in the earliest periods of its use, and there may have been rather more in circulation than is attested by the archaeological record. This suggests that whilst Chalcolithic elites certainly used copper artefacts to express their wealth and identity, on the present evidence we cannot say that metallurgy and metalwork played an important causative role in the emergence of social complexity.

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