Social Change During the Early Bronze Age

La présente contribution vise à préciser les aspects géographiques et chronologiques liés à l’apparition, au développement et au déclin d’un type de construction en pierre sèche localement appelée « torre ». Ces édifices monumentaux, qui présentent une forme de tour tronconique, sont élevés selon un cahier des charges architectural précis, et trouvent leur strict équivalent en Sardaigne avec les milliers de nuraghi monotorre du Bronze ancien et moyen. La publication du détail du maigre corpus des torre de Corse, ainsi que la révision des données chronologiques fournies par les fouilles et les prospections opérées ces cinquante dernières années, seront également l’occasion de souligner l’importance prise par ces monuments dans l’évolution de la construction du discours archéologique depuis les années 1960 et les travaux de Roger Grosjean.

Sebbene l'archeologia subacquea mantenga presso il grande pubblíco un'aura di mistero e di diversità, i dibattiti teorici che hanno caratferizzato l'ultimo trentennio sono serviti, in definitiva, anche a sgomberare il campo dalle sovrastrutture dí caîattere psicologico che tendevano a vedere nell'attività di ricerca subacquea un terreno quasi privo di regole ed aperto alle improwisazioni e ali'awentura.

İlk tunc dövründə Şimali Azərbaycanın şimal-qərbində, Kiçik Qafqaz sıra dağlarının şərq ətəyi boyunca quruluşca kamerası və dəfn ənənəsi ideyası özünəməxsus olan kurqanlar — Daşlıtəpə (Qəbələ), Daşlıtəpə (Daşkəsən), Borsunlu (Tərtər), Daşüz (Şəki), Gəncə, Göygöl (Xanlar), Xankəndi, Osmanbozu (Şəmkir), Menteştəpə, Uzunrəmə və Şadılı — qeyd edilmişdir (Şəkil 1).  Kür-Araz mədəniyyətinin erkən mərhələsi dövründə mövсud olmuş bu tip kurqanlar “kurqanaltı sərdabələr” kimi elmi dövriyyə daxil olub. Kurqanları birləşdirən əsas əlamət — kurqan örtüyü altında planda düzbucaqlı və ya dairəvi formalı, kollektiv dəfnli kamera-sərdabənın olmasıdır. Tədqiqatçı T.Axundov [20] tərəfindən bu tip  qəbir abidələrinin müxtəlif aspektlər üzrə təsnifatı aparılmışdır. Amma bununla yanaşı uzun müddət belə hesab edilmişdir ki, kurqanaltı sərdabələr İlk tuncun son mərhələsindən Orta tunc dövrünə keçiddə mövcud olmuşdur. Bu tip kurqanlardan XXI əsrin ikinci onilliyinin əvvəllərində aşkar və tədqiq edilmiş yalnız üçünün (Menteştəpə, Şadılı və Uzunrəmə) radiokarbon tarixləri məlumdur. Bu üç kurqanaltı sərdabədən olan radiokarbon tarixlər artıq bu tip kurqanların tarixlənməsi barədə mövcud fikirləri inkar etdi. Həmçinin, e.ə. IV minilliyin II yarısına, yəni, İlk tunc dövrünün əvvəllərinə aid bu tip kurqanları birləşdirən xüsusiyyətlər eyni zamanda onları Kür-Araz mədəniyyəti üçün xarakterik xüsusiyyətlərdən kəskin fərqləndirir.

Radiocarbon dates for the Early Bronze Age of Northern England are presented, these provide an independent chronology for the Collared Urns of the region together with associated Accessory Vessels and grave goods. The results indicate that Collared Urns were in use in Northern England between 2000/1950 BC and 1600/1550 BC. Comparison of the dates obtained for Northern England show that they are broadly correspondent with those obtained for Ireland, Scotland and Wales in previous studies. This rebuts the idea that Collared Urns radiated from southern England, reaching northern and western Britain after a passage of time, instead the pattern is one of parallel development in all the regions considered here.

