Younger Age Late Neolithic AE 1067 Konfliktarkeologi

Christian Horn [email protected]

1 Younger Neolithic

• From ca. 4300/4200 BC • First large scale metallurgy in • Copper Age – Stone-Copper Age – • Innovation cascade

 The Younger Neolithic is an important period for several reasons  This period begins just before the 4th millennium BC with the replacement of the LBK through new cultural groups  During this time, the first metallurgy is introduced widely in Europe using copper ore which is sometimes co-smelted with arsenic to produce arsenic- copper o That is the reason the period is also called Chalcolithic or Stone-Copper Age or simply Copper Age o Although this happens mostly in southern and south-eastern Europe o Copper products with own production also in o Also important is, that now southern Scandinavia leaves the behind and introduces a Neolithic economic model with the so-called Funnelbeaker Culture or TRB  Many important innovations -in what has been called an innovation cascade- are then made during the 3rd millennium BC

2 o For example, the introduction of wagon, ploughs, and horses o And in the near East writing  Some of these are linked to relatively large migrations that bring new populations to Europe from the Eastern steppes  Technological innovations include also the first implements that are exclusively used to hurt and kill people which is linked to the emergence of a warrior ethos

2 Beginnings of metallurgy

• Cutting power similar between metal and stone • Recycability

 Metallurgy is one of the most consequential innovations of the later that had an influence not only on the conduct of conflict but in the broadest sense even on our modern societies, so I will briefly focus on  The first mystery is, why metal replaced stone in the first place?  In a comparison of steel, bronze and stone the experimenters found very little discernible difference in cutting down woods between these different materials  A lot of different reasons have been suggested o The shiny appearance has been named that may have caused people to assume it has otherworldly properties because it looks like celestial bodies like gold o Other insist that it is the novelty, so the very fact that it is an innovation that has drawn people to its use o While both could play a role, personally, I think one of the major advantages of metal is reusability

3 o If a stone object like an broke, there was no way of fixing o It is possible to make smaller objects out of it, but for an axe, new raw material was necessary o If a metal axe break, it can be recycled and with very little addition a new axe can be cast o However, another purpose might be simply decoration with the first metal beads made from Malachite and gold dating to the 6th millennium BC

3 Sudden emergence

• Varna in Bulgaria • Rich graves • Potential weaponry

 Another advantage is that metal allows to cast longer, thinner objects which makes for an easier production of blades o Please keep this in mind, I will come back to it  After the humble beginnings of a few metal beads, metallurgy suddenly explodes at least in terms of what is archaeologically visible already in middle of the 5th millennium BC  This famous site is the necropolis of Varna in Bulgaria with an area of 7500 m2 yielded 294 graves o There are hundreds of large gold objects as as large and heavy copper objects o The latter are axes and other implements that could be weapons like axes, shaft-hole axes, clubs, and points o There are also other prestigious objects like these almost 50 cm long blades

4 o However, it is unlikely that they were used in that form, it seems to be a display of artistry and skill o 160 copper objects, more than 230 flint artefacts, about 90 stone objects and more than 650 clay products, as well as over 12,000 Dentalium shells and about 1,100 imported Spondylus shell ornaments o But the majority comes from a very limited number of graves o While traumata have not been analysed in Varna, it has been noted that due to their , the richest graves can be attributed to warriors because it is unlikely that all these axes were just for wood cutting o Other implements like this copper pick are a further indicator for multifunctional tools with a strong leaning towards a weapon function

4 Emergence of specialized weaponry

• Giurgiuleşti, grave 4 • Around 4000 BC

 The threshold to specialized weaponry seem to be crossed for the first time with a discovery in grave 4 from Giurgiuleşti  This is a wooden staff tightly wrapped in leather  inserted in the two parallel sides of the staff is one row each of nine flint blades  it has an antler point into which an additional five flint blades were inserted  This 60 cm long composite implement is the first object we could call a sword or a sword prototype  This object is yet another indication that we may underestimate what the past was able to produce because under only slightly different conditions and discovery circumstances this tool may have been decayed or destroyed and all that would be left are a couple of flint blades  Axes are a type of copper implement that occurs more often and in this case lay near the right upper arm of the deceased  Another copper artifact is 35 cm long, seems to have a handle and the lower part forms a tip

5  In his analysis of innovative metals Svend Hansen calls it a copper stabbing weapon  So it could be seen as a kind of early

5 Bladed tools – bladed weapons Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca

• emerge late 5th millennium BC Hulu , China Maba cave, China • Multitude of shapes during the 4th millennium BC

