V. Gordon Childe - Article on Bronze Age

8/11/2019 V. Gordon Childe - Article on Bronze Age

1/15

The ast and resent Society

The Bronze AgeAuthor(s): V. Gordon ChildeSource: Past & Present, No. 12 (Nov., 1957), pp. 2-15Published by: Oxford University Presson behalf of The Past and Present Society

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2/15


3/15

THE BRONZE

AGE

3

Mesopotamia.

But

Bronze

Age

means much

morethan

a

techno-

logical

stage.

In thefirst lace of course t did givemenmoreefficient eans

of

production

nd

implements

f destruction.Yet metal

axes or

adzes are

very

ittle

more

efficient

han stone ones

for

tree-felling,

and for

such

rough

work metal

replaced

stone

only very slowly.

Metal

daggers

were

probably

eally

ess

liable to

snap

in close

fight

than flint r

bone

weapons

and

did

replace

these

quite

quickly.

But

saws

-

for

sawing

wood

-

can

only

be made of

metal,

and

without aws

it is hard

to see how

wheels

could be made.

(The

earliest

wheelswere

solid disksof

wood

or

tripartite

isksmade

by

mortising ogether hree shaped planks). Before the European

expansion

wheels,

whether

art-wheelsr

potters'

heels,

were

known

nowhere

n the New

World,

and

in the Old

World

only

n such

regions

s

had once

reached he

Bronze

Stage.

The

pre-European

distributionf

ploughs

lso

coincideswith

he

prehistoric

istribution

of

the Bronze

Stage

so

it

may

be

thatmetal

ools wereessential or

making

his

composite mplement

ven

though

no metal need

be

incorporated

n its

structure.

Thus the whole of

modern

ndustry

based on

rotary

motion s

certainly

ooted n

the

Bronze

Age,

and

agriculture,ncontrastoplot-cultivationith iggingticks rhoes,

may

have started

here oo.

Secondly

t

least two

theoreticalciences

can

be tracedback to

practical

ciences

applied

in

the

Bronze

Age.

The

startling

ran-

substantiationffectedn

smelting

the

reduction

y heating

with

charcoal

carbon)

of

the blue or

green

rystaline

res of

copper

to

the

tough

red

metal is the

prototype

f

all the

chemical

hanges

deliberately

ffected

y

men

nd ndeed f

the

ransmutationf

metals

in

nuclear

hysics. Similarly

n

locating

res

prehistoric

rospectors

musthave reliedupon systematicbservationnd comparison f

surface

eatures uch

as,

more

widely ystematized,

uide

predictive

geologists

o-day.

Thirdly

he

economic

onsequence

f

the

regular

se of

copper,

still

more of

bronze,

n

industry

was the

initiation f

organised

international

rade.

Copper

s farfrom

common

lement;

ts ores

are

mostly

ound n

rough

mountainous r

desert

ountry,

ever n

the

fertile

lluvial

valleys,

6ss-clad

lopes

or

chalk

downs

preferred

by

neolithic

armers. The

Egyptians ot

their

opper

from

inai

or theEasternDesert; some at least of the Sumerians' opperwas

fetched

rom

Oman;

the

best known

prehistoric

mines

n

Central

Europe

re

found

n

the

Eastern

Alps

t

elevations

f

4,000

o

6,ooo

ft.

above the

sea

at theremote

eads of

narrow

ensely

wooded

ravines.

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4/15

4

PAST AND PRESENT

In

Great

Britain f

course

ll

deposits

f

copper

nd

tin

re

couiined

to the

Highland

Zone,

notoriously

region

of difficult

ettlement"

in Fox's words. In briefno neolithic illage s likely o havebeen

situated n

a

copper

ode.

If

the

farmers emanded

metal

tools,

they

had to

mport

he

raw

material rom utside

he

village

erritory.

Now

admittedly

tone

Age savages

nd barbariansn the

Old

World

and their modern

representatives

n

the

Americas,

Australia

nd

Oceania

by

ome ort

f

ntertribal

arter id ecure

oreign

ubstances

-

shells,

colouring

matters,

ven choice stones

ike

obsidian

for

tools.

