EAA2021: Session #504

The Bronze Age is a well-researched epoch in most regions of Europe, where strong narratives are built upon rich data sets and mostly top-down theoretical approaches. Those narratives, however, are not going undoubted or undebated and currently a reassessment of the Bronze Age – or Prehistoric – World is ongoing. Influenced by reflexive approaches towards the social interpretation of archaeological data and scientific studies as well as the incorporation of bottom-up approaches this session aims at challenging old narratives about the European Bronze Age.
Widening up perspectives, we would like to bring together a - theoretically, methodologically, geographically and thematically – diverse and interdisciplinary group of researchers to (re)present the broad spectrum of studies and opinions on the Bronze Age.
Within the framework of our integrative and multifaceted approach, we would like to draw special attention to the emerging dynamics that are visible on different spatio-temporal scales, settings and data sets (from site data to big-data, from artefacts to aDNA, between long-durée and adaption of innovation). Hereby, we define dynamics as the effect and interplay of forces over time and space that can be identified from the evidence of archaeological remains – investigating dynamics, as well as their theoretical and methodological exploration, is of our main interest.
Based on case studies from all over Europe dealing with dynamics of and within site occupation sequences, settlement systems, exchange networks, socio-political organisations, economic relations or the ideological framework, we want to explore the often fostered unity/heterogeneity of the European Bronze Age starting from regionally diverse settings. Therefore, we would like to invite especially contributions dealing with demography, mobility, identity, economy, politics and social organisation to discuss with us the identification and scaling of dynamics in the European Bronze Age and their theoretical and methodological investigation and to widen up horizons.

Bronze Age, Reflexive Approaches, Settlement Systems, Socio-political Organisation, Demography, Exchange Networks

 Session #504 (PDF)

Laura Burkhardt^1,2

Mirco Brunner^3,4
Julian Laabs^5,6
Ken Massy⁷

The Yamnaya “invasion” of Europe: the archaeological data against old and new narratives

Mikulovice – the Únětice families in focus

Unlocking the secrets of cremated human remains from Late Bronze Age Austria

Bronze Age settlement dynamics in Central Germany: A case study from the Weiße Elster river catchment

Bronze Age settlement and populations dynamics in the northwestern alpine region

Continuity and/or Innovation at the end of the Late Bronze Age at the Fringes of SE Alps

Scaling Dynamics on the Southeast Balkans in the Late Bronze Age

Tracing connections: the Bronze Age site of Torre Castelluccia in the regional and interregional networks of the Gulf of Taranto

Sardinia and the Late Bronze Age sea-borne Metal Trade between Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe and the Mediterranean

Expectations of consumers – How to promote copper in a globalized Bronze Age Europe

Myth, messages and materialized connections in Nordic Bronze Age iconography: multiscalar investigations

Of Traders and Cutters - Dynamics of Amber Distribution in the European Bronze Age

Scaling Infrastructure and Social Transformation in the Bronze Age

Early Bronze Age Aegean genomes from Perachora cave, Corinth, Greece