A few examples of named Bronze Age cultures in Europe roughly in relative order—dates are approximate. ImageSize = width:800 height:145 PlotArea = width:720 height:105 left:65 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) # Period = from:-3300 till:-300 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:500 start:-3300 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:100 start:-3300 PlotData = align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:15 shift:(0,-5) bar:Europe color:era width:25 from: -3200 till: -600 shift:(0,15) text:
Bronze Age Europe from: -3200 till: -2850 text:
Aegean Bronze from: -2850 till: -2500 text:
Corded Ware from: -2500 till: -2150 text:
Beaker from: -2150 till: -1600 text:
Unetice from: -1600 till: -1250 text:
Tumulus from: -1250 till: -750 text:
Urnfield from: -1250 till: -600 shift:(40,0) text:
Lusatian bar:Britain color:era from: -2700 till: -700 shift:(0,15) text:
Bronze Age Britain from: -2700 till: -2500 shift:(0,2) text:Mount~Pleasant link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pleasant_Phase from: -2500 till: -1900 text:
Beaker from: -1900 till: -1500 text:
Bedd Branwen from: -1500 till: -1300 shift:(0,3) text:Acton~Park link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acton_Park_Phase from: -1300 till: -1200 shift:(0,0) text:Knighton~Heath link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knighton_Heath_Period from: -1200 till: -850 text:
Urnfield from: -850 till: -700 shift:(0,2) text:Ewart~Park link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewart_Park_Phase bar:Scand. color:era from: -1700 till: -500 shift:(0,15) text:
Nordic Bronze Age from: -1700 till: -1500 text:Phase I from: -1500 till: -1300 text:Phase II from: -1300 till: -1100 text:Phase III from: -1100 till: -900 text:Phase IV from: -900 till: -700 text:Phase V from: -700 till: -500 text:Phase VI The chosen cultures overlapped in time and the indicated periods do not fully correspond to their estimated extents.
Southeast Europe dated 1600–1100 BC, Bulgaria , Radivojevic et al. (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 before 4000 BC, showing that early tin bronze was more common than previously thought and developed independently in Europe 1500 years before the first tin bronze alloys in the Near East. The production of complex tin bronzes lasted for about 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 BC, coinciding with the "collapse of large cultural complexes in north-eastern Bulgaria and Thrace". Tin bronzes using
cassiterite tin were reintroduced to the area some 1500 years later. The
Dabene Treasure was unearthed from 2004 to 2007 near
Karlovo in central Bulgaria. The treasure consists of 20,000 gold jewellery items from 18 to 23 carats. The most important of them was a dagger made of gold and
platinum with an unusual edge. The treasure was dated to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. Scientists suggest that the
Karlovo Valley used to be a major crafts centre that exported golden jewellery across Europe. It is considered one of the largest prehistoric golden treasures in the world.
Aegean produced during the
Mycenaean civilisation, from
Mycenae, Greece, 1550 BC The Aegean Bronze Age began , when civilisations first established a far-ranging trade network. This network imported tin and charcoal to
Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with tin to produce bronze. Bronze objects were then exported far and wide.
Isotopic analysis of tin in some Mediterranean bronze artefacts suggests that they may have originated from
Bronze Age Britain. Knowledge of navigation was well-developed by this time and reached a peak of skill not exceeded (except perhaps by
Polynesian sailors) until 1730 when the invention of the
chronometer enabled the precise determination of longitude. The
Minoan civilisation based in
Knossos on the island of
Crete appears to have coordinated and defended its Bronze Age trade. Ancient empires valued
luxury goods in contrast to
staple foods, leading to famine.
