Aegean , 1550 BC The
Aegean Bronze Age begins around 3200 BC Around 1600 BC, the
eruption of Thera destroyed the site of
Akrotiri and damaged
Minoan sites in eastern
Crete. The further impact of this event is poorly understood. Thus the Mycenaeans became the dominant power of the region, marking the beginning of the Mycenaean 'Koine' era (from , common), a highly uniform culture that spread in mainland Greece and the Aegean. The Mycenaean Greeks introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the
Mediterranean was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the
Linear B, offers the first written records of the
Greek language and their religion already included several deities that can be also found in the
Olympic Pantheon. Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king, known as
wanax. Archaeological cultures of the Bronze Age Aegean include: •
Northeast Aegean culture •
Cycladic culture •
Helladic culture •
Minoan civilization •
Mycenaean Greece •
Postpalatial Bronze Age File:Art des Cyclades (musée national d'archéologie, Athènes) (30146370354).jpg|Marble figurine,
Cycladic culture, 2700 BC File:Knossos1.jpg|
Minoan palace at
Knossos, Crete File:Zakros bull's head rhyton archnmus Heraklion.jpg|Minoan rhyton,
Crete, 1500 BC File:Lion Gate - Mycenae by Joy of Museums.jpg|
Lion Gate,
Mycenae, Greece, c. 1250 BC File:Treasury of Atreus Mycenae.jpg|
Treasury of Atreus, Greece, c. 1300 BC File:MycenaeDiadems.jpg|Gold artefacts from Mycenae, 16th century BC File:NAMA 1428 - Stele of Grave Circle A Mycenae.jpg|Stone stele from
Grave Circle A, Mycenae, 16th century BC
Southeast Europe ramparts,
Urnfield culture, Romania, c. 1300 BC A study in the journal
Antiquity from 2013 reported the discovery of a tin bronze foil from the
Pločnik archaeological site dated to , as well as 14 other artefacts from
Serbia and
Bulgaria dated to before 4000 BC, showed that early tin bronze was more common than previously thought and developed independently in Europe 1,500 years before the first tin bronze alloys in the
Near East. The production of complex tin bronzes lasted for c. 500 years in the Balkans. The authors reported that evidence for the production of such complex bronzes disappears at the end of the 5th millennium coinciding with the "collapse of large cultural complexes in north-eastern Bulgaria and Thrace in the late fifth millennium BC". Tin bronzes using
cassiterite tin would be reintroduced to the area again some 1,500 years later. Bronze Age archaeological cultures in Southeast Europe include: •
Yamnaya culture •
Ezero culture •
Baden culture •
Coțofeni culture •
Vučedol culture •
Cetina culture •
Wietenberg culture •
Monteoru culture •
Tei culture •
Castellieri culture •
Encrusted Pottery culture •
Vatin culture •
Noua-Sabatinovka-Coslogeni culture •
Urnfield culture •
Gáva-Holigrady culture •
Glasinac-Mati culture •
Central Bosnian culture •
Thracian culture File:Silver ax between 2100 - 1900 BC - near Tivat - Bay of Kotor - Montenegro.png|Silver and gold axe,
Vučedol culture, Montenegro, File:Gold jewelry from the early Bronze Age 1.jpg|
Dabene Treasure, Bulgaria, c. 2450-2000 BC File:Bronze sword - National History Museum of Romania 15914.jpg|Bronze sword,
Wietenberg culture, Romania, c. 1700 BC File:Monkodonja Bronze Age hillfort, Croatia.jpg|
Monkodonja hillfort,
Castellieri culture, Croatia, c. 1500 BC File:Dupljaja.jpg|
Dupljaja chariot,
Dubovac culture, Serbia, c. 1300 BC File:Valchitran-treasure.jpg|
Valchitran Treasure,
Bulgaria, File:Romania Bronze wheel 1000 BC.jpg|Bronze chariot wheel, Urnfield culture,
Romania, File:Lapus vessel lb 1 mnir.jpg|Pottery,
