Synopses & Reviews
The societies of the European Bronze Age produced elaborate artifacts and were drawn into a wide trade network extending over the whole of Europe, yet they were economically and politically undiversified. Kristian Kristiansen attempts to explain this paradox using a world-systems analysis, and provides a rich body of evidence to support his case. The result is a coherent overview of this period of European prehistory that addresses some of the larger questions raised in the study of the period.
Review
"Students will welcome this book about the Iron Age of Europe and the way it uniquely incorporates chapters on the Late Bronze Age urnfield cultures, which in many ways foreshadow developments in the Iron Age." Choice
Synopsis
An overview of the societies of the European Bronze Age which offers solutions to the apparent paradoxes of a prehistoric world in which state formation did not develop and where there was a lack of economic and political diversity, yet different areas produced finely detailed and decorative artefacts and participated in Europe-wide trade networks. Although Kristiansen's writing style is occasionally stilted, this is a minor criticism of a book which, as a whole, is one of the most coherent and comprehensive of its type in recent times.
Synopsis
European Bronze Age societies produced elaborate artifacts and were drawn into a European-wide trade network, yet they were economically and politically undiversified. Kristian Kristiansen offers an interesting explanation of this paradox. The result is a coherent overview that addresses some of the larger questions raised about the period.
Table of Contents
1. Background to the inquiry; 2. Background to the archaeology; 3. Theoretical context; 4. Regional systems: the social and cultural landscape in Europe in the Late Bronze Age, 1100-750 BC; 5. Regional divergence: the Mediterranean and Europe in the 9th-8th centuries BC; 6. The new economic axis: Central Europe and the Mediterranean 750-450 BC; 7. Transformation and expansion: the Celtic movement, 450-150 BC; 8. The emergence of the European world system in the Bronze Age and Early Iron