 The first half of the 4th millennium saw the breakthrough of a new weapon-tool: the dagger  Developed perhaps already during the late 5th millennium BC, their numbers and variety increases significantly, and they begin to spread throughout Europe  They were produced in copper and arsenical copper which really takes off during the 4th millennium BC  One of the very early daggers from Pecica in Romania, shows in the bending visible from the side that it had been used to stab or pierce something strongly  The daggers get larger over time and already during the first half of the 4th millennium BC we see a group of blades that separates itself from the daggers of a similar type by being larger in all dimensions  The enlargement in all dimensions compared to contemporary daggers is an indicator of the first specialized weapon that we see widely distributed throughout Europe

6  This weapon is called in English “halberd”

6 Oafzeh, Israel

Halberds

• Identification = polythetical classification • Dimensions enlarged • Strong mid-rib • Asymmetrical design and use wear • Straight traces • Hafting skewed to the longitudinal axis of the • Curved blades

 The term halberd can lead to some confusion because of the medieval/renaissance weapon of the same name  The German and Scandinavian name Stabdolch or dolkstav is much more precise  It is essentially a dagger-like blade that is hafted like an axe  The implement has been defined in 1936 by the Irish archaeologist Sean P. O’Riordain as follows: o „it is a pointed blade affixed at or near the end of a shaft and transversely to it.“ o while true that leaves a problem with the archaeological, if we strip this definition of everything that is usually not archaeologically visible o it remains that “it is a pointed blade” o O’Riordain was aware of that and stated that o “The decision whether a weapon is a halberd or a dagger cannot be made to follow fixed rules; each example must be considered in the light

7 of the features here mentioned.“ o and despite the similar appearance of their blades there are significant differences between daggers and halberd  Therefore, a polythetical classification is necessary to identify halberds o In short, a polythetical classification consists of different markers of which some have to be true to identify an object, but not all have to be present at the same time  Some of the more important markers are: the blade is in general enlarged in each dimension when compared to dagger blades; an angled, but straight or sometimes curved hafting line; longer rivets than daggers; an asymmetry in shape and wear-stages; curved blades etc.  The 4th millennium blades I show here stand out by being significantly larger than comparable daggers.  They are asymmetric with differing blade halves and an asymmetric midrib-rivet placement (Fig. 3b-c).  The rivet hole placement itself indicates a non-perpendicular handle placement, though no direct hafting traces are observable.  Lastly, some of the blades, for example from Dolné Semerovce, exhibit asymmetrical wear (Fig. 3c).  This means that 3-4 of the indicators for halberds are present, which makes it possible to interpret this group that has been found in Moravia and the Little Carpathians as halberds

7 Halberds = weapons?

• Functionality often denied even in the face of experiments

 How do we know that these objects were specialized weapons?  In the past halberds have been portrayed as an unused and unusable tool that is restricted to the Early  And the basic argument comes again from O’Riordain: o „While there can be no doubt that in its origin the halberd was a practical weapon it is also evident that in the main it is a non-utilitarian object which served as an emblem of authority. The of the weapon is such that even with the heavy rivets of the Irish examples, it could not be used vigorously on a wooden handle without becoming detached.“  According to Ronan O’Flaherty, who studied the history of research of halberds, the first part of the statement got by and large neglected, while the second one became more or less a doctrine in research and got repeated for seventy years over and over again  O’Flaherty did rebuild a halberd and tested it on heads with convincing results regarding their durability and impact

8  ironically, these experiments led Niels Skag-Nielsen and Roger Mercer to argue against their usability as weapon but instead suggest a function as a tool for a (sacrificial) butcher or hunter

8 Metalwork wear analysis

• Use leaves traces on the metal • Complex relationship of material characteristics • Ductility Dolní Vestonice • Hardness Sunghir, Russia • Toughness • Tensile strength

 As we have seen with the deformed dagger earlier or this example of a halberd, the use of an object can leave traces on this object  The study of these traces is called use-wear or wear analysis, or traceology  A number of material properties allow wear on metal objects to form and make them still possible to observe: ductility, hardness, toughness and tensile strength  Another important factor is strain or stress which is an external factor related to the material properties  Of course, these properties are important for both the impacted and the impacting object, but archaeologists usually lack the latter  The force required to form a notch is firstly defined by the relative hardness and ductility o Both are proportional, meaning that the material’s hardness and ductility defines the depth of penetration relative to the hardness and ductility of the penetrating material o And it is related to the material’s surface properties