KEYWORDS
EARLY BRONZE AGE, COLLARED URNS, DATING, BRITISH PREHISTORY, IRISH PREHISTORY, SCOTTISH PREHISTORY, BURIAL BARROW, CHRONOLOGY, RADIOCARBON DATING, LANCASHIRE, NORTH WEST ENGLAND

Graves and settlements of the 5th millennium BC in North Caucasus attest to a material culture that was related to contemporaneous archaeological complexes in the northern and western Black Sea region. Yet it was replaced, suddenly as it seems, around the middle of the 4th millennium BC by a “high culture” whose origin is still quite unclear. This archaeological culture named after the great Maikop kurgan showed innovations in all areas which have no local archetypes and which cannot be assigned to the tradition of the Balkan-Anatolian Copper Age. The favoured theory of Russian researchers is a migration from the south originating in the Syro-Anatolian area, which is often mentioned in connection with the so- called “Uruk expansion”. However, serious doubts have arisen about a connection between Maikop and the Syro-Anatolian region. The foreign objects in the North Caucasus reveal no connection to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris or to the floodplains of Mesopotamia, but rather seem to have ties to the Iranian plateau and to South Central Asia. Recent excavations in the Southwest Caspian Sea region are enabling a new perspective about the interactions between the “Orient” and Continental Europe. On the one hand, it is becoming gradually apparent that a gigantic area of interaction evolved already in the early 4th millennium BC which extended far beyond Mesopotamia; on the other hand, these findings relativise the traditional importance given to Mesopotamia.

The symposium will be hosted online by DEÜ Archaeology and Archeometry Application and Research Center in Turkey on 17-18 November 2022 via Zoom platform. The symposium languages are English and Turkish. The presentations will be 20 minutes.

The Amorites have occupied a central place among discussions of identity and ethnicity in the late third and early second millennia B.C. This contribution addresses the principal role that climate change played in altering trajectories in the development of Amorite identities in the ancient Near East during this period. To address this question this paper outlines a consensus position on the textual and archaeological evidence for Amorite identities prior to the aridification event ca. 2200 B.C. This is followed by an evaluation of the evidence for the effects of this climatic change on specific regions—from the Egyptian Delta to Northern Mesopotamia—and its implications for social interactions that resulted in varied, yet related trajectories in the development of Amorite identities. Risk mitigation strategies that were employed by the region’s populations are evaluated as a principal means of addressing how different populations sought to cope with the impact of climate change, alongside persistent cultural changes associated with anthropogenic phenomena. The author concludes that climatic change, while not solely responsible, did play a crucial role in shaping Amorite identities in the late third millennium.

This article from the ‘Classics Review’ section of the journal ‘ethnoarchaeology’ provides the back story and update for “Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process” published in 1985 and reprinted many times since then. That book built on the seminal article that I wrote for ‘Current Anthropology’ ten years earlier, and my responses to my critics there that stimulated me to write the book (those articles are on this site). Besides several anecdotes about the book, one section of the article provides a brief ethnography of its publication at the Cambridge University Press.
    One of my greatest frustrations that stimulated writing of  the book was that my former focus on the cognitive anthropology (e. g. Arnold 1971) of ceramic production and my focus on what has come to be known as ‘technological choice’ among potters failed to provide much insight into understanding ceramic production outside of the ceramics in the communities that I studied. Those theoretical and conceptual perspectives, although helpful and useful, did not help me provide insight into another pottery making community except that ‘potters make choices’ about resources, vessel shapes, and design. I already knew that from my field work; it was very obvious to me. I had written several articles that incorporated potters’ choices that I called ‘decision trees’. (These articles will be added to this site in due time), and the frustration of the incomparability of my perspective from one pottery making community to another that led me to rethink my experiences with potters in Mexico, Peru and Guatemala, in order to discover new insights that were truly cross-cultural in scope. The results were generalizations, but not necessarily universals, in ’Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process’. Some of these generalizations challenged assumptions and generalizations that archaeologists used to interpret the past.  Finally, the article makes several updates to the ceramic resource model, and other feedback mechanisms in the book.

This article deals with the similarity of hoard composition in Nebra and Apa (northern Carpathian basin). Apa (Romania) represents a composition model including weapons (axes and swords) and large spirals which is distributed east of the River Tisza. In western Hungary a different composition model dominates. Contemporary hoards consist mainly of pendants, pins, bracelets and spirals whereas weapons and tools are rare. In the so-called Koszider hoards (Dunaújváros-Kosziderpadlás, Hungary) weapons and tools, particularly axes, sickles and bars, are included. A new element is the fragmentation of the objects. It is argued that Apa and Kosziderpadlás represent two models of hoarding which are adopted in other European regions. The Nebra hoard is an early example of the Apa model. The Bühl and Ackenbach hoards in southern Germany are early examples of the western Hungarian Dunaújváros-Kosziderpadlás model. Einleitung Im Mittelpunkt des öffentlichen Interesses und auch der wissenschaftlichen Konferenz, die mit diesem Band dokumentiert wird, steht die bislang singuläre Himmelsscheibe, deren Deutung noch für längere Zeit die Forschung und die Öffentlichkeit beschäftigen wird (Meller 2oo2; Meller 2oo4a). In diesem Beitrag soll die Aufmerksamkeit auf die übrigen Bestandteile des Hortes von Nebra bzw. auf seine Zusammensetzung gelenkt werden, welche im Folgenden auch als Ausstattung bezeichnet wird.

