The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

by Chris Fowler

  Neither did metal production require many new skills. One way of improving the workability of flint and chert is to heat it carefully (not enough to vitrify it, but enough to affect the chemical matrix) before knapping (Whittaker 1994). Similarly, firing pottery requires closely controlled temperatures—especially in the production of the fragile, thin-walled Beaker pottery. Although we cannot adequately reconstruct prehistoric pyrotechnologies, they were clearly more complex than the unthinking use of simple cooking fires or open bonfire kilns. We equally lack a proper understanding of the technologies of producing and using organic materials, but these were probably involved in complex chaines opératoires requiring sophisticated appreciation of the materials involved. A large part of the ground-stone tool assemblage of the third and fourth millennia BC was probably produced for use as wood-working tools (Fokkens 1998; Louwe Kooijmans 2005, 255), whilst the applewood hammer with a handle in ash from Hüde I suggests the sophistication of fourth-millennium woodworking: the different woods were selected for specific tool parts based on their differing strength, flexibility, and sturdiness (Louwe Kooijmans 2005, 268). Similar planning and chains of practices were involved in cultivating fibrous plants and preparing wool for weaving, and in the complex dying and weaving processes hinted at by the few scraps preserved in water-logged contexts (Hurcombe 2008; Harding 2000, 254; Bender-Jørgensen 1992). The appearance of new dress ornaments in western Europe, such as pins, belt-loops, and v-perforated buttons, suggests a shift toward sewn woollen or linen clothing (Bender-Jørgensen 1992). Finally, some of the most basic prehistoric technologies, such as grinding corn for food or temper for adding to potting clay, have potential applications in metalworking, such as ore refining and roasting.

  The contexts of use and deposition for early metal objects fit into a broad class of ‘special objects/materials’, such as highly polished hard-stone axes and amber. These objects share certain physical properties including lustre, brilliance, distinctive colour, and non-local or hard-to-access points of origin (chapters in Jones and MacGregor 2002; Pétrequin et al. 2002, 2008; Klassen 2004). Often these objects were treated in ways that distinguished them from the rest of the material in circulation, such as the hoards and deposits of hundreds or even thousands of amber beads alongside polished flint axes and Funnel Beaker pottery in southern Scandinavian bogs (Ebbesen 1995). Similarly, extremely long polished flint axes from Scandinavia were deposited in hoards in wet places in the Netherlands and north-west Germany during the fourth millennium BC—apparently after having been rubbed with red ochre (Wentink 2006). Alpine jadetite axes circulated as far north as Scotland and Denmark, being reshaped and re-polished into significant local forms as they travelled (Sheridan 2007; Klassen 1999). This situation is comparable to the re-melting of metal objects and their re-creation in regionally and locally desirable forms. If metal had been conceptually distinct from all other materials, then the forms throughout north-west Europe should not reflect local patterns but rather emulate a universal idea of ‘metal.’

  CONCLUSIONS: UNDERSTANDING NEOLITHIC METALWORK IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE

  Whether perceived as a technological or a chronological change, the appearance of metal tends to push scholars into proposing social transformations by the communities involved in its use and manufacture (cf. Roberts and Frieman 2012). One consequence of this metal-orientated perspective is the debate over whether we should recognize a Chalcolithic period across Europe and beyond, dividing the Neolithic from the Bronze Age (Allen et al. 2012; Brindley 1995; Guilaine 2006). Another is the proliferation of projects researching the earliest metal objects and metal production practices. These projects have generated sufficient data, not only to re-analyse metal on its own terms, but also to allow meaningful comparisons to other contemporary materials and technologies, enabling the many interpretations and assumptions concerning the ‘spread’ and ‘development’ of metal to be re-evaluated (see Thornton and Roberts 2009 and chapters in Journal of World Prehistory 22, 3–4).

  Metal objects in the fourth and third millennia BC in northern and western Europe represent only one of several exotic and visually distinctive materials exploited and shaped in different ways by distant communities. Whilst the earliest metal can be regarded as special in the sense that it may have been desirable for adornment and display, it seemingly did not exert any causal influence on the dynamics underlying the communities involved and conveyed no obvious technological advantage. The ability to create copper and lead objects from their ores or melt copper or gold from naturally occurring nuggets was not invented independently in northern or western Europe. However, there were at least partially comparable technologies in terms of technical complexity, logistics, and pathways of transmission. When metal production did occur, it required specialist expertise, but was only applied on a small-scale and sporadic basis with little innovation or intensification. Production may not even have occurred in many regions during certain periods, and there is little sense that the desire to learn the new technology created a demand for metal to fill roles beyond its circumscribed place in the new ideologies and lifestyles which stimulated its consumption. In conclusion, the early presence of metal does not herald a revolution, but instead represents a single material that has survived through the millennia to be relatively well studied by scholars who, perhaps, attach more significance to its appearance than any prehistoric person would have.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  We are very grateful for the numerous discussions with many individuals who have shared their expertise. We would especially like to thank Paul Ambert, Stuart Needham, Alison Sheridan, Jo Sofaer, Marie-Louise Stig-Sørensen, Chris Thornton, and Helle Vandkilde. We would also like to thank Helga Schütze at the National Museum of Denmark for permission to use the image of the Bygholm hoard. The errors remain our own.