But

the

objects

of this

Stone

Age

commerce

wvere

eally

luxuries: t a

pinch

the

participants

ould do without

hem.

Only

whendeterminedo use metalfor ssential ools ndweapons, id a

community

bandon its

self-sufficiency,

ecoming

dependent

on

foreign

radefor

necessities.

Fourthly

he

demand for

a

regular upply

of

copper

or

bronze

evoked a novel element n

society,

new

population

f

full-time

specialists

who did

not catch

or

grow

heir

wn

food,

but

relied

for

sustenance n food

produced

y

others. Of course n

recent

tone

Age

societies

we

know

experts

who

specialize

n

flaking

lint

rrow-

heads,

carving

etel-boxes r

exercising

ther rafts. But

these

re

always only part-time pecialists; they are primarilyhunters,

fishermen

r farmers nd excercise

heir

pecial

skills

only

n the

intervals f

getting

heir

own food and

rely

thereon

merely

for

prestige

r

luxuries.

Even

specialists

n

government,

hiefs,

were

generally

n

this sense

part-timers,

s

among

the

Maori.

Metal-

workers

o-day

are

generally

ull-time

pecialists

nd

presumably

preserve

he status

of their

prehistoric

ncestors.

Moreover to

maintain

regular

upply

fmetal t

east

core

f

full-time

pecialists

would be needed

o mine

nd smelt he ores and burn he

necessary

charcoal n the remotemetalliferous ountains r deserts nd to

transport

he metal to the

farming illages.

A

Bronze

Age

pre-

supposes

a

mechanism or the

regular

xtraction nd

distribution

of

metal in a

word,

metallurgicalndustry

staffedt

least

n

part

by

full-time

pecialists.

The new

industry

evealed,

ut

only

in

embryo,

he olution o

thecontradiction

fthe

neolithic

conomy:

the sole means

of

providing

or an

expanding opulation

was

to

bring

reshandunder ultivationr

grazing.

When

ll

land uitable

for

exploitation

y

the

very extravagant

eolithic

echniques

was

fully ccupied, heonly utlet or farmer'soungerhildren ouldbe to subdivide he ots that

wouldmean

reductionn

the tandard

of

living

or to

annex and

already ccupied

by

other

farmers.

But for

he

prospects

penedup

first

y

the

metallurgicalndustry,



5/15


6/15

6

PAST

AND PRESENT

banks. Moreover he

rivers

hat

water

he

crops,

re

at the

same

time

moving

roads on

which

bulky

goods,

like

food-stuffs,

an

economicallye transportedo thattheproduceoffarms cattered

over

wide

rea

can

readily

e

gathered

t

a

single

entre;

or

owhere

could one

littleneolithic

illage by

itself mass sufficient

urplus

foodto

support

he

man

power

needed

to run a whole

metallurgical

industry. Only

by pooling

the resources

of

many

communities

could

the

requisite

eserves e

accumulated.

Furthermore,

o

udge

by

the

practice

of

subsistance

armers

o-day,

neolithic

peasants

would have been disinclined o

produce

regularly

more

than was

needed

to

support

hemselves

nd

their

dependents;

o obtain

a

surplus egularlyome nducementrpressure ouldbe needed.

In

fact,

he

beginning

f

the

Bronze

Age

n

Egypt

nd

Mesoptomia

coincided

with

social revolution

the

"Urban

Revolution",

call

it

-

the

establishment

ftotalitarian

egimes3

nderwhich

surplus

was

systematically

xtracted rom

he

peasant

masses

and

gathered

into centralized

oyal

r

temple

granaries.

On the

Nile the

regular

use of

metaldid not

begin

illthe

eaders f the

Falcon

Horus)

clan

from

Upper

Egypt

had

by

force

f

arms t

length4

ubjugated

ll

the

other

lans,

whose

ndependent

illages

had been

strung

ut

along

the river rom he FirstCataract o theDelta,andhadwelded hem

into the unified

haraonic

monarchy. By

right

f

ccnquest

he clan

chief

had

become

king,

he

pharaoh,

ord and master

f the whole

Nile

valley

and entitled o receiveas rent or tribute he

surplus

produce

of its

industrious

ultivators.