Above: elegant vine krater in bronze and silver from Macedonia. From the Shelby White and Leon Levy private collection in NewYork, handed over to Grease on 1 August 2008. This krater is one of the best examples of Macedonian craftsmanship type. It has a thin oblique disc-shaped cover and an ornate stand (hypokraterion). The body of the central vase is gilded with tendrils and vine leaves made of fine silver sheets. The relief heads on the handle attachments are probably to be associated with the god Dionis and his milieu. A similar krater in the Solun Archaeological Museum was found at Sevaste, in Pieria, a region in south-west Macedonia. These two kraters, together with another discovered at Aigai, the first capital of the Macedonians, and two volute kraters found at Derveni, the one from Koreshnica and two others from Trebenishte in Republic of Macedonia, are all attributed to the superb Macedonic metallurgy workshop. These monumental kraters were vessels for mixing wine with water and were used by the nobility as urns to hold ashes. About 340 BCE. Accession number: 26769. "National" Archaeological Museum of Athens, Grease.

A Large Únetice Culture building and an associated deposit from Dermsdorf, Sömmerda district – a preliminary report

The eastern Thuringian Basin has a high density of Early Bronze Age settlement remains. An unusual Únětice Culturesettlement was discovered in 2o11 at Dermsdorf, a mere 3.6 km from the large barrow at Leubingen. The site yielded a solitary, large, three-aisled building measuring 44 m in length and 11 m in width. The closest Early Bronze Age features were found some 15o m away. Apart from its size of 488 m2, which is highly unusual in an Únětice Culture context, an associated
deposit of copper and bronze items placed in a vessel is also worth mentioning. A total of 98 axes and axe blanks as well as two halberd blanks had been deposited in a small pit directly in front of the north-eastern gable end of the building. The deposition in an easily identified location, which was probably emphasised by the presumed entrance nearby, and the composition of the implements, which were deposited in their function as weapons, suggest that this was a votive offering.
Apart from the absence of hafts, the blanks at least were not ready for use, which suggests that this was probably an intentional case of pars pro toto selection representing the bearers of the weapons, a jointly operating military unit.
The Dermsdorf feature is given further importance by its location near the Leubingen barrow with its diameter of more than 48 m and other potential large barrows within a micro-landscape, which was very densely settled in the Early Bronze Age. This micro-region was characterised by some very high-quality soils, a mild climate, proximity to salt and copper deposits and an extremely favourable location on various trans-European north-east to south-west and north to south communication routes.
The features from Dermsdorf and Leubingen, together with other unusual discoveries from the area, as well as its generally quite dense settlement pattern, warrant the identification of a political and administrative, and probably also ritual, centre of power for an hierarchically structured society which included at least local groups if not even coalitions of local groups. The society was led by certain singular individuals like the person who was buried in the Leubingen barrow. The territory that was controlled from here probably encompassed at least the eastern Thuringian Basin.

This article is of the earliest metal daggers, which in some cases are hardly distinguishable from knives, is compiled in the area between southern Bulgaria (Rohdope mountains), the western Ukraine and Upper Austria (Mondsee). They can be dated to the so called transitional phase between the Eneolithic and the Early Bronze Age according to current Bulgarian terminology. The oldest examples can be placed in the earlier part of the 4th millennium B. C. and are associated with the Bodrogkeresztur Culture. An analysis of the formal aspects of these daggers allows them to be divided into 12 types (with variants), which only partially show genetic connections. The distributions of the individual dagger types do not necessarily correspond to the areas occupied by archaeological cultures defined by pottery. Groupings based on spectral analysis result two main geographic concentrations. Daggers made with arsenic alloys are found in the western Pontic area where as west Carpathian and central Danubian examples show no arsenic inclusions. Interestingly, some Bodrogkeresztur type daggers in Transylvania are made with arsenic alloys, others are not (Arıuşd, Mereşti and Mastacän). Therefore we assume that the daggers first spread from west to east and later dispersed in the opposite direction. The earliest dagger horizon dealt with here, is seen as being a fundamental part of the deep seated changes which lead to the formation of the Early Bronze Age after Aegean terminology.

