Bronze Age Religion Research Papers (original) (raw)

Mainly focusing on the big picture regarding the research concerning the religious sphere in
Bronze Age Scandinavia, the research field has been missing out on the smaller picture. The
results have a tendency to produce a picture where the big landscape monuments, social
structures and cosmology appear in the foreground. This essay is a comment to this phenomena
and a methodological and terminological discussion regarding the way in which we as
archaeologist’s works with questions about religion and rites. The main task though is to make
an attempt in trying to identify the ritual performers and to answer the question whether it's
possible or not to do that. This kind of work needs empirical studies with a theoretical
background. The grave material can be the key to find these individuals since it's a context
where the person’s belongings can be connected with the individual. The theoretical stance is
that the Bronze Age research has been unable to identify these performers and that this in fact
can be done. The etuis of belongings discovered for the first time in 1845 with the
archaeological excavation of the Hvidegaard grave outside Copenhagen in Denmark, containing
objects referred to as magical objects, can be one way to make these actors of rites come alive.
The etuis of belongings and other grave material are presented in this work and a discussion
about the graves material is made. The approach to study the bigger picture by studying the
small empirical material is also made in this essay where a model of the ritual sphere is
presented in the results with an attempt to show a none official cult existing side by side and in
interaction with the official one.

In this volume, which is the outcome of the four-year long collaboration project SARA (Scandinavian and Atlantic Rock Art) between the archaeology department at University of Gothenburg and the Laboratory of Heritage of Spanish National Research Council, nine papers summarize new excavation and survey results, advanced studies of iconography and intriguing landscape studies. It addresses topics such as human activities in the vicinity and surroundings of rock-art panels, movement and communication, ritual and symbolism, and finally representations and constructions of landscapes. The book is a sophisticated study of the rock art of two major regions of prehistoric Europe, but one with implications for research over a much wider area. It is wide-ranging, topical and will no doubt also be controversial. Contributors include Per Nilsson, Manuel Santos Estévez, Yolanda Seoane Veiga, Johan Ling, Åsa C. Fredell, Marco García Quintela, Kristian Kristiansen, Lasse Bengtsson and Felipe Criado Boado. 160p, 53 b/w illus (Oxbow Books 2010)

Au delà de ses connotations péjoratives, le serpent est considéré dans la Bible comme le gardien du domaine sacré et de ses extensions : le sanctuaire, les sources d'eau, les richesses souterraines, et la terre d'Israël. De plus, l'identification du bâton de Moise comme caducée révèle l'implication de cet animal dans l'exercice des pouvoirs divins. Plutôt qu'une influence cananéenne sur le yahwisme, l'attachement commun du serpent et de YHWH à la métallurgie traditionnellement pratiquée en sud Canaan dénote leur relation essentielle. Une continuité apparaît ainsi entre une forme primordiale, cana-néenne, du yahwisme et son extension israélite. Dans ce contexte, l'exclusion du serpent de cuivre (nehushtan) hors du temple de Jérusalem (2 Rois 18,4) reflète une réforme du yahwisme primordial, promue par le roi Ézékias, qui conduisit au rejet de l'un de ses symboles les plus essentiels.

Archeological evidence suggests that there was a strong, widespread and long-lasting close association of the Sun with death in Central Europe and its neighbouring regions during the Bronze Age. We interpret it based on etymological, phraseological, motivic, and narrative correspondences of Indo-European traditions that point towards an ancient Indo-European belief about the souls of the blessed dead “going to the Sun”, most likely to an island in the sea which the Sun deity visits during the night. In contrast to ancient Near-Eastern and Egyptian beliefs, this Indo-European Sun deity did not descend into a subterranean realm of the dead and was not associated with rebirth. Based on iconographic and other archaeological evidence, we conclude that there was a belief in a solar deity envisioned in an anthropomorphic feminine form with a Sun (symbol) on the lower part of her abdomen during the Bronze Age in Central and Northern Europe. She was the central character of an important mythic narrative about the diurnal voyage of the Sun, along with its helpers and foes, that has been concurrently reconstructed using material culture or comparative mythology. In Central Europe, this solar cycle has been linked to portrayals of pairs of bird protomes connected to a Sun symbol, interpreted as (Sun-)bird-barges. However, this interpretation was based on a superficial resemblance and does not take into account the cultural and artistic context. Accounting for artistic conventions of the Urnfield culture, we propose that the supposed (Sun-)bird-barges actually often represent pairs of birds directly pulling the Sun, similar to Scandinavian depictions of the Sun pulled directly by a horse (or several horses). Therefore, these depictions portray the day part of the solar cycle and not the nocturnal sailing in the waters of the Netherworld.