Urnfield culture, Romania, 13th century BC File:Wietenberg 1.png|Wietenburg culture, c. 1700 BC
Eastern Europe ,
Yamnaya and
Sintashta cultures The
Maykop culture was the major early Bronze Age culture in the
North Caucasus. Some scholars date arsenical bronze artifacts in the region as far back as the mid-4th millennium BC. The
Yamnaya culture was a
late copper age/early Bronze Age culture dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC. The culture was predominantly nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers and a few hill-forts. The
Catacomb culture, covering several related archaeological cultures, was first to introduce
corded pottery decorations into the steppes and showed a profuse use of the polished battle ax, providing a link to the West. Parallels with the
Afanasevo culture, including provoked cranial deformations, provide a link to the East. It was preceded by the
Yamnaya culture and succeeded by the western
Corded Ware culture. The eastern Corded Ware culture (
Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture) gave rise to the
Abashevo culture, followed by the
Sintashta culture, where the earliest known spoked-wheel
chariots have been found, dating from . The Catacomb culture in the Pontic steppe was succeeded by the
Multi-cordoned Ware culture, and the
Srubnaya culture from . Bronze Age archaeological cultures in Eastern Europe: •
Maykop culture •
Yamnaya culture •
Catacomb culture •
Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture •
Poltavka culture •
Abashevo culture •
Potapovka culture •
Sintashta culture •
Andronovo culture •
Srubnaya culture •
Novosvobodnaya culture •
Multi-cordoned ware culture •
Trzciniec culture •
Seima-Turbino culture •
Dolmen culture •
Trialeti culture •
Koban culture •
Noua-Sabatinovka-Coslogeni culture •
Monteoru culture •
Gáva-Holigrady culture File:R3 2 2d eneolith bull.jpg|Gold bull figurine,
Maykop culture, Russia, File:Керносовский идол.png|Kernosivsky idol,
Yamnaya culture, Ukraine, c. 2600 BC File:Carts Catacomb GIM.jpg|Wagon models,
Catacomb culture, Russia, File:Аркаим 2015.jpg|
Arkaim fortress,
Sintashta culture, Russia, c. 2000 BC File:В музее - заповеднике Аркаим.jpg|Model of an early chariot, Sintashta culture File:Andronovo costume set. Headwear, braid adornment, dress and adornments. Reconstruction. Lisakovsk Museum of History and Culture.jpg|Reconstructed clothing and jewellery, c. 2000 BC File:Borodinski klad.jpg|Borodino treasure,
Seima-Turbino culture, Moldova,
Central Europe ,
Únětice culture, Germany, c. 1800 BC In
Central Europe, the early Bronze Age
Únětice culture (2300–1600 BC) includes numerous smaller groups like the
Straubing,
Adlerberg and
Hatvan cultures. Some very rich burials, such as the one located at Leubingen (today part of
Sömmerda) with grave gifts crafted from gold, point to an increase of social stratification already present in the Únětice culture. All in all, cemeteries of this period are rare and of small size. The Únětice culture is followed by the middle Bronze Age (1600–1200 BC)
Tumulus culture, which is characterized by inhumation burials in
tumuli (barrows). In the eastern Hungarian
Körös tributaries, the early Bronze Age first saw the introduction of the
Makó culture, followed by the
Ottomány culture and
Gyulavarsánd culture. The late Bronze Age
Urnfield culture (1300–750 BC) is characterized by cremation burials. It includes the
Lusatian culture in eastern
Germany and
Poland (1300–500 BC) that continues into the
Iron Age. The Central European Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age
Hallstatt culture (800–450 BC).