By

his

victory

he

chief

of

the

Falcon clan

had

become rulerover

all

defeated

lans and over

his

fellow-clansmen

oo. He is

no

longer,

ikethe

atter,

Follower

of

Horus;

he is

Horus

--

the Horus

Aha. He

has

been raised

bove

society,

he

has become a

god.

Aha and his

successors

are

depicted

in superhumanize,twice s largeas defeated oemennd as their

retainers lso.

'They

are buried

with

singular

ites;

oyal

tombs,

beginning

with

Aha's,

were

distinguishedy

a monumental

uper-

structure,

ermed

nmastaba,

o

parallel

to

which marked r had

markedcommoners'

raves. They

were crammedwith fantastic

wealth,

ars

of

grain,

oil,

wines and

other

provisions,

rms,

ools,

vessels and ornaments f

copper

and

precious

metals,

furniture,

stonevases nd other

masterpieces

hatmust

have

been

manufactured

by

full-time

specialist

craftsmen.

Finally

each

mastaba

was

surrounded by the simple graves

-

up to

220

--

of retainers,

including

miths

nd other

rtizans,

lain

to

continue

erving

heir

divinemaster fter is decease.

Thus the

king

id

n fact

oncentrate

the wealth

produced

by

the

Egyptian easantry,

nd

part

of t

was



7/15

THE

BRONZE

AGE

7

actually

xpended

n

the

support

f

specialized

raftsmennd on

the

importation

f raw

materials. At

the

same time

Egyptian

ociety

was split nto twoopposing lasses; thekingand a smallbodyof

dependent

obles,

on whomthe

pharaoh

had

personally

onferred

some

of

his

spiritual

nd

economic

privileges,

ere

contrasted

o

a

lower

lass

comprising

ot

only

he

peasant

masses,

ut

lso

themetal-

workers

nd

other

pecialist

raftsmen.

The latterwere

not ndeed

tied o thecourt r

the

nobles' states

y

any

ffective

egal

anctions,

but,

short

of

emigrating

cross waterless eserts o

alien,

hostile

peoples,

had

no

alternative

atrons,

o other ource fa

living.

In

Mesopotamia

he

Bronze

Age

did

not

begin

under

uite

such

a

totalitarianegime. The regionwas not united politically till

2350

B.C.

under

Sargon

of

Agade.

The later

Babylonia,5

Lower

Mesopotamia,

as

previously

ivided

nto

score

or

so

of

politically

independent ity-states.

But

in

each of these

a

god

concentrated

as

tithes,

irst-fruits

r

rent,

he

surplus roduced y

the

cultivators,

'the

god's people',

nd

some

of this

gain

was

really xpended

n the

support

of

smiths

and other full-time

pecialists

and

on the

importation

f

metals nd other

aw-materials,

ot

ocally

btainable.

On

paper

Sumerian

emple-city

ooks

more ike

huge

o-operative

household han classsociety.6 In practice lass cleavagehad split

the

household.

The

god's

self-appointed

ministers,

he

higher

clergy,

held

enormously

arger

hares

n

the

god's

land

than

the

ordinary

ultivators. The

exploitation

f

the

poor by

the

rich,

of

the weak

by

the

strong

s

explicitly

entionedn

Urukagina's eform

Decree,

about

2400

B.c.

Finally

in

each

city

we

read

of

a

"city-king"

(styled

shakku

r

ensi);

he was firstminister f the

god

on

earth,

his

representative

n

certain ituals

nd

leader of the

god's

people

in war. He controlled he

sole

city granary at

least at

Lagash)

and from imeto time became ord and master f the peoplesof

conquered

ities,

nd at the

same

time f

course,

f

his

fellow

itizens

too,

though

he

remained

heoretically

fellow-servantf the

god.