The present study hopes to contribute to Middle Bronze Age studies in two specific areas: first, by publishing a new series of radiocarbon dates for a period from which there are few absolute dates, and second, by describing a less known area in the Vatya culture distribution based on the investigations at Kakucs.The Kakucs area was increasingly intensively settled during the course of the Bronze Age. In this context, the area along the left Danube bank down to the Kakucs area, lying in close proximity to the eponymous site at Újhartyán–Vatya, is very instructive. Following a scanty occupation marked by a few smaller sites at the onset of the Early Bronze Age, the number of sites and associated cemeteries grew dynamically from the late Nagyrév/early Vatya period onward. Despite the uncertainties in the relative chronology of the known Middle Bronze Age sites, the increase in the number of sites is in itself a reflection of a population growth and an in-creasing landscape exploitation. The left bank of the Danube became one of the period’s most intensively settled regions during the Middle Bronze Age 1–3.

"The funeral deposits and the death domain in general have often been highly considered by scientific research for the significant informations they furnish, frequently more interesting than domestic contexts. Since the origins of the sepulture, the defunct is accompanied in the hereafter by the cultural indicators of his group. In this way, symbolically, the community comes with him in a space imagined in the collective believes. These rituals with great religious value have engendered a form of respect of the tombs, giving in consequence an important number of non-perturbed remains collections and allowing the establishment of general chronologies.
In the articulation between third and second millennium BC, some ceramic forms inherited from the sardinian bell beaker group bring the originality of the funeral deposits of south Corsica and Sardinia. Put together in the appellations of “Bonnanaro culture” in Sardinia and “taffoni-hypogées” in Corsica, these homogeneous productions permit to interrogate about their diffusion, their chronology and their real cultural content. The results of the recent re-examination of these collections will be of service to the general reflection."

Currently, long-distance trading, gateway communities, and the longboat are understood to have emerged in the Aegean during Early Bronze (EB) IB/IIA. This longboattrading model envisages an essentially static configuration of trading communities situated at nodal points in maritime networks of interaction, an arrangement that was brought to an end, by the beginning of EB III,

The present paper is focusing attention on the Early Bronze Age rings of type Leukas and aims to study their origin, spatial and chronological distribution. The period under discussion is the Early Bronze Age – time of intensive circulation of goods, ideas and fashion all over the Aegean and the Eastern Medditerranean. Special attention is given to the distribution, the context and the function of the ornaments, type Leukas. Indeed, new find spots from the Balkans and the Carpathian Basin are added to the distribution map of Leukas-type rings. The relevant archaeological materials give us a new opportunity to examine the fashion and the directions of influences in Early Bronze Age jewellery production. The research demonstrates the idea for a Balkan origin for the Leukas-type rings and reflects some new accents of the relations between the Aegean, the Balkans and the Carpathian Basin.

The chronology of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia has not yet been fully established. The most important underlying reason for this is that wheelmade pottery, a key innovation which marked the beginning of the EBA III in western Anatolia, has not been discovered with common characteristics and with the same density on a specific horizon in the entire region. This complicated a reliable synchronisation of the local chronologies considerably. As a result of this, the western Anatolian and the Aegean chronologies could not be satisfactorily correlated.
So far, no noteworthy study has been made on the early use and distribution of the wheelmade pottery in western and central Anatolia. Within the framework of the thesis, the technology of this pottery and the distribution and local characteristics of its ware groups and forms are investigated and their significance is revealed, in a more concrete way, in the western Anatolian EBA chronology. In conclusion, the thesis examines the early distribution of the characteristic elements of the EBA III wheelmade pottery in the Anatolian peninsula, the reasons underlying it and its consequences.
The studies on the wheelmade pottery recovered at Küllüoba near Eskişehir indicated to us the gradual intensification of trade relations in the EB III between far-reaching areas. The thesis clearly demonstrates that the relations between Mesopotamia and the North Aegean (Troy) were established, not along the south Anatolian and Aegean coastline but, on the contrary, over the land route, via inland western Anatolia. Thus, it has been clarified that certain cultural innovations were introduced to the Troad from inland northwestern Anatolia, due to the intensified trade relations. Consequently, the thesis emphasizes the need of dealing with the interrelations and interactions between western Anatolia and the Aegean in the EBA from a new perspective.