Aegean collapse Bronze Age collapse theories have described aspects of the end of the Bronze Age in this region. At the end of the Bronze Age in the Aegean region, the
Mycenaean administration of the regional trade empire followed the decline of Minoan primacy. Several Minoan
client states lost much of their population to famine and pestilence. This would indicate that the trade network may have failed, preventing the trade that would previously have relieved such famines and prevented illness caused by malnutrition. It is also known that in this era, the
breadbasket of the Minoan empire—the area north of the
Black Sea—also suddenly lost much of its population and thus probably some capacity to cultivate crops. Drought and famine in Anatolia may have also led to the Aegean collapse by disrupting trade networks, therefore preventing the Aegean from accessing bronze and luxury goods. The Aegean collapse has been attributed to the exhaustion of the
Cypriot forests causing the end of the bronze trade. These forests are known to have existed in later times, and experiments have shown that charcoal production on the scale necessary for the bronze production of the late Bronze Age would have exhausted them in less than 50 years. The Aegean collapse has also been attributed to the fact that as iron tools became more common, the main justification for the tin trade ended, and that trade network ceased to function as it did formerly. The colonies of the Minoan empire then suffered drought, famine, war, or some combination of the three, and had no access to the distant resources of an empire by which they could easily recover. The
Thera eruption occurred , north of Crete. Speculation includes that a
tsunami from Thera (more commonly known today as
Santorini) destroyed Cretan cities. A tsunami may have destroyed the Cretan navy in its home harbour, which then lost crucial naval battles; so that in the
LMIB/LMII event () the cities of Crete burned and the
Mycenaean civilisation conquered
Knossos. If the eruption occurred in the late 17th century BC as most chronologists believe, then its immediate effects belong to the Middle to Late Bronze Age transition, and not to the end of the Late Bronze Age, but it could have triggered the instability that led to the collapse first of Knossos and then of Bronze Age society overall. One such theory highlights the role of Cretan expertise in administering the empire, post-Thera. If this expertise was concentrated in Crete, then the Mycenaeans may have made political and commercial mistakes in administering the Cretan empire. Archaeological findings, including some on the island of Thera, suggest that the centre of the Minoan civilisation at the time of the eruption was actually on Thera rather than on Crete. According to this theory, the catastrophic loss of the political, administrative and economic centre due to the eruption, as well as the damage wrought by the tsunami to the coastal towns and villages of Crete, precipitated the decline of the Minoans. A weakened political entity with a reduced economic and military capability and fabled riches would have then been more vulnerable to conquest. Indeed, the Santorini eruption is usually dated to , while the Mycenaean Greeks first enter the historical record a few decades later, . The later Mycenaean assaults on Crete () and Troy () would have been a continuation of the steady encroachment of the Greeks upon the weakened Minoan world.
Central Europe from the
Aunjetitz culture, present-day Germany (1800–1600 BC) In Central Europe, the Early Bronze Age
Unetice 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 with grave gifts crafted from gold, point to an increase of social stratification already present in the
Unetice culture. Cemeteries of this period are small and rare. The Unetice culture was followed by the Middle Bronze Age (1600–1200 BC)
tumulus culture, characterised by inhumation burials in
tumuli barrows. In the eastern Hungarian
Körös tributaries, the early Bronze Age first saw the introduction of the
Mako culture, followed by the
Otomani and
Gyulavarsand cultures. The late Bronze Age
Urnfield culture (1300–700 BC) was characterised by cremation burials. It included the
Lusatian culture in eastern Germany and Poland (1300–500 BC) that continues into the Iron Age. The Central European Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age
Hallstatt culture (700–450 BC). Important sites include
Biskupin in Poland,
Nebra in Germany,
Vráble in Slovakia, and Zug-Sumpf in Switzerland. German prehistorian
Paul Reinecke described Bronze A1 (Bz A1) period (2300–2000 BC: triangular daggers, flat axes, stone wrist-guards, flint arrowheads) and Bronze A2 (Bz A2) period (1950–1700 BC: daggers with metal hilt, flanged axes, halberds, pins with perforated spherical heads, solid bracelets) and phases Hallstatt A and B (Ha A and B).
Southern Europe in
Torralba,
Sardinia,
Italy The
Apennine culture was a technology complex in central and southern Italy spanning both the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age proper. The
Camuni were an ancient people of uncertain origin who lived in
Val Camonica, in present-day
Lombardy, during the Iron Age, although groups of hunters, shepherds, and farmers are known to have lived in the area since the Neolithic. Located in
Sardinia and
Corsica, the
Nuragic civilisation lasted from the early Bronze Age (18th century BC) to the 2nd century AD, when the islands were already
Romanised. They take their name from the characteristic Nuragic towers, which evolved from the pre-existing megalithic culture, which built
dolmens and
menhirs. The towers are unanimously considered the best-preserved and largest megalithic remains in Europe. Their purpose is still debated: some scholars consider them monumental tombs, others as
Houses of the Giants, other as fortresses, ovens for metal fusion, prisons, or finally temples for a solar cult. Near the end of the 3rd millennium BC, Sardinia exported to Sicily a culture that built small dolmens, trilithic or polygonal shaped, that served as tombs, as in the Sicilian dolmen of "Cava dei Servi". From this region, they reached
Malta and other countries of Mediterranean basin. The
Terramare was an early
Indo-European civilisation in the area of what is now
Pianura Padana in northern Italy, before the arrival of the
Celts, and in other parts of Europe. They lived in square villages of wooden
stilt houses. These villages were built on land, but generally near a stream, with roads forming a
grid plan. The whole complex was of the nature of a fortified settlement. The Terramare culture was widespread in the
Pianura Padana, especially along the
Panaro river, between
Modena and
Bologna, and in the rest of Europe. The civilisation developed in the Middle and Late Bronze Age during the 17th–13th centuries BC. 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.