Since Sumerian

historians

elieved

hat

"kingship

escended

from

heaven" before

he

Flood,

they

believed hat he

king

f

one

city

r

another

ad

always

uledover

n

united

Babylonia,

s did

Sargon

f

Agade,

nd

the

ater

kings

fUr

and then f

Babylon.

Such

mperial

rulerswouldhave been

very

nearly

n

a

level

with he

pharaohs,

ut

in fact uch

empires,

f

any

existed efore

argon's,

were

ephemeral

and partial. In anycase city-kings,ongbefore argonofAgade,

were buried n

royal

tombs,

s

distinctives the

Egyptian hough

less

sumptuous,

nd

accompanied y

a

slaughter

f human

victims,

signifying

nce more

heir

levation

bove

society.



8/15

8

PAST AND

PRESENT

It

may

be

granted

hat

uch totalitarian

conomieswere

essential

to

get

a

metallurgical

ndustry

tarted. A

relatively

uge

surplus

mustbe accumulatednd made accessible o inducemento adopt

the

hazardous

professions

f

prospector,

iner, melter,

istributer

and smith. Such

a

surplus

was

n fact irst

ccumulatedn

pharaoh's

courts

and Sumerian

temples

under a

totalitarian

conomy.

Presumably

t could

have been

accumulated

n no

other

way.

In

any

case

the

pharaonicmonarchy

nd

the

empire

f

Agade

set the

model

to

which

all

subsequent

oriental States and

Empires

-

Assyrian,

ersian,

Hellenistic,

ttoman

adhered n outline.

Yet

therelations f

production

hat husmade

possible

he establishment

of a metallurgicalndustry,etteredts furtherevelopment.So the

types

of

tools and

weapons

and the technical

methods

for their

production,

established

by

3oco

B.C.,

persisted

n

Egypt

and Hither

Asia with

hardly ny progressivehange

for he next wo millennia.

The reasonsfor such

stagnation

re

not

far

to seek. The

urban

revolutionn

the Orient iberated

raftsmennd

specialists

rom

he

necessity

f

procuring

heir

wn

food,

ut

only

t

the ostof

complete

dependence

n

a

court r a

temple.

It

gave

them eisure

o

perfect

their killsbut

no

encouragement

o

do so

along progressive

ines;

forthe lastthing o interest divinekingor high priestwouldbe

labour-saving

evices.

It

guaranteed

raftsmen

egular

upplies

of

raw

materials,

ut

only

to

convert hese into what divine

kings,

nobles and cloistered

riests

demanded. It evoked

exponents

f

applied

science,

but

only

to

relegate

hem o the lowerclasses

and

condemn them to

illiteracy.

So

it

isolated the

exponents

of

theoretical

cience

from he

practical

ciences

uccessfully

pplied

by

prospectors,

melters,

miths and other

illiterates.

For the

revolution ad evoked n order f

clerks,

who

developed

predictive

arithmetic,eometrynd calendrical stronomy,ut had attached

them o the

ruling

lass;

somewell-known

gyptian

exts

eveal

how

the

clerks

espised

metalworkers nd other

rtizans nd

claimed

o

be 'relieved of

all

manual

tasks'. The learned

sciences,

thus

limited,

were

hereby

terilized.

European

bronze ndustries

eveloped

ater han

he

Oriental

in

the

Aegean

probably

not much after

000

B.C.

(the

exact date

is still

a

matterof

guesswork),

north

of

the

Alps

not before

1700

-

and

in a

quite

different

ocial

etting.

Before

8oo

B.C. he

Aegean

oasts

nd

islands wereoccupiedby minute ownships,morenumerous han

the

city-states

f classical

imesbut

apparently

ust

as

autonomous,

though

all

exhibiting

o

archaologists

qually

similar

patterns

f

behaviour nd

certainly

s

closely

inked

by

commercial

ntercourse.



9/15

THE BRONZE AGE

9

None were

demonstrably

lass societies.

Troy

and Lerna indeed

wereruled

by

chiefs;

ut

though

hese ived

n

modest

alaces,

hey

werenot buried n royal ombs nd so would not have been raised

above

society,

ike an

Egyptian

haraoh

or

a

Sumerian

ity-king.