The later phase of EB I and the transition to the EB II represent a key period in the social, economic and cultural transformation of the Southern Levant, which witnessed the passage from a village-based organization to an urban-centered society. This paper considers the topic of the EB IB-II transition by focusing on the site of Tell el-Far'ah North, which was uninterruptedly inhabited throughout the two periods. The EB IB-II shift is examined in view of the changes in the settlement size, planning and layout, and design and construction of domestic buildings, as well as through a technological analysis of pottery industry from the two settlement phases. Despite noticeable transformations, a continuity in occupation, socioeconomic milieu, and technological know-how has been outlined through the two phases; and the changes that mark the rise of the EB II urbanized center at Tell el-Far'ah North appear to be placed in the riverbed of a developmental trajectory that began in EB IB.

ÖZET İçerisinde sıvı, merhem, koku gibi özel üretimler taşımaya yarayan 'Şişe' biçimli kap formu, Tunç Çağları için Anadolu'ya yabancı bir kap tipidir. Bu formun Kuzey Suriye ve Orta Fırat Havzası arasında üretildiği düşünüldüğünden arkeoloji literatüründe yaygın adı 'Suriye Şişesi' olarak kabul görmektedir. Genellikle gri renkli metalik tarzda üretilmiş bu şişeler yapım tekniğinin oldukça özenli olmasıyla dikkat çekmiştir. Erken Tunç Çağı ile Orta Tunç Çağı arasında 1000 yıla yakın bir süre boyunca üretildiği bilinen bu formların Anadolu üzerinden geçen bir rota ile Mezopotamya'dan Balkanlara uzanan bölgeler arası sistemli ticaretin önemli arkeolojik kanıtlardan birisi olduğu kabul edilmektedir. İstanbul Selimpaşa Höyük'de ele geçen bir Suriye Şişesi'nin İstanbul'un Avrupa yakasının da bu uluslararası ticaret sistemi rotası üzerinde ve içerisinde yer aldığını göstermiştir.

The Northwest Iberian Peninsula is not a uniform region. Geographers have divided it into two main biogeographic sub-regions: Atlantic and Mediterranean, each with its own characteristics, in terms of geomorphology and climate. The perception that these two sub-regions have distinct identities since, at least, the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE, i.e. since the Chalcolithic period, has led us to analyse separately developments in the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE, which is viewed as a key period for understanding the emergence of the Bronze Age. During the Early Bronze Age new settlement strategies emerged in the Atlantic sub-region, associated with the appearance of innovative pottery shapes and decorations, resettlement of high-altitude areas for burial in small cairns, circulation of new prestigious metallic icons, the emergence of new styles of rock art, such as engravings of dozens of halberds, the emergence of the phenomenon of structured depositions of metallic objects, such as the deposits of halberds, or halberds and daggers, and, consequently, new social relationships, new power structures and new places for negotiating social relations, which revealed significant structural changes compared to Chalcolithic communities. In the Mediterranean sub-region, despite new locations for certain settlements, changes seem to have occurred across a broader timeframe, including the abandonment of several community and ceremonial spaces-such as walled enclosures or shelters with collective depositions-, the emergence of metallic deposits, consisting of halberds, and the timid adoption of new iconographies in rock art. These are characterised by phenomena of continuity or social resistance, and reveal that, in this region, social changes and new scenarios of power or social aggregation occurred in a manner that differed from the Atlantic sub-region. On the basis of the analysed data it seems possible to hypothesise that, during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BCE, together with the phenomena of social resistance and permeability to new developments, the Northwest Iberian Peninsula was subjected to multiple and distinct influences that spawned the development of a mosaic of societies, apparently united and standardised by generalised phenomena. The factors that contributed to this change were multiple and distinct in each of the two sub-regions. This includes important external factors, such as the climate conditions in the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE and events that occurred during the second half of this millennium, that had distinct repercussions on the two sub-regions; greater or lesser permeability to Atlantic contacts; 'dismantling' of supra-regional exchange networks with southern regions, as a result of social upheavals in the Southern Mediterranean. In terms of internal factors, it is worth highlighting the capacity for resilience and adaptation to changes. Phenomena such as the migration of populations of Pontic-Caspian origin during the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE, revealed by DNA studies of human remains from the South, Southeast, and Southwest Iberian Peninsula, are not proven for this region, and therefore will not be taken into account.
Keywords: Northwest Iberian Peninsula, sub-regions, transition from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BCE, continuity or change?