9 . That means the smaller the point the force is directed at the higher the strain or kinetic energy . And in turn, the higher the kinetic energy the more likely and deeper is a penetration o Upon penetration material is replaced with the material of the penetrating object  Plastic deformation occurs and leaves a tell-tale sign of combat damage which can be termed “displaced material”  Wherever the strain exceeds the objects tensile strength it breaks and causes fractures

9 Combat wear

• Notch -> v-shape • Dent -> u-shape • Blowmark -> on body, not edge • Flattened tip

 So what kind of use-wear can we observe?  There is impact damage o Notches are v-shaped intrusions that are deeper than they are wide and they form when one edged object meets another on the edges o Dents are u-shaped intrusions that are usually wider than they are deep o Blowmarks are notches and dents that are not placed on the edge of an object but on the body of the blade o Flattened tips mean that they received pressure from the from  depth is determined by the impacted and the impacting material properties as well as by the force of the impact o Other plastic deformation are fractures which happens when the strain becomes too high to be relieved in deformations from which the metal recovers or in permanent curvatures . This happened to the dagger and the halberd shown earlier o Fractures can cause parts of an object to get lost because the broken off

10 parts may not have been put in the ground or were not discovered when the blade was found

10 Problems analyzing wear

• Fractures = information loss • Corrosion = Information loss • Observations represents a minimum of use

 It should briefly be mentioned that the study of use-wear also requires to be mindful of the problems  If fractures occur especially when parts break off and they are not recovered, we may loose some use wear information  Corrosion is a natural process through which breakage can occur  This is called Patination on copper and bronze objects o Corrosion occurs in pre-weakened parts such as micro-fissures caused by impact damage o It also affects thinner parts first so that edges are especially threatened o That means the parts we are most interested in -> combat marks on the edges are most likely to be destroyed by corrosion o Patina also builds up, especially between the metal object and adjacent materials, like in this example from Spain o The edges are completely rounded, and no wear can be analysed o This find comes from a grave and stronger formation of patina can be

11 observed in  That means that the combat wear we can observe represents a minimum and a weapon that has no observable marks may still have been used in combat

11 60% Tip damage according to types 50%

40%

30% Use wear on halberds 20% 10%

0%

• Over 80% show combat wear • Tip damage shows trend depending on form • Blade section affected differently

19 %

81 %

Impact damage non

 A use-wear analysis was conducted on European halberds o Ca. 300 of the 610 known European halberds were analysed o The results were then extrapolated to photographs and drawings of the remaining specimen o This analysis showed that only about a fifth of halberds had no visible use wear o Compared between types we can see that some had been used very frequently and heavily while others may have indeed been more for show o The examples for display of status tend to be very late o Looking at the tip damage it is possible to deduce that the elongated, more pointy types have heavier tip damage . This means that they were probably designed to favour certain combat styles . halberds that were used in combat were used for both slashing and piercing actions, but depending on the shape certain actions may

12 have been more favoured . i.e. piercing with elongated forms, slashing with wider, more triangular blades  In a more recent use wear analysis of 15 south Scandinavian halberds (some of which date to the very end of the local Neolithic) the distribution of damage was observed o The overall distribution was remarkable stable o Damage, especially very heavy damage seemed to accumulate on the upper edge in the third before the hafting and the central third of the lower edge o These could be related to the preferred areas of attacks and defensive manoeuvres respectively

12 Remedello and Rinaldone

• Northern and central Italy • 3700-2400 BC • Only slight differences

 From the quantitative base of the wear analysis, it is possible to look at the context these blades occur in and interpret the societies that used them  Chalcolithic Italy provides an excellent insight  It is dominated by two cultural formations that are both named after sites which provided the defining sets of material culture: the necropolis in Remedello and Rinaldone  The Rinaldone culture is located in central Italy in Tuscany, Lazio, and Umbria. dating to about 3700-2200 BC, but influences reach even the French Alps  The Remedello culture is located in northern Italy in Trentino, Veneto, and parts of Lombardy from around 3500-2400 BC  Despite being defined as independent cultures, they have in fact a lot in common including halberd o Although with some locally specific forms  Most famous are the individual burials of men and women in the Remedello culture with the deceased being placed in a crouched position

