The Transformation of Neolithic Societies An Eastern Danish Perspective on the 3rd Millennium BC
Rune Iversen
Jutland Archaeological Society Contents
Preface...... 7
1. Introduction...... 9
2. Background...... 13 A review of Danish research history...... 13 Setting the scene - Europe in the 3rd millennium BC...... 15
3. Chronology...... 19 The chronology of the Middle Neolithic...... 19 Chronological issues...... 19 From Funnel Beakers to Corded Ware - transitory shift or lengthy overlap?...... 21 The Middle Neolithic chronology - revised...... 24 The transition to the Late Neolithic...... 27 The end of the Neolithic...... 29
4.The late Funnel Beaker period and beyond - entering the late Middle Neolithic...... 33 Material transformations - late Middle Neolithic artefacts...... 33 Heavy thick-butted flint axes...... 33 Medium-bladed and thin-bladed flint axes...... 38 Adzes...... 39 Chisels...... 41 Tanged arrowheads...... 42 Stone artefacts...... 44 Battle-axes...... 46 Pottery...... 50 Amber and bone ornaments...... 62 Conclusion: Material continuity...... 63 Structural changes? Settlements, graves and hoards...... 65 Settlement pattern and subsistence economy...... 65 Late Middle Neolithic burial customs...... 73 Hoards and deposition practices...... 82
Change, continuity and contact networks during the late Middle Neolithic...... 88 Change versus continuity...... 88 Late Middle Neolithic contact networks...... 92
5.Reintroduction of metal and the Late Neolithic...... 97 Late Neolithic artefacts: New weapons, flint techniques and raw materials...... 97 Flint daggers...... 97 Other pressure-flaked objects...... 102 Flint axes and chisels...... 105 Shaft-hole axes...... 106 Metal objects of the 3rd millennium BC...... 108 Late Neolithic pottery...... Ill Ornaments and clothing...... 115 Conclusion: New forms and old patterns...... 116 Late Neolithic settlements, graves and hoards...... 117 Settlements, houses and subsistence economic practice...... 117 Burial practices of the Late Neolithic and Earliest Bronze Age - continuity and variation...... 123 Hoards and depositions during the Late Neolithic and Earliest Bronze Age...... 130 Change, continuity and contact networks during the Late Neolithic...... 133 Change and continuity...... 133 Late Neolithic contact networks - Bell Beaker and Unetician influences...... 136 Conclusion: Change, continuity and contact networks during the Late Neolithic...... 137
6. The concept of culture and the 3rd millennium BC...... 139 How to define and understand culture?...... 139 A sense of belonging - ethnicity, identity and culture...... 140 The bigger picture...... 142 Living cultures? The cultural heterogeneity of southern Scandinavia in the 3rd millennium BC...145 Great traditions, cultural complexes and cultural groups in the Neolithic...... 145 The cultural development in eastern Denmark during the 3rd millennium BC...... 147 Cultural diversity...... 147 After the funnel beakers...... 150 Towards a new cultural homogeneity...... 153
7. The transformation of Neolithic societies...... 155
From Neolithic big-men to Bronze Age chieftains...... 155 Modes of social organisation...... 155 Big-men and small chiefs - modes of social organisation in the 3rd millennium BC...... 159 An eastern Danish perspective on the 3rd millennium BC...... 171
Summary...... 175
Dansk resume...... 176
Appendix 1...... 177
Appendix 2...... iso
Notes...... 184
Bibliography...... 185
Catalogue...... 203