  REFERENCES

  Allen, M.J., Gardiner, J., and Sheridan, A. (eds) 2012. Is there a British Chalcolithic? People, place and polity in the later third millennium. Oxford: Oxbow.

  Ambert, P. 1999. Les minerais de cuivre et les objets metalliques en cuivre à antimoine-argent du sud de la France. Preuves d’une exploitation minière et métallurgie du début du III millenaire av. J.C. In A. Hauptmann, E. Pernicka,T. Rehren, and Ü. Yalçin (eds), The Beginnings of Metallurgy, 176–192. Bochum: Der Anschnitt.

  Ambert, P. and Carozza, L. 1998. Origine(s) et dévelopment de la première métallurgie française. Etat de la question. In B. Fritsch, M. Maute, I. Matuschik, J. Müller, and C. Wolf (eds), Tradition und Innovation. Prähistorische Archäologie als historische Wissenschaft. Festschrift für Christian Strahm, 149–173. Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf.

  Ambert, P., Coularou, J., Guendon, J.-L., Bougarit, D., Mille, B., Dainat, D., Houles, N., and Baumes, B. 2002. Le plus vieil établissement de métallurgistes de France (IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.): Péret (Hérault). Comptes Rendus Palevol 1(1), 67–74.

  Barge, H. 1982. Les Parures du Neolithique Ancien au Debut de l’Age des Metaux en Languedoc. Paris: CNRS.

  Bartelheim, M. 2007. Die Rolle der Metallurgie in Vorgeschichtlichen Gesellschaften. Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf.

  Bender-Jørgensen, L. 1992. North European Textiles until AD 1000. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

  Billard, C., Bourhis, J.-R., Desfosses, Y., Evin J., Huault, M., Lefebvre, D., Paulet-Locard, and M.-A. 1991. L’habitat des Florentins à Val-de-Reuil (Eure). Gallia Préhistoire 33, 140–171.

  Blasco, A., Villalba, M. J., and Edo, M. 1998. Explotación. manufactura, distribución y uso como bien de prestigio de la ‘calaita’ en el Neolítico: el ejemplo del complejo de Can Tintorer. In G. Delibes de Castro (ed.), Minerales y Metales en la Prehistoria Reciente: Algunos Testimonios de su Explotación y Laboreo en la Península Ibérica, 41–70. Studia Arqueológica 88. Valladolid. Universidad de Valladolid.

  Bray, P. 2012. Before 29Cu became copper: tracing the recognition and invention of metallurgy in Britain and Ireland during the third millennium BC. In M.J. Allen, J. Gardiner, and J
.A. Sheridan (eds), Is there a British Chalcolithic: people, place and polity in the later third millennium. Oxford: Oxbow.

  Bray, P. and Pollard, A.M. 2012. A new interpretative approach to the chemistry of copper-alloy objects: source, recycling and technology. Antiquity 86, 853–867.

  Brindley, A. 1995. Radiocarbon, chronology and the Bronze Age. In J. Waddell and E. Shee Twohig (eds), Ireland in the Bronze Age, 4–13. Dublin: Stationery Office.

  Brodie, N. 1997. New perspectives on the Bell Beaker Culture. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 16(3), 297–314.

  Case, H.J. 1966. Were Beaker-people the first metallurgists in Ireland? Palaeohistoria 12, 141–177.

  Coghlan, H.H. and Case, H. 1957. Early metallurgy in Ireland and Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 23, 91–123.

  Cooney, G. and Mandal, S. 1998. Irish Stone Axe Project I. Dublin: Wordwell.

  Ebbesen, K. 1995. Die nordischen Bernsteinhorte der Trichterbecherkultur. Praehistorische Zeitschrift 70(1), 32–89.

  Eluère, C. 1982. Les Ors Préhistoriques. Paris: Picard.

  Espérou, J.L., Ambert, P., Bourhis, J.R., Roques, P., Gilot, E., and Chabal, L. 1994. La fosse chalcolithique Pioch-Farrus 448 (Cabrières, Hérault), datation 14C et documents métallurgiques. Bulletin du Musée d’Anthropologie Préhistorique de Monaco 37, 53–62.

  Fitzpatrick, A. 2011. The Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen: Bell Beaker burials at Boscombe Down, Amesbury, Wiltshire. Wessex Archaeology Report 27. Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology.

