Organizing Bronze Age Societies. The Mediterranean, Central Europe, and Scandinavia Compared
Edited by Timothy Earle & Kristian Kristiansen
City: Cambridge
Year: 2010
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Description: Paperback, 328 p., 70 b/w illus., 1 map, 16 tables, 25,3x21,5 cm
Abstract
The Bronze Age was a formative period in European history when the organisation of landscapes, settlements, and economy reached a new level of complexity. This book presents the first in-depth, comparative study of household economy and settlement in three micro-regions: the Mediterranean (Sicily), Central Europe (Hungary), and Northern Europe (South Scandinavia). The results are based on ten years of fieldwork in a similar method of documentation, and scientific analyses were used in each of the regional studies, making controlled comparisons possible. The new evidence demonstrates how differences in settlement organisation and household economies were counterbalanced by similarities in the organised use of the landscape in an economy dominated by the herding of large flocks of sheep and cattle. This book’s innovative theoretical and methodological approaches will be of relevance to all researchers of landscape and settlement history.
Contents
List of illustrations
List of tables
Preface
- Timothy Earle and Kristian Kristiansen, ‘Introduction: theory and practice in the late prehistory of Europe’ [1-33]
- Charles French, ‘The palaeo-environment of Bronze Age Europe’ [34-56]
- Magnus Artursson, ‘Regional settlement pattern’ [57-86]
- Timothy Earle and Michael J. Kolb, ‘Settlement structure and organization’[87-121]
- Marie Louise Sørensen, ‘Households’ [122-154]
- Maria Vretemark, Hans-Peter Stika and Brigitta Berzsényi, ‘Subsistence strategies’ [155-184]
- Joanna Sofaer, ‘Technology and craft’ [185-217]
- Timothy Earle and Kristian Kristiansen, ‘Organizing Bronze Age societies: concluding thoughts’ [218-256]
Appendix 1: Participating Institutions [257]
Appendix 2: Doctoral dissertations based on the projects [258]
Appendix 3: Selected publications related to the four projects [259]
Bibliography
Index