Western Europe Great Britain , 1300–1000 BC In Great Britain, the Bronze Age is considered to have been the period from to 750 BC. Migration brought new people to the islands from the continent. Tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around
Stonehenge indicates that at least some of the migrants came from the area of present-day Switzerland. Another example site is
Must Farm near
Whittlesey, host to the most complete Bronze Age wheel ever to be found. The
Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from earlier Neolithic people, and cultural change was significant. Integration is thought to have been peaceful, as many of the early
henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers. The rich
Wessex culture developed in southern Britain at this time. Additionally, the climate was deteriorating; 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 farms developed in the lowlands and 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 () to exploit these conditions.
Devon and
Cornwall were major sources of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the
Great Orme mine in northern
Wales. Social groups appear to have been tribal but with growing complexity and hierarchies becoming apparent. The burials, which until this period had usually been communal, became more individual. For example, whereas in the Neolithic a large
chambered cairn or
long barrow housed the dead, Early Bronze Age people buried their dead in individual barrows (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 in England were discovered in
East Cambridgeshire, with the most important finds being the 6,500-piece
Isleham Hoard. Alloying of copper with tin to make bronze was practised soon after the discovery of copper. The techniques needed to deliberately alloy copper with zinc to form brass first arrived in Great Britain late in the first millennium BC. One copper mine at Great Orme in North Wales, reached a depth of 70 metres. At
Alderley Edge in Cheshire, carbon dating has established mining at around 2280 to 1890 BC with a 95% probability. The earliest identified metalworking site (Sigwells, Somerset) came much later, dated by globular urn-style pottery to . The identifiable
sherds from over 500 mould fragments included a perfect fit of the hilt of a sword in the Wilburton style held in
Somerset County Museum.
Atlantic Bronze Age , Netherlands, The Atlantic Bronze Age as cultural geographic region is a cultural complex () that includes different cultures in the context of the Atlantic Iberian Peninsula (Portugal, Andalucía, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, País Vasco, Navarra and Castilla and León), the Atlantic France, Britain and Ireland, while the
Atlantic Bronze Age as cultural complex of the final phase of the Bronze Age period is dated between and 700 BC. It is marked by economic and cultural exchange. Commercial contacts extend to Denmark and the Mediterranean. The Atlantic Bronze Age was defined by many distinct regional centres of metal production, unified by a regular maritime exchange of products.
Ireland The Bronze Age in Ireland began 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 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 known for a relatively large number of Early Bronze Age burials. The country's
stone circles and
stone rows were built during this period. One of the characteristic types of artefacts of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland is the flat axe. There are five main types of flat axes: Lough Ravel crannog (), Ballybeg (), Killaha (), Ballyvalley (), Derryniggin (), and a number of metal ingots in the shape of axes.
Northern Europe , Denmark, The Bronze Age in Northern Europe spans the 2nd millennium BC, (
Unetice culture,
Urnfield culture,
Tumulus culture,
Terramare culture and
Lusatian culture) lasting until . The
Northern Bronze Age was both a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, , with sites as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of written sources. It was followed by the
Pre-Roman Iron Age. Even though Northern European Bronze Age cultures came relatively late, and came into existence via trade, sites present rich and well-preserved objects made of wool, wood and imported Central European bronze and gold. Many rock carvings depict ships, and the large stone burial monuments known as stone ships suggest that shipping played an important role. Thousands of rock carvings depict ships, most probably representing sewn plank-built canoes for warfare, fishing, and trade. These may have a history as far back as the neolithic period and continue into the Pre-Roman Iron Age, as shown by the
Hjortspring boat. There are many mounds and rock carving sites from the period. Numerous artefacts of bronze and gold are found. No written language existed in the Nordic countries during the Bronze Age. The rock carvings have been dated through comparison with depicted artefacts.
Eastern Europe steppe pastoralist ancestry into two subcontinents—Europe and South Asia, and location of the
Afanasievo culture, which has the same genetic characteristics as the Yamnayas. associated with early
Indo-Europeans. It was followed on the steppe by the
Catacomb culture () and the
Poltavka culture (). The closely related
Corded Ware culture in the
forest-steppe region to the north () spread eastwards with the
Fatyanovo culture (), which subsequently developed into the
Abashevo culture () and the
Sintashta culture (). The earliest known
chariots have been found in Sintashta burials and there is earlier evidence for chariot use in the Abashevo culture. The Sintashta culture expanded further eastwards into central Asia becoming the
Andronovo culture, while the
Srubnaya culture () continued the use of chariots in eastern Europe.
Caucasus Arsenical bronze artefacts of the
Maykop culture in the
North Caucasus have been dated to around the 4th millennium BC. This innovation resulted in the circulation of arsenical bronze technology through southern and eastern Europe. == Africa ==