- by Dušan Valent and +2
- •
- Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Prehistoric religion and r ritual a, Comparative mythology, Urnfield Culture

The Bronze Age is a new stage in the prehistory, which brings many novelties. The cultural reach of the Bronze Age communities has been increased to a new level. One of the many reasons for that is the contacts they have made with the more developed and advanced regions. Although, this period is relatively poor with the level of research in our country, the Kumanovo region with its outstanding sites, provides really important data, which greatly contribute to the cognition and study of the Bronze Age cultures in this part of our country. This region, closely connected with the Vranje-Bujanovac valley, exchanges the contacts with the northern areas. On the other hand, along the immediate close Axios river, float the influences from the flourishing south. In the following article, a chronological survey of the Bronze Age sites in the Kumanovo region is made, along with the contacts made by their bearers with other cultures, by observing the mobile material and determining its closer and (or) more distant analogies.

Les pesons découverts dans le nord de la France font l’objet d’une analyse de leurs formes et décors. Ce point de départ du travail autour d’un objet modeste incite à étudier l’univers des tisserands, en prenant en compte l’ensemble des outils, produits et attributs qui leur sont associés. Aux aspects typologiques, technologiques et contextuels classiques est préféré ici un point de vue cherchant à redécouvrir et interpréter les idées sous-tendant la conception de ces objets liés au tissage. Les poids en terre cuite du métier à tisser représentent le plus commun des témoignages préservés d’une production textile qui reste difficile à identifier à partir de matériaux périssables mis en œuvre qui ne nous sont que trop rarement parvenus. Ces poids, presque anodins, revêtent cependant un caractère symbolique interprété dans le sens d’une cosmogonie solaire. Cette croyance, déjà largement documentée pour l’âge du Bronze et le premier âge du Fer, pourrait connaître un lien particulier avec l’artisanat du textile. L’objectif est ici de mieux comprendre ce domaine artisanal et créatif, ainsi que sa place dans la société protohistorique, en terme économique et au travers le symbolisme qu’il porte.

- by Yann Lorin
- •
- Textiles, Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Iron Age, Bronze Age Religion

This article attempts to explain the apparent paradox that textual evidence from the Rig Veda in India, written down sometime in the late 2nd millennium BC entails descriptions of select gods and rituals, which have their closest parallels in the archaeological record of Bronze Age Europe, and especially in Scandinavia. It is supported by more fragmentary, later textual evidence from Greek, Roman and Celtic religion. However, it is now possible to provide a historical-archaeological explanation that accounts for these wide ranging connections during the Bronze Age. In doing so I demonstrate that textual and archaeological evidence are complementary when we approach the historical epoch of the Bronze Age

- by Kristian Kristiansen
- •
- Comparative mythology, Institutions, Transmission, Bronze Age Religion

