The impact of Metal on Society
Metallurgy brought changes to each society that encountered it. Archaeologists can see these changes eg in the artefacts made, and the changes in burial practices. More recently, forensic analysis shows movements of people across wide distances in Europe at the same time as the spread of metal use.
We have to guess at the full social effect of these changes as no other evidence survives. It appears to be that societies became more hierarchical as some people obviously became very rich. Relationships between regions must have developed – primary suppliers / miners, technocrat smiths controlling the smelting, and wealthy purchasers
Copper smelting spread relatively slowly into Europe and there was a long overlap when ‘Neolithic’ groups were using some copper implements. In addition, long after metallurgy was commonplace, stone and bone implements remained very important. The ice-mummy ‘Ötzi’ found in South Tyrol in 1991 came from a Neolithic community but had a copper axe, and his hair shows elevated levels of arsenic, possible from copper-smelting fumes.
The early civilisations of Iraq and the Nile Valley created unprecedented demands for copper, and early copper-trade networks grew up around the northern borders of the Fertile Crescent and across the islands of the Mediterranean.
Bronze-making spread more quickly than copper and one of the reasons for this might have been that prospectors had to make wider contacts to obtain the alloy metals, especially tin, to mix with copper. Tin is one of the rarest metals on earth, so the implications are that trade networks in the Bronze Age grew as this rare metal was sought after. Bronze tools and weapons of distinctive shapes appear first in central Europe around 2000 BC and very quickly across other parts of Europe.
At around the same time, another change was spotted by archaeologists, namely that people began making very distinctive bell-shaped pots. This phenomenon has become known as The Beaker Culture. The pots have been analysed and found to have been used variously as beer mugs, bronze crucibles and cremation urns. The phenomenon lasted around 1500 years. Close similarities in pottery can be detected in ‘family groups’ over this time, and it’s been suggested that perhaps the pattern of females marrying into (distant) male clans could account for the transfer of objects and ideas.
It has long been argued whether the Beaker Phenomenon represented actual migrations of people, or existing indigenous people taking to new fashions. Forensic archaeology has thrown a little light on this. In 2002 an excavation at Amesbury near Stonehenge revealed the burial of a mature man. His tooth enamel showed he was raised near the Alps. His grave contained two ‘Beaker’ pots and an array of rich goods, including the earliest securely dated use of metal in Britain – two gold ornaments and three tiny copper knives, dated 2350 BC
Often called the ‘Amesbury Archer’ because the grave goods included wrist guards and flint arrow-heads, this man could have been for example a metal prospector or a pilgrim to Stonehenge. A man’s body excavated nearby proved to be a close relative eg son or nephew, but one who had been raised in Britain. So the implications from this one discovery are that individuals could indeed travel wide distances and cultures in far-flung places were possibly known to each other.
How did the Amesbury Archer make himself understood? It may be the case that his Germanic dialect and the local Cetic dialect had not yet become vastly different from each other, rather like the difference between Essex and Geordie. But this is surmise.
We have to guess at the full social effect of these changes as no other evidence survives. It appears to be that societies became more hierarchical as some people obviously became very rich. Relationships between regions must have developed – primary suppliers / miners, technocrat smiths controlling the smelting, and wealthy purchasers
Copper smelting spread relatively slowly into Europe and there was a long overlap when ‘Neolithic’ groups were using some copper implements. In addition, long after metallurgy was commonplace, stone and bone implements remained very important. The ice-mummy ‘Ötzi’ found in South Tyrol in 1991 came from a Neolithic community but had a copper axe, and his hair shows elevated levels of arsenic, possible from copper-smelting fumes.
The early civilisations of Iraq and the Nile Valley created unprecedented demands for copper, and early copper-trade networks grew up around the northern borders of the Fertile Crescent and across the islands of the Mediterranean.
Bronze-making spread more quickly than copper and one of the reasons for this might have been that prospectors had to make wider contacts to obtain the alloy metals, especially tin, to mix with copper. Tin is one of the rarest metals on earth, so the implications are that trade networks in the Bronze Age grew as this rare metal was sought after. Bronze tools and weapons of distinctive shapes appear first in central Europe around 2000 BC and very quickly across other parts of Europe.
At around the same time, another change was spotted by archaeologists, namely that people began making very distinctive bell-shaped pots. This phenomenon has become known as The Beaker Culture. The pots have been analysed and found to have been used variously as beer mugs, bronze crucibles and cremation urns. The phenomenon lasted around 1500 years. Close similarities in pottery can be detected in ‘family groups’ over this time, and it’s been suggested that perhaps the pattern of females marrying into (distant) male clans could account for the transfer of objects and ideas.
It has long been argued whether the Beaker Phenomenon represented actual migrations of people, or existing indigenous people taking to new fashions. Forensic archaeology has thrown a little light on this. In 2002 an excavation at Amesbury near Stonehenge revealed the burial of a mature man. His tooth enamel showed he was raised near the Alps. His grave contained two ‘Beaker’ pots and an array of rich goods, including the earliest securely dated use of metal in Britain – two gold ornaments and three tiny copper knives, dated 2350 BC
Often called the ‘Amesbury Archer’ because the grave goods included wrist guards and flint arrow-heads, this man could have been for example a metal prospector or a pilgrim to Stonehenge. A man’s body excavated nearby proved to be a close relative eg son or nephew, but one who had been raised in Britain. So the implications from this one discovery are that individuals could indeed travel wide distances and cultures in far-flung places were possibly known to each other.
How did the Amesbury Archer make himself understood? It may be the case that his Germanic dialect and the local Cetic dialect had not yet become vastly different from each other, rather like the difference between Essex and Geordie. But this is surmise.