13  The Rinaldone culture is a bit more varied with burials in trenches, rock-cut pits, and o The latter are collective burials sometimes of hundreds of individuals  The Rinaldone graves always contain multiple weapons and weapon-tools o Examples are the two halberd graves from Rinaldone: o Grave 3: with 2 flat axes, two daggers, two mace-heads, 22 , and a halberd o Grave 5: with a flat axe, a dagger, a mace-head, five arrowheads, and a halberd o This is more than one individual can arguably use  These graves are “over-equipped” and could be seen as the burials of people that served a certain function, for example leading warbands or provisioning weaponry

13 Ice “Ötzi”

• Perhaps shot and killed after a raid

 There is evidence to illuminate this function and how these deceased gained their status  The halberds - as mentioned earlier – is a specialised weapon that required special training to be used effectively  Furthermore, many Italian halberds have evidence of actual use  There is more evidence for conflict during the Italian Chalcolithic  In the Ötztal a by now famous ice-mummy was discovered in the 1990’s and soon to the surprise of the world dated to ca. 3300-3200 BC o The man was found in a glacier and it was originally thought that he suffered an accident falling down and dying there o After ten years of research on the mummy it was realized that he had a penetration wound at his back and an point was found near to his shoulder. o Narrowly missing the bone o This was interpreted as a hunting accident

14 o With about 15 more years of research since then, now a defensive wound on his hand was discovered, a larger head trauma, multiple healed fractures, and other potential combat indicators o His gear of a worn-down dagger, a copper flat axe, and in preparation as well as a bow look more like the tools of a raider rather than a noble herder o And the interpretation that he died after a raid went wrong is entirely possible  The fact that Ötzi had a flint in his body that did not damage bone means that would he have been buried and decayed normally, only a couple of arrowheads would have been found in his grave  Without any indication on the bone that one was not his, but rather caused his death

14 Dead leaders

• Spilamberto 9 three arrows in body • Villafranca Veronese arrow in temple

 This opens a window of possibilities because in both cultures’ arrowheads are a significant find in almost all graves  In grave 9 of Spilamberto, a stone halberd and three arrow points were discovered o The arrow heads all point upwards and scatter in the deceased lower abdomen o If they would have been in a quiver, we would expect them to point downwards o Thus, there is the chance that in this case too, they were the cause of death rather than a grave good  Despite not having very many grave goods, 2 from Villafranca Veronese is extraordinary because of the unique silver lunula (a necklace essentially) o The grave also contains an arrow point o The original documentation of the discovery is lost, but according to an early news report, the point stuck in the temple of the deceased

15 o This is believable because it wasn’t sensationalized in the report  Furthermore, from the time are trauma known from skulls sometimes associated with so-called trepanations o Such trauma has been found on men and women in less spectacular graves  This may mean that the persons interred with halberds and other weapons achieved their status through actual fighting and perhaps surviving such conflicts at least for a time  Eventually such persons were able to lead and support warbands and got the insignia of their position maybe even of some of their fighters into their graves  Others may have died more unceremoniously like Ötzi o Copper axes have always been interpreted as the insignia of the highest echelons of society o However it is highly unlikely that the one person we find in a non-burial of this setting was such a high-level person o It may, thus show that more people had metal weapons, but only certain people got them in their graves

15 Halberds made in stone

• Flint • Mid 4th millennium BC • Tips often broken

 There is a wider problem we can address because it may show how much we underestimate how many objects, especially weapons, were around  The halberd from Spilamberto was made from flint and it is the only physical find that we can identify  However, we know at least 18 from  That means there could have been halberds in other materials than copper  For this we have to look north to a region that is not traditionally linked to Prehistoric conflict  The first agricultural culture in southern Scandinavia is called the Funnelbeaker Culture or TRB because of their characteristic  Traditionally, this is interpreted as an egalitarian society emphasizing peaceful cooperation because of their collective burial customs  However, there is another dimension to the people that made up these societies  Particular type of flint object, sometimes portrayed as an agricultural instrument  Flint core objects, difficult to produce

16  Few hints at original hafting, but pointing to perpendicular  Burenhult discovered the depiction of these two halberds that were later transformed into the prows of a Bronze Age boat  He dated them to the Funnel Beaker Time  Like contemporary halberds made from copper further south  Damage pattern indicates heavy use with the point  They are very numerous and many of the fragments were made into flint axes  The facts of the damage pattern, that they are finely sharpened all around the edges and that parallel weapons exist elsewhere in Europe indicates that these are not agricultural tools but the first specialized weapons in the north  do not need to be sharpened to that degree because it makes edges more prone to damage from rocks in the soil  That means a specialized weapon was developed around 3500 BC and in use until about 2800 BC o Newer dates suggest that remnant TRB groups may have been present in Scania until 2650/2600 BC  Around 3000 BC bone or antler picks develop that stay in use until the end of the Neolithic which may serve the same function o Similar tools called “war picks” or clubs are known ethnographically, like this example from the North American native tribe of the Tlingit

