Younger Neolithic Copper Age Late Neolithic AE 1067 Konfliktarkeologi Christian Horn [email protected] 1 Younger Neolithic • From ca. 4300/4200 BC • First large scale metallurgy in Europe • Copper Age – Stone-Copper Age – Chalcolithic • 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 Scandinavia o Also important is, that now southern Scandinavia leaves the Mesolithic 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 prehistory 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 axes 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 axe 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 well 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 flint 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 grave goods, 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 dagger 5 Bladed tools – bladed weapons Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca • Daggers emerge late 5th millennium BC Hulu cave, 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 hafting traces • Hafting skewed to the longitudinal axis of the blade • 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 Bronze Age 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.