2014/01/01 by Helle Vandkilde · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts #Bronze Age #Ancient history #Bronze #Geography #History #Archaeology #Ethnology
paper · doi:10.1179/1461957114y.0000000064
openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The breakthrough of the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA) c. 1600 BC as a koiné within Bronze Age Europe can be historically linked to the Carpathian Basin. Nordic distinctiveness entailed an entanglement of cosmology and warriorhood, albeit represented through different media in the hotspot zone (bronze) and in the northern zone (rock). In a Carpathian crossroad between the Eurasian Steppes, the Aegean world and temperate Europe during this time, a transcultural assemblage coalesced, fusing both tangible and intangible innovations from various different places. Superior warriorhood was coupled to beliefs in a tripartite cosmology, including a watery access to the netherworld while also exhibiting new fighting technologies and modes of social conduct. This transculture became creatively translated in a range of hot societies at the onset of the Middle Bronze Age. In southern Scandinavia, weaponry radiated momentous creativity that drew upon Carpathian originals, contacts and a pool of Carpathian ideas, but ultimately drawing on emergent Mycenaean hegemonies in the Aegean. This provided the incentive for a cosmology-rooted resource from which the NBA could take its starting point.