16 Victims of violence in the TRB

• Skull trauma, broken bones, arrow wounds • Through archery, hammer-axes, perhaps warpick/halberds • Trepanation: trauma related surgery

Gross Upahl ()

Døjringe (II),

 Victims of violence dating to the TRB can be found in an unhealed skull trauma that was recently reported from Salpetermosen together with an arrow point.  More traumata were discovered in a younger TRB collective tomb in Odagsen. o Among the at least 94 individuals fractures were observed on one skull, five ulna, four humerus, one clavicula, two tibia, one femur, one metatarsus, and one a lower arm bone had a well-healed amputation  Two more violent deaths were discovered in Gross-Upahl and Malchin dating to the final TRB phase ca. 3200-3000 BC. o A man (45-55) with three healed fractures buried in a crouched position was perhaps the victim of a brutal attack with a hammer-axe which was survived for 1-2 years. o A female aged 50-60 years was buried in a stone had a sharp, triangular, and deep trauma which most likely derives from a blow from behind and the left side that was survived  Based on the traumata evidence, Lidke and Piek argue that trepanations could be

17 the remnants of the treatment of skull fractures mostly incurred through violence.  In Denmark, re-analysis reinterpreted eight out of twelve trepanations as traumata o One of the lesions is very interesting in regard to the aforementioned thick flint points and their potential use as weapons. o The skulls from Døjringe (II) had a lesion that had indications of sharp and blunt force trauma. o The thick flint points have very sharp edges on rounded tip and increase in diameter very rapidly so that a blow with the tip or the sides of the tip could leave a very similar mixture of sharp and blunt force trauma.

17 Enemies?

• (PWC) arrives ca. 3500 BC • Not an off-shot of the TRB • Halberd-like weapon

Papua New Guinea

 While we do find evidence for violence in Prehistory, very rarely are we able to identify the “other side” in a conflict  Thus, a question notoriously difficult to answer for prehistoric societies is: who fought against whom?  A possible reason is that most conflict probably broke out between neighbours o Neighbouring groups are culturally often very similar, and thus, hard to separate archaeologically  For the TRB we are in the lucky situation that they were neighbouring culturally very different sets of people  After 3500 BC groups of specialized maritime mammal hunters moved into Scandinavia from the East from Finland and the other Baltic areas.  Archaeologically, they are known as Pitted Ware Culture (PWC).  Despite their long existence alongside each other, the TRB and the PWC remain culturally and genetically largely separated groups. o We can say this because members of the PWC were intolerant,

18 while those of the TRB were not  The PWC and the TRB were also socio-economically very different o While the TRB were early farmers, the PWC were specialized seal- hunters, i.e. hunter-gatherers with the only exception of some very minor herding  The Pitted Ware Culture is distributed in southern with a denser findspots on Gotland and extends to northern Denmark o Their starting point is south-east Sweden from where they extend north and south, but also into TRB territory in the west  The culture receives its name from ceramic that occurs in large quantities o The pots have characteristic deep, pitted impressions  Very few pure PWC sites have been discovered, it is usually mixed with Funnel Beaker and later material o Before aDNA data that led to the suggestion that the PWC is a branching group from the TRB o Today, it is seen as a sign of cultural exchange  However, the unrelatedness and the very different ways of life between PWC and TRB may have caused conflict which may have turned violent  The PWC certainly had objects that could have served as weapons, such as be long, thin projectile points from bone and flint, long blades, and axes.  However, especially on Gotland and there in the cemetery of Västerbjers a familiar looking object has been discovered, archaeologically known as antler or bone picks o These picks are surprisingly similar to the contemporary TRB flint halberds o Although not having a blade, these weapons can be argued as following the general constructional idea of halberd-like weapons o In ethnography similar specialized weapons are observed and they are called war picks

18 PWC victims and perpetrators

• High rate of cranial trauma on Gotland • Evidence for bone pick use in combat • Evidence for PWC arrow use in combat Västerbjers, Gotland