In other towns domestic

nd

funerary

rchitecturelike

suggest

differencesn

wealth,

utno divisionnto lasses. Mosttownsfolkere

certainly

armers nd

fishers,

ut

resident

mithsworked

robably

in

mostcoastal

ownships,

oldsmiths

lso

in

the Troad and

Crete,

seal-engravers

oo

in the

latter

sland. These

craftsmen ere

kept

regularlyupplied

withraw materials.

Copper

ores were

available

on Naxos

and

elsewhere ithin

he

Aegean

basin s well

s

in

Cyprus,

theCopper sland. Ore, mported robably romNaxos, s known

to

have

been smelted

t the

port

of Rafina

on the

north oast

of

Atticawith harcoal rom

Hymettus

r Pentelicus.

But

tin,'

which

was

relatively

ommon,

must

have

been

imported perhaps

from

western

urope.

The

extractive

nd

manufacturing

ndustries

ay

have

been

started

by

immigrant

pecialists

from

Egypt

or Hither

Asia

who

must,

however,

have trained

native

apprentices.

Of

bronze-smiths'

products

ome

for

nstance

weezers)

eproduce gyptian atterns,

thatfunnily noughare quite differentrom he Sumerian,while

others,

ike

axes,

can be matched n Hit-hcr

sia

but not

n

Egypt.

Thus

Aegean

metallurgy

rom ts birthwas

fe:tilized

y

the

blending

of

two

divergent

raditions.

But

Early

Aegean

smiths

did

not

content

themselves

with

repeating

tandardizedOriental

types.

They

varied heir

products

o

suit

ocal tastes nd to

increase

heir

efficiency.

arly

Aegean

metal

ware

-

and indeed other

craft

products

--

exhibit

far

more

progressive hange

than

the con-

temporary

riental

roducts.

The moreprogressiveharacterfAegean ndustryndcraftsmen-

ship

s

legitimatelyxplicable y

referenceo the ocial

nd

economic

structures

ithin

which

they

functioned.

raftsmen

ad not been

reduced,

s

in the

Orient,

o

an

exploited

ower lass

becauseno class

division

had

as

yet

cleft

Aegean

societies.

Their

patrons

were

themselves

ractical

men

who would

appreciate

he

efficie;cy

f

tools

and

weapons.

And the craftsmen ere

effectively

ree to

choose

their

patrons

nstead

of

being

virtually

ied

to

a

court,

temple

or

a noble's estate.

Communication

etween

the several

little ownshipsmusthave beenrelativelyasy ndwasdemonstrably

frequent;

o

craftsmenould travel

bout,

as

they

did

in

Homeric

and

classicaltimes.

(Note

how

many

craftsmen

nd merchants

n

Athens n thefifth

entury

ere

metics,

.e. resident

liens.)

Similarly



10/15


11/15

THE BRONZE AGE

II

to obtain as tribute

r loot

the raw materials

hey

needed.

The

pharaohs

ent

expeditions,

upported

y

the

royal army,

o

mine

copper n Sinai and had themselves epicted mitinghewretched

Beduin.

In

the same

spirit

argon

of

Agade

boastsof

conquests

n

the

Cedar

Forest

and

the

Silver

Mountain.

If such

aggression

succeeded,

the

natives

would be

reduced

to

a

subject

class.

Successful

esistance

as

likely

o lead

to

a

totalitarian

egime,

nd

the

victorious

hampion

f

national

ndependence

as

liable

to

ape

Aha or

Sargon.

When

information ecomes available

towards

2000

B.c.,

the little

states

of

Hither

Asia are

totalitarianmonarchies

whoserulers re

either assalsor rivals

f the

potent ings

f

Egypt

or Babylonia utin either ase raised bovesociety. That is what

the

Europeans

scaped.

Just

ecause

they

ould

drawon the

surpluses

ccumulatedn the

Orient

and benefit

rom

he

metallurgicalndustry

stablished

n

reliance

hereon,

without

hemselves

aving

o accumulate he

vast

surplus equired

o start

uch an

industry, egean

ocietieswere

ble

to

enter

pon

the

Bronze

Age

without

ubmitting

o

a

class division.