Abstract
Prehistoric iconography (Neolithic period-Early Bronze Age) comprises representations of animate beings with anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and more rarely mixed features. Concerning the anthropomorphic ones, the high frequency of female figures has been exaggeratedly emphasized, although not necessarily in a flattering way, mainly in the past, while the very small percentage of clearly male figures is equally problematic. At the same time, besides these examples which reflect the biological dimorphism, in impressively numerous cases the morphology of the figurines does not permit their classification in a definite sex, while, exceptionally, features of both sexes are specified on ambiguous anthropomorphic representations.
The criteria for the choice regarding either the indication, suggestion or emphasis, or the concealment of the biological sex, as well as regarding preferences when sex is revealed, remain unknown, in spite of various hypotheses that have been expressed. The fact that there is evidence about a "third" or even a “fourth” sex/gender, which does not partake in the biological distinctions, could be interpreted in several alternative ways: -either the visibility of anatomic morphology was in certain cases inconsequential, self-evident, beside the point, or irrelevant; -or the difference emerged from other characteristics; -or a different category of social beings was implied; -or it was preferred to show a flexible multiplicity of meanings or an indefinite existence instead of an explicit -accomplished or constrained- gender-defined identity.
In an effort to proceed beyond simple visual impressions and a "literal" reading of genders, in parallel to exploring visible at first level and apparently invisible elements, it is attempted to consider as broadly as possible the general and the more specific frameworks in which the prehistoric representations had functioned, as well as their possible approaches.

SUMMARY. - PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE EXCAVATIONS IN THE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT AT MURSIA (ISLAND OF PANTELLERIA).  -  The  excavations  in  the Bronze Age settlement at Mursia included the terrace along the coast and inland (the  so-called  acropolis). Based  upon  architectural  features  the dwellings were subdivided and identified as three main archaeological phases. In the first phase, semi-subterranean huts have an elongated oval shape, with a rounded or flat side constructed opposite  to  a pointed  side.  In  the more  recent phase new  features with quadrangular or circular shapes appear, often aggregated in several rooms. The excavations offer a general outline of settlement dynamics and architectural constructions. The radiocarbon chronology fits the site into the first half of the second millennium B.C.

This article presents a detailed analysis of a pottery assemblage of the Early Helladic period discovered in the course of the wider archaeological project of the Rhamnous excavations conducted under the direction of Βasileios Ch. Petrakos. The ceramic material comprises potsherds from Early Helladic (EH) I to EH II Late, and also includes a clay hearth rim with a sealed impression (fig. 11, β-ε, no. 35). All the artifacts, including a Melian obsidian blade (fig. 12, no. 41) are unstratified and were collected during a surface recovery in the Pazaraki peninsula in June 1996. Pazaraki (fig. 3), which is located at the entrance of the South Euboean Gulf, only 2 km south of the strategic coastal acropolis of Rhamnous (fig. 2), is situated on an important sea route connecting the Cyclades to the Euboean Gulf. It has a panoramic view to the Euboean sites of Almyropotamos and Nea Styra. The detailed macroscopic analyses and classifications of ceramic wares and vessel shapes from Pazaraki have allowed: (a) the identification of five Ware Groups (A, B, Γ, Δ, Ε) and 12 Ware Types (A1α, Α1β, Α1γ, Α1δ, Α1ε, Α2α, Α2β, Β1, Γ1α, Δ1α, Ε1α, Ε2) (fig. 4), (b) the construction of a local chronological sequence comparable to the developments in central and southern Greece (Chapter III), (c) the possible identification of “Ware Group A”, the most common ware encountered, as a local or at least regional product, (d) the identification of close relations to the EH I and EH II pottery of Central Euboea (especially to the sites Kalogerovrysi, Manika 2-3 and Amarynthos) and finally (e) the tracing of artifacts not available locally, such as the potsherds of the Cycladic “Talc Ware” (fig. 12, no. 36-37), which document interaction with groups of people from the Cyclades (chapter IV). The sealed hearth rim from Pazaraki (no. 35), which is related to communal dining practices as known from Lerna III C-D and period II of Ayia Irini on Kea, indicates that such a feast or a ceremony might have been conducted in Pazaraki during EH II developed and EH II late, too and possibly provided an opportunity for the mentioned interactions (chapter V). Chapter VI provides a summary of the assemblage character and significance and tries to place it in its wider local and regional context. It is suggested that Pazaraki was the
harbour of Early Helladic Rhamnous and played a significant role as a stop-over for the ships on their way towards the South Euboean Gulf and vice versa.

