The Rise of Bronze Age Society: Travels, Transmissions and Transformations

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 3
Contents......Page 5
Illustrations......Page 6
Preface......Page 13
Prologue: between Scylla and Charybdis......Page 15
1.1 Limitations in present theoretical frameworks......Page 18
1.2 From social typology to social complexity: the role of institutionalisation......Page 22
1.3 Towards an intercontextual archaeology: material culture and social institutions......Page 24
1.4 The meaning of imitation in material culture studies......Page 30
1.5 Text and material culture: the Bronze Age as protohistory......Page 34
1.6 Tracing, explaining and interpreting interaction......Page 38
Tracing interaction: diffusion, acculturation and contextualisation......Page 39
Explaining interaction: transmission, transformation and institutionalisation......Page 41
Interpreting interaction: meaning, message and materialisation......Page 43
1.7 Conclusion: theorising interaction and diffusion......Page 44
2.1 Mobility and immobility in prestate societies......Page 46
2.2 Archaeological contexts and categories......Page 47
2.3 Crossing cultural boundaries: the authority of distance......Page 52
Cosmological origins in space and time......Page 53
Some archaeological implications and applications......Page 55
Cosmological centres and peripheries......Page 57
Some archaeological implications and applications......Page 60
2.5 Crafts and creation: the sacred power of esoteric knowledge......Page 63
Skilled artisans and the smith......Page 64
Acquisition and esoteric knowledge......Page 65
Some archaeological implications and applications......Page 69
2.6 Conclusion: the Bronze Age as epoch......Page 72
Mesopotamia......Page 74
Egypt......Page 81
3.2 Hittite rulership......Page 87
3.3 The theocratic leaders of Crete and Mycenae......Page 94
Minoan Crete......Page 95
Mainland Greece: the Mycenaeans......Page 99
The Near Eastern caravan trade......Page 102
The east Mediterranean maritime trade......Page 108
3.5 Conclusion: historical long-term trends......Page 117
4.1 The Early Bronze Age of the third millennium......Page 120
4.2 The new Bronze Age chronologies......Page 128
The first phase, 2300-1900 BC......Page 130
The second phase, 1900-1600 BC......Page 132
The third phase, 1600/1500-1300 BC......Page 139
Why the west?......Page 142
4.4 The transmission of metallurgical know-how......Page 144
Organisational properties......Page 150
4.5 Conclusion: some historical long-term trends......Page 152
The lily and the ivy flower: tracing the meaning of a symbol......Page 154
Goddesses, high-ranking women and female costumes......Page 162
Rituals of drinking: cups for cheering......Page 166
Life of the ruler: art, architecture and domestic rituals......Page 170
Script and the loss of meaning: the limits of \'civilisation\'......Page 179
5.2 Horse breeders and charioteers: from the Carpathians to Sintashta, Mycenae and Hattusha......Page 182
The Bronze Age environments of the steppe region......Page 183
\'The Country of Towns\' : the formation of complex societies in the Trans-Urals and the steppe......Page 186
Mycenae and its northern connections......Page 191
The interpretative challenge......Page 196
The foreign connections of the Kivik and their dating......Page 199
The local Nordic context and the dating of motifs......Page 204
The interregional context: Kivik as a centre of learning......Page 208
The international context: the transmission of royal iconography and the formation of chiefly elites......Page 209
Traders, smiths and travelling chiefs: time travels in cosmological space......Page 214
Historical summary......Page 220
5.4 The Mycenaean connection: the expansion of warrior aristocracies (fifteenth-fourteenth centuries BC)......Page 222
The archaeological evidence of warrior aristocracies: diffusion, acculturation and context......Page 223
The social and cultural context of warrior aristocracies: transmission, transformation and institutionalisation......Page 235
Appearance, body culture and ethos: materialisation, message and meaning......Page 237
Mobile warriors or mobile weapons......Page 241
Indo-European kinship systems and the exchange of \'foreign\' warriors (foster sons and brothers)......Page 246
The death of the warrior......Page 250
Life of the warrior......Page 256
5.6 Conclusion: the constitution of origins and the consolidation of hierarchy and cultural identity......Page 259
6.1 The archaeological study of religion: some constituting elements......Page 261
6.2 Oral and religious practice: beyond the written word......Page 264
6.3 The twin gods......Page 268
6.4 The Divine Twins materialised......Page 274
Kivik: a door to Bronze Age religion......Page 277
Tracing the meaning of a symbol: the cap of the ruler andthe tiara of the god......Page 281
Tracing the contexts of the twin dualism......Page 283
Origins of the twin rulers......Page 290
General introduction......Page 292
The Hittite pantheon......Page 293
The sun cults in Hittite religion......Page 298
The sun and the horse......Page 304
The sun-goddess and her twin brothers......Page 307
Sun-discs and women: the sun-priestess personified......Page 308
The chiefly priest with the campstool......Page 313
The bronze figurines......Page 318
6.8 Conclusion: institutional and cosmological longue duree......Page 326
Animals, humans and gods......Page 330
The snake and other animals in Egyptian and Nordic mythology......Page 331
Royalty and horse sacrifice/copulation (hierogamy)......Page 334
Hippomorphic gods: the birth of the Divine Twins......Page 339
7.2 Horns and horned gods......Page 340
7.3 South Scandinavian rock art and ritual: the propagation of an elite ideology......Page 344
7.4 Enculturing the body: the dialectic of social and religious behaviour......Page 359
7.5 Conclusion: religion and ritual performance......Page 362
8. Cosmos and culture in the Bronze Age......Page 367
8.1 Centred and decentred cosmologies......Page 368
8.2 The formation and consolidation of cultural identity and ethnicity......Page 370
8.3 Periphery and centre dynamics in the Bronze Age......Page 374
8.4 The end of the Bronze Age......Page 375
8.5 Contemplating the unfamiliar......Page 377
Epilogue: towards a new Culture History......Page 379
References......Page 383
Index......Page 435