The new

population

f

full-time

pecialists,

equired

o

maintain

a

Bronze

Age,

in the

Aegean

could

and

did

separate

ut

from he

peasantmasses in a barbarian ribalsociety. Though theywere

often liens

n a

society

hatwas

presumably

ased

on

kinship;

nd

probably

andless

n a

community

here

ccess to

land

was

the

first

consequence

of

membership

f

the

tribe,

yet

by

their skills

and

achievement

hey

ould earn subsistance

nd a

status,

f

not

tribal,

at

least

ntertribal.

Even f the break-downf

tribal

ociety

educed

the

peasantry

o

serfdom

r

something

ike

it,

they

could

escape;

a

craftsman ould

become

a

Tychios,"

a

Pheidias,

welcomed

n

every ity,

honored

nternationally.

f

course,

not

many

did;

the

realization f thesepossibilities ependedon exceptionalmerrit

and

good

luck. Yet

the

originality

nd

inventiveness

isplayed

n

Early

Aegean

metalwork,

s contrasted

ith he

ontemporary

riental,

may fairly

e

attributed o

this

privileged osition

of

the metal-

workers.

The inventionsn

technique

nd

art

ustly

ttributedo the

Greeks f theclassical

ge

two

thousand

ears

ater re

surely

ot

the

outcome

f

an innate Greek

genius",

but of a

tradition

nherited

by

the

class

societies f the

Iron

Age

from he

barbarian

ociety

f

the

Early

Bronze

Age.

North f theAlpstooa BronzeAgebegan, thousand ears ater,

among

poor

and

independent

arbarian

ocieties ecause

they

ould

draw

upon

resources ccumulated n class societies

elsewhere

immediately

n

Minoan

Crete

and

Mycenaean

Greece.

Soon after



12/15

12

PAST AND

PRESENT

1900

B.C.

"priest-kings"

at

Knossos, Mallia,

Phaistos and

Hagia

Triada in

Crete,

and in Mainland

Greece war-lords t

Mycenae,

Thebes, Pylosand othercities,before1450 B.C.,had raisedthemselves

so

far

bove

their ocieties s

to build

themselves

alaces

nd

royal

tombs.None

achieved

he

otalitarianminence f n

Egyptian

haraoh

or

Mesopotamian

ity-king

-

there

were four

palaces

in central

Crete

nd,

though

hetholos ombs t

Mycenae

re the

finest,

imilar

cemeteries,

epresenting

ndependent

ynasties,

re more

numerous

than

the

independent

ity-states

f

Classical

Greece

-

yet

all

managed

o accumulate

uite

arge

urpluses.

It is

needlesshereto

enquire

how this was done

save

to

note

that

a

quite

substantial

part of Minoan-Mycenaeanwealth had been drawn through

commerce,

mercenary

ervice

r

piracy

rom

he

great

ccumulations

ofthe Oriental tates.

The wealth

hus oncentratedonstitutedn

effectivend accessible

market or the

products

f barbarian

urope,

north

of

the

Alps.

The warlike

Mycenaeans

n

particular

emanded

opper

nd

tin for

their armament ndustries

and

--

lucldly

for us

-

amber

for

magic

rituals or

simply

for

parade.

For amber

is

easily

identifiable

archmologically

nd

of

known

provenance.

Plottedon

a

map

the

distribution

f amber findsfrom

dated

graves

and hoards

reveals

quite

clearly

heroute

whereby

he fossil esinwas

transported

rom

the

Baltic

o the

Mediterranean

up

the

Elbe,

then

up

the

Saale

or

the

Vltava,

cross hemountain

anges

o

the

Danube,

then

p

the

nn,

across he

ow

Brenner

ass and down he

Adige.

The

route hus

dis-

closed

s

nat

rally

ermed he Amber

Route,

but other

aw materials

not

o

easily

dentified,

nd even

manufactured

rticles,

ere

ertainly

carried

long

t

too.