The Nebra find raises in paradigmatic way central questions
about the nature of early Bronze Age religion. In the following
paper I propose that by placing it in a wider interdisciplinary
field of knowledge it is possible to understand the ritual
and religious role of the Nebra find.
It can be demonstrated that it fits very well into a ritual
pattern of depositions, just as its dualism corresponds to a
similar religious dualism in Proto-Indo-European religion,
represented by the heavenly or »Divine Twins«. The two axes
and swords are a worldly representation of these gods who
carried the sun and whose mortal representatives can be
identified by the recurring deposition of twin axes, swords,
helmets and lurs throughout the Bronze Age.
This interpretation further supports the authenticity of
the find. The unique bronze disc with sun, moon, stars and
heavenly ship supports the interpretation of a shared, syncretistic
Bronze Age religion from the Near East to Scandinavia
based upon a sun cult. Just as the Trundholm Sun Disc represents
a specific Nordic interpretation of Near Eastern sun
discs, so the Nebra Sky Disc represents an interpretation of
Near Eastern cosmological iconography and knowledge,
transmitted to a European Bronze Age context. It indicates
that the myth of the journey of the sun was anchored in a
complex astronomic and cosmological system of knowledge
performed by people with a special position in Bronze Age
society, who can be identified in burials and hoard depositions.
Keywords: Bronze Age, ritual depositions, dualism, »Divine

- by Kristian Kristiansen
- •
- Bronze Age Religion, Proto-Indo-European Mythology

The Bronze Age solar cult of the Carpathian Basin represents autochtonous central-European development with Indo-European roots. It was centered on a deity perceived in anthropomorphic, probably feminine form. We stress the complementarity of archeology and Indo-European comparative mythology in the pursuit to better understand its cult. We also argue that its potential approximation – the Proto-Indo-Europan solar deity, in contrast to its Middle-Eastern counterparts, did not enter a subterranean underworld and was not associated with rebirth, but most likely with the desired destination in the afterlife, which may lead to different interpretations of some cult-related archeological finds.

- by Dušan Valent and +1
- •
- Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Comparative mythology, Solar and Astral deities, Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin

Religious iconographies in the early Bronze Age. This article deals with anthropomorphic depictions from the early Bronze Age from the Carpathian basin and central Danube region. Abstract-looking human figures can be found on metal headbands and pendants, engraved on pottery, or modelled as anthropomorphic sculptures. We can find individual depictions of human figures on several, identical types of finds, or with an identical method of depiction or composition. We therefore describe them as religious iconographies, i.e. a fixed method of depicting deities, in the early Bronze Age. We deal in brief with sculptures and incrusted depictions of human figures on pottery. However, we concentrated mainly on triadic, pair and other human figures on metal headbands and on several types of anthropomorphic and gynecomastonomorphic pendants. It is interesting to note that as in the case of sculptures and incrusted urns, these are mainly female iconographies. Individual groups of iconographies contain suggestive parallels between significant deities identified by the method of comparative Indo-European mythology, which might help identify them with more precision. This article thus helps, in our opinion, to contribute to our knowledge of religion in the early Bronze Age.

- by Pavol Jelinek and +1
- •
- Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Early Bronze Age (Archaeology), Bronze Age Religion, Indoeuropean religion

Marginalized Gods? Contribution to Religious Iconography in Early Bronze Age. Until recently no anthropomorphic depictions from the Early Bronze Age were known in the western part of the Carpathian Basin and Central Danube Region. The author is presenting the recognized depictions, structured into typical iconographies. It is interesting that they are depictions of women. According to the results of comparative Indo-European studies the pantheons of the Early Bronze Age religions should be headed by male deities. The author reflects on different results of archaeology and religious studies. The answer apparently lies in the holistic study of human creativity.

- by Ariane Ballmer and +4
- •
- Funerary Archaeology, Religion and ritual in prehistory, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Burial Practices (Archaeology)

Un santuario de la Edad del Bronce en la cova des Culleram (Eivissa)

- by Ricard Marlasca Martín and +1
- •
- Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Bronze Age Archaeology, Early Bronze Age (Archaeology), Bronze Age Religion
- by Pavol Jelinek
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- Bronze Age Archaeology, Bronze Age Religion
- by Maria Rosaria Belgiorno
- •
- Bronze Age Religion

U Indoeurópanov patrila obeta koňa k najvyšším náboženským praktikám, spájaným s kráľovskou mocou. Môže s ňou súvisieť pozoruhodný nález z Nitry? Niektoré archeologické nálezy sa dajú interpretovať pomerne ľahko. Týka sa to napríklad... more