  Fokkens, H. 1998. Drowned landscape: the occupation of the western part of the Frisian-Drentian plateau, 4400 BC–AD 500. Assen: Van Gorcum; Rijksdienst voor het oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek.

  Frieman, C.-J. 2012a. Innovation and imitation: stone skeuomorphs of metal from 4th-2nd millennia BC northwest Europe. Oxford: Archaeopress.

  Frieman, C.-J. 2012b. Flint daggers, copper daggers and technological innovation in Late Neolithic Scandinavia. European Journal of Archaeology 15(3), 440–464.

  Goldenberg, G., Maass, A., Steffens, G., and Steuer, H. 2003. Haematite mining during the Linear Ceramics Culture in the area of the Black Forest, South West Germany. In T. Stöllner, G. Körlin, G. Steffens, and J. Cierny (eds), Man and Mining-Mensch und Bergbau: studies in honour of Gerd Weisgerber. Der Anschnitt Beiheft 16, 179–186. Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau Museum.

  Guilaine, J. 1991. Roquemengarde et les débuts de la métallurgie en France méditerranéenne. In C. Eluère and J.P. Mohen (eds), Découverte du Métal, 279–294. Paris: Picard.

  Guilaine, J. and Eulère, C. 1997. Sur les origines de la métallurgie de l’or dans les Corbières. In B. Fritsch, M. Maute, I. Matuschik, J. Müller, and C. Wolf (eds), Tradition und Innovation. Prähistorische Archäologie als historische Wissenschaft. Festschrift für Christian Strahm, 175–182. Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf.

  Guilaine, J. (ed.) 2006. Le Chalcolithique et la Construction des Inégalités. Paris: Errance.

  Gutherz, X. and Jallot, L. 2005. ge du cuivre et changements sociaux en Languedoc méditerranéen. In P. Ambert and J. Vaquer (eds), La première métallurgie en France et dans les pays limitrophes, 83–96. Paris: Mémoire de la Société Préhistorique Française 37.

  Harding, A. 2000. European societies in the Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Hartmann, A. 1970. Prähistorische Goldfunde aus Europa: Spektralanalytische Untersuchungen und deren Auswertung. Studien zu den Anfängen der Metallurgie 3. Berlin: Mann.

  Hartmann, A. 1979. Irish and British gold types and their West European counterparts. In M. Ryan (ed.), The origins of metallurgy in Atlantic Europe, 215–228. Dublin: Stationery Office.

  Hartmann, A. 1982. Prähistorische Goldfunde aus Europa: Spektralanalytische Untersuchungen und deren Auswertung. Studien zu den Anfängen der Metallurgie 5. Berlin: Mann.

  Högberg, A. 2008. Playing with flint: tracing a child’s imitation of adult work in a lithic assemblage. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 15(1), 112–131.

  Hurcombe, L. 2008. Organics from inorganics: using experimental archaeology as a research tool for studying perishable material culture. World Archaeology 40(1), 83–115.

  Jones, A. and MacGregor, G. (eds) 2002. Colouring the past: the significance of colour in archaeological research. Oxford: Berg.

  Klassen, L. 1999. Prestigeøkser af sjaeladne alpine bjergarter. En glemt og overset fundgruppe fra aeldre stenalders slutning i Danmark (Prestige axes of rare Alpine rock—a forgotten and overlooked find group from the end of the early stone age in Denmark). Kuml 1999, 11–51.

  Klassen, L. 2000. Frühes Kupfer im Norden: Untersuchungen zu Chronologie, Herkunft und Bedeutung der Kupferfunde der Nordgruppe der Trichterbecherkultur. Højbjerg, Århus: Moesgård Museum and Jutland Archaeological Society; Aarhus University Press.

  Klassen, L. 2004. Jade und Kupfer: Untersuchungen zum Neolithisierungsprozess im westlichen Ostseeraum unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kulturentwicklung Europas 5500–3500 BC. Århus: Jutland Archaeological Society; Moesgård Museum.

  Klassen, L. and Stürup, S. 2001. Decoding the Riesebusch-copper: lead-isotope analysis applied to early Neolithic copper finds from south Scandinavia. Praehistorische Zeitschrift 76, 55–73.

  Krause, R. 2002. The cultural and chronological context of the development of Early Bronze Age metallurgy. In B. Ottaway and E. Wager (eds), Metals and society. Papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists sixth annual meeting in Lisbon 2000, 33–44. Oxford: Archaeopress.

  Krause, R. 2003. Studien zur kupfer- und frühbronzezeitlichen Metallurgie zwischen Karpatenbecken und Ostsee. Leidorf: Rahden/Westf.