Tygelsjö, Gotland

Porsmose, Denmark

 In an analysis of skulls from Gotland that excluded post-cranial trauma, the investigators found that a staggering 11% of all individuals had skull lesions that could be attributed to violent conflict. o Most of these were males o It has to be kept in mind that on the Bronze Age battlefield in Tollense, where we know everyone died in a violent conflict skull trauma affects only 7% of the deceased including healed traumata.  The researchers Ahlström and Molnar (2012) point out, that on Gotland only those that died at home were buried. o Which means that the dark figure of violent deaths is probably higher.  Other studies accounting for southern Scandinavia and Finland during the Neolithic confirmed the findings from Gotland.  Ahlström and Molnar noted in the PWC material a specific form of lesion which they could link to the antler and bone picks discovered in contemporary graves.  A broken piece of one of these weapons was discovered still stuck in a hole in a

19 skull from Tygelsjö. o Though the skull and the weapon date to the post-TRB periods (2465– 2200 cal. BC), the find confirms that the antler picks could have been used as weapons. o Similar Lesions without a broken piece of the weapon also occur in the TRB material.  Finally, a type (C) of elongated PWC arrow point has recently been identified as having been made for combat and muscle markers show that PWC populations trained and used archery early in life and very often o Many of these arrowheads also occur in areas of Denmark that were also settled by the TRB. o The most famous victim of such an arrow is a skull from a bog at Porsmose, south , Denmark that is dated to 3630–3375 cal. BC o The victim was a 35-40-year-old man who had been shot with two bone arrows in the upper jaw and the sternum o The shooter must have stood above the victim, which was interpreted as a sign of an ambush  Ambushes and raids may have been the way TRB material ended up in PWC sites and vice versa

19 Paleodemography: Times of crisis?

• Strong population decline ca. 3500-3400 BC • Climate decline • Reforestation • Population loss through warfare likely

 There is a chance that violence between the TRB settled in southern Scandinavia and the immigrating PWC groups escalated early on  Recently, Feeser et al. (2019) used a multi-proxy approach to detect population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in northern Germany and southern Denmark. o They used palynology (pollen), soil erosion, radiocarbon, settlements, and data modelling to show a significant population decrease in the area under question in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. o Regional factors, such as the individual farm model shifting towards villages, and the move from the eastern parts of the region to the west, may influence this. o Violent conflict is unlikely to affect an entire region equally, and people may have decided to move away to avoid becoming victims. o Such migration can result in local population agglomerations that would archaeologically be visible as an increase in settlement activity in some

20 areas.  This data links to the wider phenomenon of a population ‘bust’ in Europe during the 4th millennium BC which coincides with the first wave of metallurgy in the Carpathians, the circumalpine regions, Italy, and Scandinavia. o And it is, of course linked to the rise of the first clearly identifiable specialized weapon -> the halberd  There are many interlocking causes for migrations and population ‘busts’, none of which can be claimed to be the primary reason o One of the significant causes for such ‘busts’, as Shennan (2013) points out, is violence. o This may also have played an important role in southern Scandinavia and the Cimbrian Peninsula and may indicate either severe internal struggle or war between the TRB and the PWC populations o The population decline is coupled with worsening climate which may have put additional pressure on populations adding to a conflict laden climate o We also see a subsequent reforestation which may mean that indeed fewer people were around keeping the land open for agriculture  These models do not account for cultures but roughly for the totality of the population o So, the steep increase at the end of the 4th millennium BC and the beginning of the 3rd looks like a time of recovery for the TRB and PWC in southern Scandinavia o However, another phenomenon is responsible for this and it caused the final decline and end of the TRB

20 aDNA and migration

• groups migrate • aDNA indicates relatively swift replacement • Still a long time

 During the first half of the 3rd millennium BC something remarkable happens  The TRB already had a very vivid copper metallurgy with axes, large spiral rings, and even daggers o When the TRB disappears, this vanishes almost completely for the next 7- 800 years  Current aDNA evidence seems to suggest that the first populations migrated into Europe as they introduce new, previously unknown haplo-groups into the European genetic heritage  This is linked to the emergence of the Corded Ware Culture and its local Scandinavian derivate culture that are named the and the  The of the Volga-Don region has been pointed out as a potential area where these populations could have come from  Their genetic material could not be found before the occurrence of the CWC  However, the subject remains debated for now

