During the early and middle bronze age in Central Europe, stretching approximately between 2300 and 1300 BC, new hierarchical system was now more and more common across the continent, evident in the burial findings of the elite, offerings and an exchange network that brought a vast array of commodities across long distances. Goods could travel as far as between Cyprus and northern Baltic Sea.

The Bronze age in Europe is characterized by technological breakthrough in metallurgy, obtaining and processing non-ferrous metals. Unlike copper, however, tin was very difficult to find in Europe, accelerating trade networks that already began sprouting in the copper age and increasing long-range mobility. Between the new weapons, tactics, found artifacts and traces of horse, we can easily assume that cavalry now also took part in military formations.

A class of elites distinguished themselves in communities across Europe, distinguished with rich burials. These resting places would become a prominent mark of the Tumulus (barrows) culture in the middle bronze age central Europe. The early bronze age is also the time of Minoan culture on Crete, the first "civilization" of Europe.

Known tin mines are found In British isles (Cornwall), Central (Erzgebirge, Bohemia), southern Europe (Sardinia, Etruria, western Balkans, Portugal) and elsewhere.

Bronze semi-finished products were used as a currency, as may be the case with the flanged axes, which were often buried in hoards. This was common especially in the Apennine peninsula and the alps during the early bronze age, between 2300 and 1600 BC.

Similarly, hoards with bronze torques were also found in the central Danube basin. Later, in the middle and late bronze age, traces of a complex stratified society can be ascertained from the massive hillforts of that period.

Women in the middle Bronze age were buried with a pair of dress-pins that were typical of the attire of the Tumulus culture in Central Europe. The men meanwhile, wore a a single pin.

In the early Bronze age, there were different cemeteries in different parts of Europe. For example, the Carpathian basin holds flat burial cemeteries where bodies were buried in the fetal position. In Friuli, bodies were buried under tumuli, and in Istria within stone cists. Tumulus, or burial mound, would become a more widespread practice in the middle Bronze age. Tumuli also acted as memorials of ancestors and a territorial marker.

Besides Tumuli, internment or deposition of bodies in caves continued. However The Tumulus culture continued to dominate the area of central Europe.


Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1mnK9tpEvz9UgeVWuUh8fPF…

Learn more history in the heart of Europe:    • History in the heart of Europe  

If you learned something interesting, feel free to like and subscribe... you know how YouTube works. 👍

Edited with Vegas Pro Edit 19

#history #europe #archeology #shorts