It

actually

rossed

he

tin-bearing

egions

f

Saxony

nd

Bohemia

nd

passed

closeto

the

prehistoric

opper

mines

of

the

Eastern

Alps.

Branchroutes oo can be

certainly

etected

with the aid ofmetalware- one down to Danube to theregion

of

Buda-Pest,

cross he

Hungarian lain

the

Alf6ld)

o

the mouth

of the Maros near

Szeged

and

so

to

the

Transylvanian

old-fields,

the otherfrom

he

Saale across western

Germany

nd Holland

to

the

Channel

nd at

last

to the

Cornish

in

treams.

Now,

ust

long

theAmber

Route

nd

ts two

branches,

hevarious

uarrelsome

ribes

of

Upper

taly,

Central

urope

and

the

British

sles

entered

pon

a

Bronze

Age

from bout

the moment

when he

first

mported

mber

beads

appear

n the

royal

haftGravesof

Mycenae,

irca

1650

B.C.;

that s,theywereregularlyuppliedwithmetal" ndbeganregularly

to use

arms,

mplements

nd

ornaments

f

bronze,

ocally

made

to

suit

divergent

ashions f

fighting,

orking

nd

dressing.

Tribes

iv-

ing

beyond

hereach f

these

outes-e.g.

n the

whole f

France

and



13/15


14/15

14

PAST AND

PRESENT

of metal tools for

carpentry,eaping,

nd

eventually

ree-felling,

substantially

ugmented

he

food

produced y

the

ndustry's

lients

in Temperate Europe. Secondlythe area of the Bronze Age

province

erved

by

the metaltrade

was

enlarged,

artly

s

a

result

of

an actual

colonization

y

farmers

rmedwith

the reliable

metal

weapons; by

1200

B.C.

the distributive

ystem

originally

based on the

Amber

Route

had

extended

ts

arteries

o

cover

hewhole

of

France,

Denmark nd South

Sweden,

most

of

Poland,

Transylvania

nd

the

whole

Apennine eninsula. Finally

he

efficiency

f

the extractive

and

distributive

achinery

tself

was

mproved

o that

ronze

ecame

much more abundant nd

presumably

heaper

and was used for

quite argevessels, hields nd other tems f defensivermour nd

in

rough

work. Now

in

the centuries

etween

650

and

I250

B.C.

archaeologists

ave observed n

extraordinary

rogress

n

efficiency

of the barbarians'

metal

quipment:

he

flat xe had

developed

nto

the

socketted

xe

that s

just

as efficientnd half

s

expensive

s a

shafthole

xe;

the

triangularagger

nto

cut-and-thrust

word;

the

Asiatic

oggle-pin

nto

a

safety-pin.

This cumulative

eries f

progressive

nnovations others

an

be

inferred,

ut are not so

directly

ttested

is a

real

foretaste

f the

much asterccumulationf nventionsn thefour enturieseginning

1600A.D. It is not

perhaps

ltogether

ancifulo see in theformer's

nameless

uthors he lineal ancestors

f

the

natural cientists ho

since

Galileo,

Newton and

Pascal

have

been

pooling

their

results

in an international

ociety till 1945).

Links

betweenthe two

groups

an

be

found n the

travelling

cholars nd

migrant uildsmen

of medieval

urope

and in

less

familar

igures

n

the Dark

Ages

and

Iron

Ages.

The

political

background

f our itinerantmerchant-

artificers

ould be called

a

concert f

powers,

ar more

numerous,

far esspotent nd far essharmonioushan n ModernHistory ut

still

nvoluntarily

nmeshedn

a

single

conomic

ystem.

As

for

heir

social

tatus,

hey

urely

njoyed

o

high

ank n tribal

ocieties

as

no

smiths'

graves

re known

n Bronze

Age

Europe,

theymay

not

evenhavebeen

members f uch ocal

groupings

but

they

werenot

relegated

o

a lower

class and

may

have drawnmoral

upport

rom

some sort of

supertribal

raft

ssociation.