This paper deals with the evolution of specialised assault weapons in the southern Levant from a point of
view of technical innovation. Even though many of the technical prerequisites for casting copper swords and
Epsilon axes were already available in the Late Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age I, it is not before 3000 BC
that we can date the majority of the finds. However, there is both evidence from artefacts, as well as from the
logic of technical innovation that the beginning of their production can be traced back to the second half
of the 4th millennium BC. The author makes the argument that it is not by chance that this is a horizon in
which established concentrations of power in yet unknown dimensions as well as technical innovations as the
sailing boat, the wagon or the trade with metal ingots can be found. The weapons are interpreted as being
objects of defining the status of a group of people profiting from this new socio-economic relations, either
protecting it or being parasitic elements in it.

Warfare has been recognized as an important factor in past societies, but the way it contributes to change is still not very well understood. When it comes to ancient war, archaeology faces a problem: we are rarely able to address the intentions behind wars. This article seeks to take a look at the micro-scale of warfare and
address what, and how, it contributed to change. To achieve this it was necessary to take a close-up look at combat, weapons and fighters as elementary parts of warfare. The use-wear analysis of 208 Early Nordic Bronze Age spears and swords, and 15 Late Neolithic halberds will be used as a case study to address
several problems: 1. the (non-) functionality of early weaponry; 2. the conduct of combat; 3. the relation between weapons, fighters and combat. A hypothesis will be formulated in order to understand combat in terms of communication as a mediator between different agents of warfare.

Keywords: use-wear analysis, weapons, combat, techniques of the body, change, warfare

Levant into two distinct periods. However, while each possesses its own distinctive characteristics, excavations at Ashqelon, located in the region of southwestern Canaan, have revealed a cultural overlap between the two which is seen in the ceramic répertoire and potting techniques, the fl int and ground-stone industry, the metallurgical industry and the burial practices. Over the last decades of archaeological research, this continuity has slowly been recognized, calling into question the supposed cultural break between the Chalcolithic and the EB I in this region. Recent radiocarbon dates from numerous excavations in the Ashqelon region have indicated an intensive settlement at this site from the beginning of the 4 th millennium BCE to the beginning of the 3 rd . While this occupation is associated by the whole of its material culture fi nds and radiocarbon dating to the EB I period, its material culture also includes holdovers from the Chalcolithic period (Ghassulian phase), though no clear and unequivocal Chalcolithic settlement per se has yet been identifi ed in this region. These dates now challenge the accepted chronological framework for the end of the Chalcolithic and the beginning of the EB I in southwestern Canaan and suggest a new chronological and cultural interpretation of the data from this region. With the dissipation of the Chalcolithic culture in the northern Negev at the end of the 5 th millennium, populations did not simply disappear yet probably moved elsewhere. It is thus not surprising that during the fi rst half of the 4 th millennium BCE, Ashqelon, found in a region adjacent and to the north of the northern Negev, exhibits cultural attributes of the Chalcolithic period alongside those of the EB I as the local population retained many earlier Chalcolithic traditions in the transition to the EB I.

Without a doubt, Nižná Myšl’a is one of the more significant sites of the European Bronze Age. The excavations, which have been carried out in the location since 1970s, revealed hundreds of graves associated with one of the defensive settlements of OFC. This paper presents a discussion relying on the recent 14C-based dating of very well known burials of metallurgists from Nižná Myšl’a. The determination of their absolute age provided a starting point in devising an interpretative model for the assesment of the significance of bronze metallurgy in the defensive settlements and for the hypothesis presupposing the existence of specific craft specialisation within the community of the OFC.

The idol fragment found at the Makó-Kosihy-Čaka site excavated on the outskirts of Budapest (Kőérberek) can be classified as a cylindrical idol of the Makó-Kosihy-Čaka and Somogyvár-Vinkovci cultures. The depiction of the face and headdress of the idol from Kőérberek is more elaborate compared to other idols. The headdress is similar to the headdresses observed in three graves of the Early Bronze Age cemetery in Franzhausen. Based on these, in the second half of the third millennium BC, a close connection can be established between the communities living in different areas of the Carpathian Basin.