21  The debate centers on how this genetic material is introduced  The original researchers argue that there were massive migrations with a lot of tension and violence o That some violence took place is in evidence through a CWC arrow point stuck in the breastbone of an individual either belonging to the PWC or the TRB dating to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC from a stone cist at Gjerrild in Djursland o Going so far to suggest that there was a major population replacement and even genocide  Critics point out that we are still talking about long chunks of time o 300 years might sound short in archaeological terms, but try to visualize this in terms of an individual lifespan o However, the shift can still be seen as relatively sudden compared, for example, the speed of the so-called  There is also a huge political debate linked to this because authors fear that this will fuel the argument of right-wing extremists that argue that immigration leads to conflict and violence o However, it is also true that we should not hide research results and interpretations because of this and should not submit to censorship for convenience sake

21 Vasagård Øst, Bornholm

Behind ditches and palisades

• Multi-tiered ditch-palisade systems • Latest stage of TRB • Also in the Battle-Axe Culture (CWC) • Evidence of burning • Complex use pattern including conflict and ritual

Sarup, Denmark

 For the Corded Ware invasion theory another development is very interesting  According to a recent analysis, remnants of the TRB were present until ca. 2650/2600 BC in Scania, East Jutland, and the Danish Isles.  The Corded Ware groups arrive from about 2900/2800 BC which means the CW, TRB, and PWC coexisted for about 150-200 years  This means that there was a considerable overlap in which people of different socio-economic groups may have fought each other which may have escalated to major violent conflicts  Fortifications were already being constructed during the 4th millennium BC. o These were enclosures that had multi-tiered causewayed ditches, palisades, and were built in defensive positions on hilltops or promontories, as in Sarup (Christensen 2004, p. 146).  However, a second wave of enclosures emerged in the aforementioned transitional period from the late TRB to the Battle Axe Culture. o A very late use of the enclosures could have taken place, for example, at

22 Vasagård Øst on Bornholm where material extends to two palisades (Nielsen 2004) o It is interesting to note that on the opposite coasts of the Swedish mainland, the early Battle Axe culture built similar enclosures.  There is evidence for ritual practices in the ditches, for example regular fire settings, larger quantities of burnt flint, and depositions of unbroken vessels.  However, evidence for everyday settlement activity also exists in their late Funnel Beaker phase.  And as an indicator for the possible existence of violent conflicts can count that some of the causewayed enclosures were burnt down.  The role and function of the causewayed enclosures has long been debated; evidence for ritual activity has been interpreted as an indicator that they had a ritual function.  However, it remains problematic to exclude all other potential uses through the observation of one aspect, especially when other aspects are ignored or downplayed  Paradoxically, evidence that could enrich the interpretation, i.e. the burning down of enclosures, was used as final evidence against a fortificatory function. o Modern research has moved beyond monocausal explanations. o The defensible location, the level of stacking of palisades and ditches, the occasional evidence for burning the enclosures down, the fact that similar contemporary structures elsewhere in Europe have clear evidence of violent encounters, and that comparative structures throughout many cultures did include defence as one of their characteristics, should be regarded as indicators for a potential defensive use of the TRB and Battle Axe Culture causewayed enclosures. o Just like many other aspects of the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age of , including southern Scandinavia, i.e. weaponry, rock art, and hillforts, a link to warfare and other activities may have provided the backdrop for the ritual use of the TRB fortifications.

22 CWC burials and weapons

• Gender-specific burial practices • Battle axes • Some halberd-like weapons, e.g. in bone

 The changes the CW brings are significant  most important is perhaps the shift from collective to individual burials o Double burials exist as well, but it is rarely more with the exception of mass graves o All deceased are buried crouched but there with the exception of the Swedish Battle Axe Culture which buries its deceased mostly laying on their backs o The CW buries their dead in a sex-specific ways o Males tend to lie on their right side, women on their left both in east-west direction looking south  The CW is counted among the so-called beaker cultures with the later so-called Bell Beakers o A rich ceramic assemblage exists mostly from Central Europe that includes besides the beakers: amphorae, bowls, pots, etc. o Often the vessels have low shoulders, long necks, and decorations that are

23 impressed into the clay using cords  Another form of specialised weapon is associated with the Corded Ware: battle axes o These are finely polished and often faceted shafthole-axes for which more than 20 types have been defined o Predecessors exist already in the TRB  Halberds also persist as this grave from central Germany suggests o A bone shaft-hole pick was put down near the male of this double burial o If we reconstruct a shaft going down from the hole, we see that it ends up in his hand o Which could mean that this deceased was a warrior buried with his weapon in hand  Despite the Europe-wide decline in metal production during the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, there are still some large metal objects o These mimic battle axes but are cast in metal and some have a full metal handle o A sketch of an implement from has survived that suggests that these could also have existed with blades or pick heads instead of axes