  Louwe Kooijmans, L.P. 2005. Hunters become farmers. Early Neolithic B and Middle Neolithic A. In L.P. Louwe Kooijmans, P.W. van den Broeke, H. Fokkens, and A. van Gijn (eds), The prehistory of the Netherlands, 249–272. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

  Mathieu, J.R. and Meyer, D.A. 1997. Comparing axe heads of stone, bronze and steel: studies in experimental archaeology. Journal of Field Archaeology 24, 333–350.

  Meurkens, L. 2004. A matter of elites, specialists and ritual? Social and symbolic dimension of metalworking in the North-west European Bronze Age. Masters thesis, University of Leiden.

  Mille, B. and Bouquet, L. 2004. Le métal au 3e millénaire avant notre ère dans le centre-nord de la France. In M. Vander Linden and L. Salanova (eds), Le Troisième Millénaire dans le Nord de la France et en Belgique: Actes de la Journée d’Études srbap-spf, 8 Mars 2003, Lille, 197–215. Paris: Société Préhistorique Française.

  Mille, B. and Carozza, L. 2009. Moving into the Metal Ages: The social importance of metal at the end of the Neolithic period in France. In T.L. Kienlin and B.W. Roberts (eds), Metals and societies: papers in honour of Barbara Otaway, 143–172. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie. Bonn: Habelt.

  Needham, S. 1996. Chronology and periodisation in the British Bronze Age. Acta Archaeologica 67, 121–140.

  Needham, S., 2002. Analytical implications for Beaker metallurgy in North-West Europe. In E. Pernicka and M. Bartelheim (eds), The beginnings of metallurgy in the old world, 99–133. Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf.

  Nielsen, P.O. 1993. The Neolithic. In Jensen, J. (ed.), Digging into the past. 25 years of archaeology in Denmark, 84–87. Aarhus: The Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries and the Jutland Archaeological Society.

  O’Brien, W. 2004. Ross Island (Bronze Age Studies 5). Galway: National University of Ireland.

  O’Sullivan, A. 1996. Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age woodworking techniques. In B. Raftery (ed.), Trackway excavations in the Mountdillon Bogs, Co. Longford, 1985–1991, 291–342. Dublin: Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit.

  Ottaway, B. 1973. The earliest copper ornaments in northern Europe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 39, 294–331.

  Ottaway, B. 1989. Interactions of some of the earliest copper using cultures in central Europe. In Hauptmann, A. Pernicka, E., and Wagner, G. (eds), Archäometallugie der alt
en Welt. Beiträge zum internationalen Symposium ‘Old world archaeometallurgy’, Heidelberg 1987, 19–24. Bochum: Selbstverlag des Deutschen Bergbau-Museums.

  Ottaway, B. and Roberts, B. 2008. The emergence of metalworking in Europe. In A. Jones (ed.), European prehistory: theory and practice, 193–225. Oxford: Blackwell.

  Pétrequin, P., Cassen, S., Croutsch, C., and Errera, M. 2002. La valorisation sociale des longues haches de l’Europe néolithique. In J. Guilaine (ed.) Matériaux, Productions, Circulations du Néolithique à l’Age du Bronze, 67–98. Paris: Editions Errance.

  Pétrequin, P., Sheridan, J.A., Cassen, S., Errera, M., Gauthier, E., Klassen, L., Le Maux, N., and Pailler, Y. 2008. Neolithic Alpine axeheads, from the Continent to Great Britain, the Isle of Man and Ireland. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 40, 261–279.

  Prange, M. and Ambert, P. 2005. Caractérisation géochimique et isotopique des minerais et des métaux base cuivre de Cabrières (Hérault). In P. Ambert and J. Vaquer (eds), La Première Métallurgie en France et dans les Pays Limitrophes, 71–81. Paris: Mémoire de la Société Préhistorique Française 37.

  Roberts, B.W. 2008a. Creating traditions and shaping technologies: understanding the earliest metal objects and metal production in western Europe. World Archaeology 40(3), 354–372.

  Roberts, B.W. 2008b. Migration, craft expertise and metallurgy: analysing the ‘spread’ of metal in western Europe. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 23(2), 27–45.

  Roberts, B.W. and Frieman, C.J. 2012. Drawing boundaries and building models: investigating the concept of the ‘Chalcolithic frontier’ in northwest Europe. In M.J. Allen, J. Gardiner, and J.A. Sheridan (eds), Is there a British Chalcolithic? People, place and polity in the later 3rd millennium, 27–39. London: Oxbow.

  Roberts, B.W., Thornton, C.P., and Pigott, V.C. 2009. Development of metallurgy in Eurasia. Antiquity 83, 1012–1022.

  Rohl, B. and Needham, S. 1998. The circulation of metal in the British Bronze Age: the application of lead isotope analysis. British Museum Occasional Paper 102.