Important sites include:
Biskupin (Poland),
Nebra (Germany), Zug-Sumpf,
Zug (
Switzerland), and
Vráble (
Slovakia). Bronze Age archaeological cultures in Central Europe include: •
Vučedol culture •
Bell Beaker culture •
Únětice culture •
Ottomány culture •
Rhône culture •
Mierzanowice culture •
Hatvan culture •
Nagyrév culture •
Nitra culture •
Mad'arovce culture •
Trzciniec culture •
Tumulus culture •
Vatya culture •
Encrusted Pottery culture •
Urnfield culture •
Lusatian culture File:Early Bronze Age daggers, Czech Republic.jpg|Bronze daggers,
Únětice culture,
Czech Republic, c. 2000 BC File:Gora Zyndrama 1.jpg|
Góra Zyndrama,
Ottomány culture, Poland, 1750 BC File:First Hajdúsámson Hoard - Déri Museum.jpg|Hajdúsámson Hoard,
Ottomány culture, Hungary, c. 1700 BC File:SAXTell.JPG|
Százhalombatta-Földvár hillfort,
Vatya culture, Hungary, 2000-1400 BC File:Objects from the Százhalombatta-Földvár Hoard II, Vatya culture, 1700-1500 BC, Hungary.jpg|Vatya culture hoard, Hungary, 1700-1500 BC File:Gold bracelet Dunavecse.jpg|Gold bracelet,
Vatya culture, Hungary, c. 1500 BC File:MUFT - Schwarza Frauentracht.jpg|Reconstructed clothing,
Tumulus culture, Germany, c. 1500 BC File:Ipfvonwesten.JPG|
Ipf hillfort,
Urnfield culture,
Germany, c. 1200 BC File:Bronzerad von Stade.JPG|Bronze wheel, Urnfield culture, Germany, File:Heunischenburg fortification.jpg|
Heunischenburg, Urnfield culture, Germany, c. 1000 BC File:Brama biskupińska.jpg|
Biskupin fortified settlement,
Lusatian culture, Poland
Italy The
Italian Bronze Age is conditionally divided into four periods: The Early Bronze Age (2300–1700 BC), the Middle Bronze Age (1700–1350 BC), the Recent Bronze Age (1350–1150 BC), the Final Bronze Age (1150–950 BC). The Early Bronze Age shows the beginning of a new culture in Northern Italy and is distinguished by the
Polada culture. Polada settlements were mainly widespread in wetland locations such as around the large lakes and hills along the Alpine margin. The cities of Toppo Daguzzo and La Starza were known as the center of the Proto-Apennine stage of Palma Campania culture spread in southern Italy at this time. in
Torralba,
Sardinia,
Italy The Middle Bronze Age, known as the
Apennine culture in Central and
Southern Italy, was the period when settlements were established both on lowland and upland areas.
Hierarchy among the social groups was experienced during this period according to the evidence of the tombs. The two-tier grave found at Toppo Daguzzo is an example of elite groups growth. On the top level, nearly 10 fractured skeletons have been found without any grave objects, while at the lower level eleven burials were found accompanied by different valuable pieces: 6 males with bronze weapons, 4 females with beads and a child. The Middle Bronze Age in Northern Italy was characterised by the
Terramare culture. settlement, Italy The Recent Bronze Age, known as the Sub-Apennine period in
Central Italy, is a frame of time when sites relocated to defended locations. At this time settlement hierarchy obviously appeared in cities such as
Latium and
Tuscany. During the second millennium BC, the
Nuragic civilization flourished in the island of
Sardinia. It was a rather homogeneous culture, more than 7000 imposing stone tower-buildings known as
Nuraghe were built by this culture all over the island, along with other types of monuments such as the megaron temples, the monumental
Giants' graves and the
holy well temples. Sanctuaries and larger settlements were also built starting from the late second millennium BC to host these religious structures along with other structures such ritual pools, fountains and tanks, large stone roundhouses with circular benches used for the meeting of the leaders of the chiefdoms and large public areas. Bronze tools and weapons were widespread and their quality increased thanks to the contacts between the Nuragic people and Eastern Mediterranean peoples such as the
Cypriots, the lost waxing technique was introduced to create several hundred bronze statuettes and other tools. The Nuragic civilization survived throughout the early
Iron Age when the sanctuaries were still in use, stone statues were crafted and some Nuraghi were reused as temples. The
Castellieri culture developed in
Istria during the Middle Bronze Age. It lasted for more than a millennium, from the 15th century BC until the Roman conquest in the 3rd century BC. It takes its name from the fortified boroughs (
Castellieri, ) that characterised the culture. The
