The origin of inequality in central and southern Italy during the Copper Age (original) (raw)
Related papers
DIFFERENT FORMS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN BRONZE AGE ITALY
ABSTRACT – The development of forms of inequality in mainland Italy is analyzed for the periods between the Early Bronze Age and the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (Recent Bronze Age). Basically about a millennium (ca. 2200-1150 BC) during which a trend towards more structured and hierarchical forms of social and political organization can be observed. In this perspective, the earliest forms of inequality – i.e., based on established forms of economic differentiation, and not only on rank – are visible at the threshold of the Recent Bronze Age in some regions. This paper reconsiders the model developed by Renato Peroni since 1970s, on the basis of the main archaeological evidence of recent years. Although the overall validity of that model is acknowledged, the wealth of recent evidence provides the opportunity to update and integrate the former model in several, substantial aspects.
Early copper metallurgy in Central Italy: Issues of production and social consumption
The Later Neolithic (c. 4500 to 3600 BC) and the Copper Age (c. 3600 to 2200 BC) in central Italy witness the first introduction and diffusion of copper-base artefacts. Metal finds are very limited during the Neolithic, though their number increases remarkably in the Copper Age, up to almost 400 items. Interestingly, it is observed that the scarce Neolithic metal artefacts are evenly distributed within settlement and burial sites, whereas the vast majority of the Copper Age finds are located in funerary contexts. It appears that metallurgy played a marginal role within the Neolithic communities, and it progressively became an important element within prehistoric society during the 4 th and the 3 rd millennia BC. There is also little doubt that burial played a key role as a social arena for metal to be fully incorporated into prehistoric society. However, it is not yet clear how far metal objects were used in the Copper Age before being deposited in graves, and whether some artefacts were used at all. Prior to entering the grave copper axes, daggers and awls may have been used within different spheres of action and for different purposes. In order to understand how a major technological innovation such as metallurgy was integrated into Copper Age society, metal objects need to be investigated to assess their potential both as tools and as symbols. The Copper Age in Central Italy, being coincident with the first massive diffusion of copper-base metallurgy in the area, seems to be an appropriate example to investigate in detail the parallel development of metallurgical techniques and their impact on society. Representative copper objects from funerary sites have been carefully selected on the basis of context, chronology, typology, and geographical distribution. The objects are being investigated by a range of analytical techniques (X-ray fluorescence, optical metallography, mass spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction) in order to assess: (1) their physico-chemical properties and how far they could have been used as practical tools; (2) the provenance and diffusion of the metal; (3) the relationship between chemical composition, manufacturing process, and typology. The functionality of these objects, based on experimental parameters, allows a better understanding of their practical and symbolic role within prehistoric society in Central Italy.
Journal of Archaeological Research , 2020
Open access; free download from 10.1007/s10814-019-09141-w The Late Neolithic and Copper Age were a time of change in most of Europe. Technological innovations including animal traction, the wheel, and plow agriculture transformed the prehistoric economy. The discovery of copper metallurgy expanded the spectrum of socially significant materials and realigned exchange networks away from Neolithic “greenstone,” obsidian, and Spondylus shells. New funerary practices also emerged, signifying the growing importance of lineage ancestors, as well as new ideas of personal identity. These phenomena have long attracted researchers’ attention in continental Europe and the British Isles, but comparatively little has been done in the Italian peninsula. Building on recent discoveries and interdisciplinary research on settlement patterns, the subsistence economy, the exchange of socially valuable materials, the emergence of metallurgy, funerary practices, and notions of the body, I critically appraise current models of the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition in light of the Italian regional evidence, focusing on central Italy. In contrast to prior interpretations of this period as the cradle of Bronze Age social inequality and the prestige goods economy, I argue that, at this juncture, prehistoric society reconfigured burial practices into powerful new media for cultural communication and employed new materials and objects as novel identity markers. Stratified political elites may not be among the new identities that emerged at this time in the social landscape of prehistoric Italy.
The author presents the methodology of his PhD research in progress with the same title. The project advocates the appreciation of interrelationships between archaeological contexts, and several layers ofsignification within single contexts. It is argued that the (re)creation of collective identities, such as households and communities, can be recognized archaeologically in the materiality of social reproduction. The significance of the domestic cycle for the expression of wider community interests and for perceptions of landscape will be illustrated in a case study of the Final Bronze Age funerary evidence of Lazio.
"Gaia Pignocchi, The Marche region from Late Copper Age to Early Bronze Age, in the light of extra-regional relationships Abstract In this paper author presents Late Copper Age and Early Bronze Age findings in Marche region. In Late Copper Age the territory seems to be occupied by different groups with similar pottery production (“a squame” and encrusted ware), but also showing innovative influences from different regional groups (Laterza, Bell Beaker, Cetina). In the Early Bronze Age ceramic production, attested in few sites (Balza della Penna, Pieve di Carpegna, Ancarano di Sirolo, Forcella di Castel di Lama), appears more articulated in forms and models as a consequence of a wider circulation of objects across the peninsula (Toscana, Emilia Romagna, Abruzzo, Puglia) and with the Adriatic east coast. During the Early Bronze Age the cultural-funerary sites, extremely scarce, are located in caves in suggestive positions, clearly connected to symbolic and sacred meaning. In addition, a peculiar aspect of the Early Bronze Age in Marche region is represented by hoards. They testify the acquisition of very advanced metallurgical techniques as a consequence of extra regional relationships and local articulations and of the emergence of elites and socially complex groups."
This paper starts from the notion that social reproduction entails the construction of identities on several levels, which can be studied archaeologically through the material conditions provided by the interrelationships between places within cultural landscapes. In the Bronze Age cultural landscape of the Abruzzo region (Central ltaly), the tensions between layers of sodal life were reconciled through movements between permanent sites of ritualized practice and periodically shifting sites of routine practice. The fact that ritualisation in the Early Bronze Age predominantly referred to the routines of everyday life and included collective burial practices suggests a mentalité rooted in the social reproduction of households and local communities. In the Middle Bronze Age, another ritualized field of practice related to martiality and wider social interaction was introduced into ritual praxis. Until the Final Bronze Age, the latter sites of ritualized practice were kept apart in the cultural landscape from the ones related to domestidty, and thus may have referred to a layer of social life beyond the Iocal community. The generally accepted idea of social transformation through increased individuality in the Final Bronze Age and Early Iron Age does not stand up to close scrutiny of the funerary evidence. Although seemingly related to individuals and part of a changing set of material conditions, these funerary contexts were still tied in with the construction of collective identities. In the selection of objects we can recognize the Early Iron Age burial as a locale which incorporated the movements of the Bronze Age cultural landscape into a microcosm. As such, it became a site of conflicting interest in itself and a site of reproduction for a new mentalité.