Atlantic Bronze Age

The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the Bronze Age period of approximately 1300–700 BC that includes different cultures in Portugal, Andalusia, Galicia, Armorica and the British Isles.

Contents

Trade

The Atlantic Bronze Age is marked by economic and cultural exchange, which lead to the high degree of cultural similarity exhibited by the coastal communities from Galicia to Scotland, including the frequent use of stones as chevaux-de-frise, the establishment of cliff castles, or the domestic architecture sometimes characterized by the round houses.[1] Commercial contacts extend from Denmark to the Mediterranean.[1] The period was defined by a number of distinct regional centres of metal production, unified by a regular maritime exchange of some of their products. The major centres were southern England and Ireland, north-western France, and north-western Iberia.[2] The items related to this culture are frequently found forming hoards, deposited in ritual areas.[3] Among the more noted items belonging to this cultural complex we can count the socketed and double ring bronze axes, sometimes buried forming large hoards in Brittany and Galicia; a variety of bronze swords, usually found deposited in lakes, rivers or rocky outcrops;[4] and the élites' feasting gear: articulated spits, cauldrons, and flesh-hooks,[5] found from central Portugal to Scotland.[1]

The origins of the Celts were attributed to this Age in 2008 by Professor John Koch[6] and supported by Sir Barry Cunliffe[7] but this stands in contrast to the more generally accepted view that Celtic origins lie with the Hallstatt culture.

Atlantic Bronze Age

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Barry (1999). "Atlantic Sea-ways". Revista de Guimarães Especial (I): 93–105. http://www.csarmento.uminho.pt/docs/ndat/rg/RGVE1999_005.pdf. 
  2. ^ Europe Before History by Kristian Kristiansen
  3. ^ Comendador Rey, Beatriz. "SPACE AND MEMORY AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER ULLA (GALICIA, SPAIN)". Conceptualising Space and Place: On the role of agency, memory and identity in the construction of space from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Iron Age in Europe. Archaeopress. http://webs.uvigo.es/beacomendador/index_archivos/2010_UISPP.pdf. Retrieved 26 April 2011. 
  4. ^ Quilliec, Bénédicte T. (2007). "Life and death of an atlantic sword: Reconstruction of the processes of fabrication, use wear and destruction". Complutum 18: 93–107. http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/revistas/ghi/11316993/articulos/CMPL0707110093A.PDF. Retrieved 22 September 2011. 
  5. ^ Bowman, Sheridan; Stuart Needham (2007). "THE DUNAVERNEY AND LITTLE THETFORD FLESH-HOOKS: HISTORY, TECHNOLOGY AND THEIR POSITION WITHIN THE LATER BRONZE AGE ATLANTIC ZONE FEASTING COMPLEX". The Antiquaries Journal 87: 53–108. http://www.littlethetford.org/archaeology/Bowman-and-Needham.pdf. Retrieved 22 September 2011. 
  6. ^ Koch, John (2009). Tartessian: Celtic from the Southwest at the Dawn of History in Acta Palaeohispanica X Palaeohispanica 9 (2009). Palaeohispanica. pp. 339–351. ISSN 1578-5386. http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-17. 
  7. ^ Cunliffe, Barry (2008). A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 75, 2009, pp. 55–64. The Prehistoric Society. pp. 61. 

External links