If this

position

f the

craftsmen

the

applied

scientists

among

barbarian

ocieties,

cannot be

exactly

matched

mong

the class societiesof medieval

and modern urope, t contrastsavourably ith heir tatus n the

Oriental monarchies. Yet their

craft-lore,

heir

applied

science

was drawn rom

he

Orient nd at first

hey

had

obeyed

ts

precepts

to

the

extent f

reproducing

tandardized

siatic

types

that their



15/15

THE BRONZE AGE

15

Asiastic

olleagues

had

been

replicating

or

thousand

years.

But

they

did not

continue

o

repeat;

hey

dared

bold innovationsoth

n

forms nd techniques,nitiatingmongthe barbarians orth f the

Alps

an

original

maginative

radition

hat,

lending

with he

Aegean

one,

surely

urvived

he Roman

Empire

nd theBarbarian

nvasions,

which

ctually

e-enforced

t,

to

emerge gain

n the Middle

Ages.

To

sum

up

the thesis:

the

divergence

f

European

from ll New

World

history

an be

explained

by

the

proximity

f

Egypt

and

Mesopotamia

where alone the

economicand social

preconditions

forthe initial

foundation f a

metallurgical

ndustry

xisted. The

priority

f the Orient n

this

respect,

however,

ffers n

equally

historicalxplanationor hedivergencefEuropeanfromOriental

history;

t

exemptedEuropeans

from

paying

the

heavy price

of

starting

uch an

industry

rom

cratch,

t least until a

peculiarly

European

traditionn

applied

science

had

been

established

mong

societies that remainedbarbarian

firmly

nough

to survive

the

subsequent

reakdown f tribal

rganization.

V.

Gordon hilde

NOTES

I

This

article s based

upon

lectures

deliveredbefore he

Australian

National

University n June 1957. Most of the argument s set forth n greaterdetail

in

my

forthcoming

ook,

The

Prehistory

f European

Society

Penguin

Books

Ltd.).

As the

evidence

is there set out

in

full with

bibliographical

references,

documentation s omitted

here.

2

Actually

nland

seas,

the

consequently

more

temperate

limate,

nd

domestic-

able animals

gave Europe

some

advantage

over North

America.

:

The

similarity

f the

Bronze

Age

States of

the

Ancient

East to

contemporary

totalitarian

States was

pointed

out

by

Heichelheim,

Wirtschaftsgeschichte

es

Altertumns

n

I938.

4

The

"unification

f

Egypt"

certainly

roceeded

by

stages,

and it

is

doubtful

whether

t

was

completed

by

Nar-mer or his

successor,

Aha.

The latter was

the

first o be

buried

in a

distinctively

oyal

tomb with human

sacrifices,

ut

inferences ocumentedby thepalette of Nar-mer have been used in the text.5

Babylonia,

till

its

unification bout

1790

B.c.,

by

the

First

Dynasty

of

Babylon,

would be

an anachronism

s a name

for

the

part

of

Iraq

south-east

of

Baghdad;

Sumer,

originally

meant

only

the

lower

part

of the

area,

but

the

ruling

class

throughout

t wrote

Sumerian and

are

usually

termedSumerians.

6

In

Man and

Materialism,

red

Hoyle

has

taken the texts t their

face

value,

as I

once

did

myself.

7

Geologically

the occurence of

tin

in

the

Aegean

area is

extremely nlikely;

voyaging

to

Cornwall,

Galicia or

Tuscany

in

the third millennium s a

hypo-

thesis

beloved

of

many prehistorians,

ut

supported

by

no

conclusive evidence.

1

Bronze-smith ummoned

from

Boeotia to Lokris

to

make a

shield

for

Ajax

in

the

Iliad.

B

There is some

ambiguous

evidence

that Central

European

metal

deposits

were being exploited a couple of centuries earlier by prospectorsfromthe

North

Syrian

coasts.

10

Localized

bronze

industries

in

Brittany

and

south-east

Spain

may

be

connected with

a

"long

sea"

route

from

Cornwall

to

the East

Mediterranean.

V. Gordon Childe - Article on Bronze Age

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