Canegrate culture developed from the mid-Bronze Age (13th century BC) until the Iron Age in the Pianura Padana, in what are now western
Lombardy, eastern
Piedmont, and
Ticino. It takes its name from the township of
Canegrate, where, in the 20th century, some fifty tombs with ceramics and metal objects were found. The Canegrate culture migrated from the northwest part of the Alps and descended to Pianura Padana from the
Swiss Alps passes and the Ticino. The
Golasecca culture developed starting from the late Bronze Age in the
Po plain. It takes its name from Golasecca, a locality next to the Ticino, where in the early 19th century abbot excavated its first findings comprising some 50 tombs with ceramics and metal objects. Remains of the Golasecca culture span an area of about south to the Alps, between the Po,
Sesia, and
Serio rivers, dating to the 9th–4th centuries BC. File:Asce del ripostiglio di Savignano, Museo Civico di Modena, foto P.Terzi.jpg|Early Bronze Age axe hoard,
Italy, c. 2000 BC File:Navicella nuragica.jpg|Bronze boat model,
Nuragic civilization, Sardinia, File:Bronzetto sardo 10.JPG|Nuragic Bronze Figurine, Sardinia File:Temple at Roca Vecchia.jpg|Temple at
Roca Vecchia,
Appennine culture Northern Europe ,
Denmark, In northern
Germany,
Denmark,
Sweden and
Norway, Bronze Age cultures manufactured many distinctive and artistic artifacts. This includes
lur horns, horned ceremonial helmets, sun discs, gold jewelry and some unexplained finds like the
bronze "gong" from Balkåkra in Sweden. Some linguists believe that an early
Indo-European language was introduced to the area probably around 2000 BC, which eventually became
Proto-Germanic, the last common ancestor of the
Germanic languages. This would fit with the apparently unbroken evolution of the Nordic Bronze Age into the most probably ethnolinguistically Germanic
Pre-Roman Iron Age. The age is divided into the periods I–VI, according to
Oscar Montelius. Period Montelius V, already belongs to the
Iron Age in other regions. Bronze Age archaeological cultures in Northern Europe include: •
Bell Beaker culture •
Nordic Bronze Age •
Urnfield culture •
Lusatian culture File:SHM11217-22682 03.jpg|Bronze collar,
Nordic Bronze Age, Sweden, File:Hühnenburg bei Watenstedt rekonstruktion.jpg|
Hünenburg bei Watenstedt, Germany, File:Copenhagen - Nationalmuseet - The Bronze Age House.JPG|Model of a Bronze Age house,
Denmark File:Rock carving Kivik Sweden.jpg|Engraved steles from the
Kivik King's Grave, Sweden, c. 1500 BC File:StoneCistGraves.jpg|Stone cist graves,
Estonia Western Europe , France, 900 BC 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,
France,
Britain, and
Ireland and is marked by economic and cultural exchange that led to the high degree of cultural similarity exhibited by coastal communities, 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. Commercial contacts extended from
Sweden and
Denmark to the
Mediterranean. 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 western Iberia. The
Bronze Age in Ireland commenced in the centuries around 2000 BC when copper was alloyed with tin and used to manufacture
Ballybeg type flat axes and associated metalwork. The preceding period is known as the
Copper Age and is characterised by the production of
flat axes,
daggers,
halberds and
awls in copper. The rich copper ores of
Tipperary,
Kerry and west
Cork provided the needed raw material. The period is divided into three phases:
Early Bronze Age 2000–1500 BC;
Middle Bronze Age 1500–1200 BC and
Late Bronze Age 1200–. Ireland is also known for a relatively large number of Early Bronze Age burials. Bronze Age archaeological cultures in Western Europe include: •
Bell Beaker culture •
Rhône culture •
Armorican Tumulus culture •
Hilversum culture •
Atlantic Bronze Age •
Urnfield culture •
Tumulus culture File:Dagger-P4140344-black.jpg|Bronze dagger,
Rhône culture, Switzerland, File:Zwaard van Jutphaas (24466600427).jpg|Ceremonial bronze sword,
Hilversum culture, Netherlands, File:Cône d'Avanton, musée des Antiquités Nationales, 2010-03-26.jpg|
Avanton gold hat,
Tumulus culture,
France, 1400 BC File:Età del bronzo finale, due spade, 1300-800 ac ca..JPG|Bronze swords,
Urnfield culture, Switzerland, 10th century BC File:PreistoHan - colier or 01.jpg|Gold necklace,
Urnfield culture, Belgium, File:Vue-aerienne-fort-harrouard.jpg|
Fort Harrouard hillfort,
France, Middle-Late Bronze Age File:Urnfield warrior, France.png|Illustration of an Urnfield culture warrior,
France British Isles ,
Britain, In
Great Britain, the Bronze Age is considered to have been the period from around 2200 to 700 BC.