23 Murder in Eulau

• CWC burial site • Family relations but not exclusively • 5 of 13 show evidence for violence • Buried by survivors who cared

 Corded Ware groups were also the victims of violent conflicts  In Eulau in Saxony-Anhalt four burials of multiple individuals were discovered  These deceased that were originally buried under barrows that are gone today had a peculiar placement to each other in the graves  The placement suggests an intimate relationship between the individuals that was early on interpreted as displaying family ties  Strontium and aDNA analysis confirmed that the adults in the burials were in many but not all cases genetically related to the children and that perhaps exogamy was practiced, i.e. immigrating female marriage partners  Five of the 13 individuals had clear perimortal trauma including men and women o This includes a flint arrow point in the lumbar vertebrae of a female in burial 90 o And this woman from burial 98 with two elongated head traumata  The violence has been interpreted as a “murder case” also due to the nature of

24 the burials which are done clearly by people who care, which means that surviving peers or even relatives were around  However, the level of violence on display rather indicates a massacre

24 Pas-de-Joulie, Cerro do Castelo de Santa Justa , Portugal Conflict in S-W Europe

• Complex fortifications • Massacres and victims • Lower numbers of killed -> deterrence?

Roaix, France

Zambujal, Spain

 To round todays lecture off, we will have a look at evidence for violent conflict during the 3rd millennium BC elsewhere in Europe  During the chalcolithic of the large stone walled fortifications have been erected, some enclosing hundreds of square meters  The walls are sometimes reinforced on the inside and the outside  Some have simple openings, some have more complex gate constructions o For example the site of Cerro do Castelo de Santa Justa in Portugal has a clavicula gate which is intended to funnel potential attackers through and provide the opportunity to shot them from both sides o The simple openings of the fortress of Zambujal have been taken as evidence to suggest a non-violence related function of the fortification, but these openings serve the same functioning of making predictable where attackers will come from  In addition, these forts have bastions or towers that could probably be manned with archers

25  There is also evidence for normal living activities and metal production so that these fortresses probably had multiple functions including living and defence as well as representation  Blunt force trauma has been identified on several Copper Age skeletons from the area o In total about 5% of the analysed skeletons in a large study had trauma which is likely to be higher because the focus was on the skulls o This and a massacre in the close-by French site of Rubané, other massacre sites (image: cave in Roaix) and killed individuals (image: copper dagger tip in spine; Pas-de-Joulie) in France confirms the existence of violent conflict and war during this time  However, it is also true that the percentage for the Copper Age is relatively low  So that may mean that the fortification served another traditional function of fortifications very well, and that is deterrence

25 Roaix, France

Summary

• Violence normal state, but not permanent • Emerging warrior ideal Coizard and • Fortifications = deterrence? Villevénard, France

Koszyce, Poland

 Evidence for violent conflict during the 4th and 3rd millennium BC exists throughout Europe also including areas not further discussed here o In France flint blades were used to kill people o In the of Poland another massacre has been discovered o On the British Isles, the highest amount of copper halberds in Europe has been discovered representing almost half of all known specimen  The violence was conducted on many levels from killing individuals to massacres on to potential large scale warfare causing depopulation  Sometimes fortifications exist, like in Iberia and Scandinavia; in other places they were not considered necessary or simply not as elaborate like in Italy  Violence seems to have been a “normal” part of these two millennia  It was mostly conducted without specialized weapons, i.e. with , arrows, and axes  This has led some to speculate that we may see war being conducted without

26 warriors o Warriors meaning here not simply fighters, but people especially trained for war o This interpretation was fuelled by the assumption that there is no specialized weapons o However, for Italy we do not only see specialized weaponry, but also elaborated warrior or perhaps warlord burials  These are more difficult to identify in the north due to the TRB burial customs o However, thick flint points were not only given in graves but like later weaponry was sacrificed in hoards and individually o Furthermore, there may be early depictions in rock art, individually like other early weaponry during the Bronze Age  Thus, it is possible to argue that a warrior ethos is not missing from the 4th millennium Europe, but in some regions only difficult to identify o That the warrior so easily became a well-displayed status during the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age may even indicate that it emerged much earlier  This may also make us aware that specialized weaponry is not a necessity in warfare but rather something that develops out of warfare  Similarly, complex fortification may be constructed, but they are a result of specific ways in which warfare was conducted and are not a precondition to its existence o Interestingly, they may in the long run even serve to pacify rather than heighten tensions

26 Thank you for your attention

Have a nice day!

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