The picture of the Bronze Age envisioned in
the spirit of the centre-periphery model puts
the Carpathian Basin in the sphere of influences
originating from Aegean-Anatolian
civilizations. A critique of selected sources appears
to contradict such views. The Carpathian
Basin represents an area, which is clearly diversified
in terms of environments, landscape
and most of all culture. Therefore, it cannot be
considered a space undergoing relatively fast
and profound social change, which was not
associated with the local tradition. On the contrary,
the regional differences between defensive
settlements offer evidence of a range of
autonomous economic and cultural processes,
which prompted their creation and functioning.

The edited volume consists of the proceedings of an International Conference entitled ‘Explaining Change in Aegean Prehistory’, which was held in Groningen, the Netherlands on 16-17 October 2013. The aim of the conference was to explain processes of social and economic change from the Early Bronze Age III to the Late Bronze Age I period (ca. 2200 - 1600 BC) in the southern Aegean. The beginning of this period (the end of the EBA) witnesses a severe crisis which is followed by social regression (during the early phases of the MBA) and slow recovery and a precipitation of social change in the transition to the LBA. The focus is on the southern mainland, although we adopt a comparative approach and examine parallel (or divergent) processes in the surrounding islands and Crete.
The volume starts with an introduction by the editors, where we introduce the problem, the explanation of social change in Aegean prehistory, and outline the development of the debate in the last 40 years. We also provide an outline of the book and present the main themes addressed in the various papers. The introduction is followed by 10 papers presented at the conference. The first two (Gauss & Lindblom, Rutter) address the problems of periodization and the correlation of ceramic sequence (on which the traditional chronological sub-divisions are based) with the social developments taking place in this period, i.e. the successive cycles of crisis, recovery and growth. The next paper (Weiberg) offers a new and provocative interpretation of the causes and consequences of the severe crisis at the end of the EBA.  Three papers (Pullen, Wiersma, Voutsaki & Milka) examine different aspects of the evidence (pottery, architecture, funerary data) and different social practices (feasting, organization of space,  mortuary practices) in order to reconstruct and interpret social, economic and cultural changes during the period under discussion. The variety of  factors considered – demographic changes, reciprocal relations and sumptuary behaviour, household organization and kin structure, age and gender divisions, internal tensions, connectivity and mobility – attest to the liveliness of the debate.  The emphasis is not only on the wider processes, but also on the variety of responses by different communities and social groups and even different individuals. One paper (Gorogianni & Fitzsimons) adopt a comparative approach. They examines architectural changes in one highly interconnected harbor town in the Cyclades. The last paper (Bintliff) adopts a broader geographical view and examines changing settlement systems in the Aegean and on the Greek mainland. The volume is concluded by a response by J.F. Cherry

Importance to Field
This volume is of interest to scholars specializing in the Aegean Bronze Age, as well as scholars researching social and material change.
The Middle Bronze Age (MBA) societies in the Greek mainland have long been considered as simple, static and homogeneous, and it has long been thought that social and economic differences emerge towards the later MBA. However, recent research, presented at the Mesohelladika conference, suggests that the MBA witnesses important changes and divergent developments which are still imperfectly understood. However, our interpretation of these changes is based mostly on mortuary data. Therefore, in this volume, other spheres of life receive a systematic treatment, including houses and settlement organization, changes in material culture and shifting patterns of interaction in correlation with social change.
Any discussion of the MBA has to start with a serious reconsideration of social conditions during the unstable EB III period. This period of crisis, depopulation, material poverty and increased regionalism is usually set against the preceding EBA II period, which was characterized by population growth, differentiation, prosperity and increased interaction. As a result, the EBA III period has received little scholarly attention. In this volume, various papers discuss the EBA III material culture and communities in more detail, and compare these developments to what happens during the MBA.
While research in the last 30 years has rightly criticized monocausal diffusionist interpretations, we have not been able to come up with alternative explanations combining environmental factors, internal developments and shifting networks of mobility and interaction. Considerations of social change raise questions of periodization; indeed, one of the aims of the volume is to discuss whether the traditional chronological sub-divisions based on the ceramic sequence can adequately describe periods of change and increased regionalism.