Migration brought new people to the islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around
Stonehenge indicate that at least some of the immigrants came from the area of modern
Switzerland. The
Beaker people displayed different behaviors from the earlier
Neolithic people and cultural change was significant, including the introduction of metalworking (copper and gold) from 2500 BC. By 2200 BC the Beaker people had started to produce tin-bronze. Cornwall and Devon in southwest England have the earliest evidence for tin ore exploitation in Europe. Britain was also the first region in Europe to fully adopt tin-bronze technology and switch all metalwork from copper and arsenical bronze to full tin-bronze. This full adoption subsequently occurred across Scandinavia and Central Europe by around 1800 BC and later in southern Iberia, the Aegean (Greece) and Egypt by around 1500/1300 BC. An analysis of Bronze Age–Early Iron Age tin ingots recovered from four Mediterranean shipwrecks off the coasts of Israel and southern France found that they originated from tin ores in south-west Britain. The importance of Britain as a source of tin is also reflected in evidence for connections between elites of the
Wessex culture and elites in
Mycenaean Greece, notably evidenced in the rich
Bush Barrow burial next to
Stonehenge. Copper was also extracted and exported to the continent from sites such as the
Great Orme mine in northern
Wales, as was gold from Cornwall (notably used to make the
Nebra Sky Disc associated with the
Únětice culture in central Europe). , England During the Bronze Age the climate deteriorated; where once the weather was warm and dry it became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, forcing the population away from easily defended sites in the hills and into the fertile
valleys. Large livestock ranches developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. The
Deverel–Rimbury culture began to emerge in the second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (–1100 BC) to exploit these conditions. Social groups appear to have been tribal but with growing complexity and hierarchies becoming apparent. Also, the burial of dead (which until this period had usually been communal) became more individual. For example, whereas in the Neolithic a large
chambered cairn or
long barrow was used to house the dead, the 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual
barrows (also commonly known and marked on modern British
Ordnance Survey maps as Tumuli), or sometimes in
cists covered with
cairns. The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in
England were discovered in
East Cambridgeshire, where the most important finds were from
Isleham (more than 6500 pieces). File:Lunula d'oro e due dischi d'oro, da coggalbeg, co. roscommon, 2200-1800 ac ca.jpg|Gold lunula and discs,
Bell Beaker culture, Ireland, File:Bush Barrow.jpg|Artefacts from
Bush Barrow, c. 1900 BC File:Somerset cadbury castle modified.jpg|
Cadbury Castle in Somerset, a Late Bronze Age
hillfort Iberia fortified town in Spain Preceded by the Chalcolithic sites of
Los Millares, the
Argaric culture flourished in southeastern Iberia in from 2200 BC to 1550 BC, when depopulation of the area ensued along with disappearing of copper–bronze–arsenic metallurgy. The most accepted model for El Argar has been that of an early state society, most particularly in terms of class division, exploitation, and coercion, with agricultural production, maybe also human labour, controlled by the larger hilltop settlements, and the elite using violence in practical and ideological terms to clamp down on the population. Ecological degradation, landscape opening, fires, pastoralism, and maybe tree cutting for mining have been suggested as reasons for the collapse. The culture of the
motillas, developed an early system of groundwater supply plants (the so-called
motillas) in the upper
Guadiana basin (in Iberian Peninsula's southern
meseta) in a context of extreme aridification in the area in the wake of the
4.2-kiloyear climatic event, which roughly coincided with the transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. Increased precipitation and recovery of the water table from about 1800 BC onward should have led to the forsaking of the
motillas (which may have flooded) and the redefinition of the relation of the inhabitants of the territory with the environment, with the development of the Iberian
oppida mode of settlement. File:Diadem2.jpg|Gold diadem,
Argaric culture, Spain, File:Tholos of El Romeral 1.jpg|
Tholos of El Romeral, Spain, c. 1800 BC ==Maps==