The well-known Nordic Bronze Age razor from Vestrup Mark in northern Jutland, dated to c. 1100-900 BC, is possibly the most well-published Nordic Bronze Age razor, and its motif is commonly regarded as epitomising the religious and ritual sphere of the period. The motif was reexamined in autumn 2018 and autumn 2019, and new details were revealed as a result. Using a digital Dino-Lite USB microscope, model AM4815ZTLx, with x10 x140 magnification and an inbuilt camera, detailed micrographs were taken of the ornamentation. The new analyses revealed that the published illustrations of the razor are not entirely accurate; in one case, the motif has been interpreted incorrectly and then superimposed onto a photograph without alerting the reader’s attention to this manipulation. This is problematic, as later interpretations of the symbolism and meaning behind the motif have depended on this inaccurate illustration. The current article therefore draws attention to the risk of overly relying on old illustrations and highlights the benefits of implementing new analytical methods, even when dealing with well-published objects that have been sitting in museum storerooms for over a hundred years. The low-power micrographic analysis substantiates some of the previous
interpretations of the motif on this razor, while at the same time evoking new ones. It remains evident, however, that the motif is placed firmly within the spiritual sphere of the Nordic Bronze Age and, as such, we may be getting a little closer to this aspect of Bronze Age society and life, now the motif is once again visible.

La representación de supuestos instrumentos musicales identificados como liras en las llamadas estelas del Suroeste (o estelas de guerrero) representa uno de los hitos más interesantes a la par que problemáticos del Bronce Final peninsular. Desde su descubrimiento, con la lira de Luna, se ha sucedido un debate sobre el origen, características y función en el que no se ha logrado alcanzar un consenso significativo. Mi objetivo aquí es presentar una vía interpretativa alternativa a través de los planteamientos teóricos de la iconografía, la identidad y la memoria con una doble finalidad. Por un lado, expresar las dificultades que supone la reconstrucción del contexto de exhibición y consumo de estos instrumentos a partir de una representación iconográfica. Y por otro lado, tratar de ofrecer una interpretación de su posible sentido social para las comunidades del Bronce Final del Suroeste peninsular.

- by Alberto Santos
- •
- Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Bronze Age Religion

This paper focuses on possible
interpretations of unique birch bark artifacts
found in the famous Otomani culture well
dug out in the travertine mound in Gánovce
– imitations of lock-rings, a pendant(?) and
remains of cylindrical vessels. These objects
represent a unique set of finds with no other
analogies in Slovakia. Similar bronze lockrings
were found in female burials from the
Otomani-Füzesaboni cultural complex.
Based on this observation, and on the presence
of ceramic imitations of birch bark vessels
in burials in various areas of Europe, these
birch artifacts are interpreted as associated to
the feminine sphere of the gender-divided
Bronze Age ideology. This connection can
also be observed in later periods, in written
and ethnographic sources, which suggest that
the birch tree was often anthropomorphized
and seen as a woman.

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- by Helène Whittaker
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- Bronze Age Religion

- by Pavol Jelinek
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- Bronze Age Archaeology, Bronze Age Religion, Indoeuropean religion

In several signet rings there is a curious depiction of a man or a woman hugging rocks. In this paper we do not examine its possible religious values but we make some observations on the standardization of the pose, and we make a note on the reconstruction of the less clear scenes. Baetyls have been much evoked in studies on Minoan iconography and so this note aims to make some observations on these depictions.

- by Brendan O'Connor and +1
- •
- Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Bronze Age Religion, Nebra Sky Disc, Bronze Age metal hoards
- by Pavol Jelinek and +1
- •
- Classical Archaeology, Rock Art (Archaeology), Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Early Bronze Age (Archaeology)
- by Magdalena Forsgren
- •
- Bronze Age Religion

Der bronzezeitliche Halskragen von Deersheim, Lkr. Halberstadt, Sachsen-Anhalt