Bronze Age Europe

1
Bronze Age Europe
3500 - 700 BC

• chiefdoms

• fortified settlements

• craft specialization

2

• trade in bronze amber

• megaliths

• Otzi 'Ice Man'

• 3350-3300 (radiocarbon)

3
Megaliths
1. menhir (standing stone)
2. grouped menhirs
3. megalithic burial chambers
4. wood / stone henge
5. megalithic temple
4
Stonehenge
I 2800-2200 BC
Heel Stone, Aubrey Pits earthworks
II 2100-2000 BC
Blue Stones
III 2000-1100 BC
Sarsens
5
Eastern North America
2000 BC - AD 1650
Late Archaic 2000 700 BC
Adena-Hopewell 700 BC - AD 800
Mississippian AD 800 - 1650
6
Late Archaic
Poverty Point, Louisiana

• 1300 - 700 BC

• Simple chiefdom?

• earthworks

7
Adena -Hopewell
700 BC - AD 800

• chiefdoms

• craft specialization

• not fully agricultural

• earthworks e.g., Mound City

8
Mississippian
AD 800 - 1650
complex chiefdoms
9

• stratified society burials

• not highly urbanized

• fully agricultural

• monumental architecture

10
Cahokia
AD 1000 - 1250

• capital of chiefdom

• 13 sq km / 16,000 people

• 100 earthen mounds

11
Monks Mound

• earthen pyramid

• 30 metres (100) high

• 360 x 240 metres at base

• covers 6.4 hectares (16 acres)

• 650,000 cubic metres of earth