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New Vistas on the Distant Past

The Copper Age in Europe

The first metal to be worked anywhere in Europe was copper. The new technology appeared first in the Balkans. Farmers had prospered on the rich, silt soils of the lower Danube basin. Hamlets in what is now Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia grew into solidly-built villages of multi-roomed houses. Pottery kilns fired at high temperatures paved the way for metallurgy. Smelted copper tools and ornaments began to circulate around 5000 BC.^{1D. Anthony and J.Y. Chi (eds.), The Lost World of Old Europe (2009).} Gumelniţa is one such site in Romania which has lent its name to a wider culture stretching from the Danube estuary to Thrace. Rebuilt again and again on the same site, its remains form a tell, typical of the culture. To the north of the Gumelniţa culture was the impressive Cucuteni-Tripolye culture (within the present Romania, Moldova and Ukraine). To the west, in present-day Serbia, the long-lived Vinča settlement stood on the banks of the Danube from around 5500 to 4000 BC. It too gave its name to a wider Balkan culture.

Even before smelting was invented, people were attracted by the colour and shine of natural copper. From about 10,000 BC copper and malachite were worked cold into beads and ornaments in the heartland of the Neolithic where Anatolia meets the Levant. By 8,000 BC some within that core area had discovered that heat (annealing) made copper-working easier. Then around 5,000 BC smelting and cast-copper objects appeared both east and west of the heartland: at Tal-i Iblis in Iran and Belovode in Serbia. This simultaneous surge of the same technology makes a single locus of invention likely, probably in eastern Anatolia, the centre of the range of early smelting. Given the difficulty of acquiring the technology, it is likely that knowledge of copper-working was passed on within a family or clan, who might travel widely if there was not work enough for them in one place. ^{2M. Radivojević et al., On the Origins of Extractive Metallurgy: New evidence from Europe, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 37, no. 11 (November 2010), pp. 2775-2787; B. W. Roberts, C.P. Thornton and V.C. Pigott, Development of metallurgy in Eurasia, Antiquity, vol. 83 (2009), pp. 1012–1022; B. Roberts, Creating traditions and shaping technologies: understanding the earliest metal objects and metal production in Western Europe, World Archaeology, vol. 40 (2008), no.3, pp.354-372; B. Roberts, Migration, craft expertise and metallurgy: analysing the spread of metal in Western Europe, in E. Lightfoot (ed), Movement, Mobility and Migration, Archaeological Review from Cambridge, vol. 23.2 (2008), pp. 27-45.} The Balkans had significant deposits of copper, which would be an attraction to metal-workers.

Gold

They also had gold. Gold is too soft to use for tools, but it is the king of metals for personal adornment. It is easily worked, does not tarnish and gleams like the sun. The earliest gold objects in the world have been found in the Balkans. The wealth of gold objects found in the Varna necropolis (4600-4200 BC) in Bulgaria astonished the world. The bulk of the gold was found in just three of the hundreds of graves. These three were also distinctive in having staffs or sceptres among the grave goods: symbols of royal or spiritual power. Social stratification had entered Europe.^{3I.S. Ivanov, Varna necropolis: the dawn of European civilization (2000); Excavations further north along the Black Sea coast at Durankulak found more rich graves of the same period: P.L. Kohl, The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia (2007), pp.46-47.} Today we take rank for granted. Leaders have been a part of European life for the whole of recorded history. Yet European prehistory shows little sign of marked distinctions between individuals until the Copper Age. Gold in burials becomes one of the strongest clues to high status. The golden crown was to become the emblem of royalty.

The Ozieri Culture

A new culture appeared in Sardinia c. 4000 BC, which takes its name from the type-site at Ozieri. A rash of new settlements has been explained in terms of population growth, but is immigration possible? Among the innovations was metallurgy in silver and copper. The island is rich in these metals, which may have drawn craftsmen from afar. Metal artifacts date from 4,250-3,350 B.C. - the earliest in the Central Mediterranean. The Ozieri Culture was also capable of fine ceramics, the product of high-temperature kiln firing. These include the first tripod vessels on Sardinia, and pots decorated with spiral forms, both familiar from Cucuteni.^{4S.L. Dyson and R. J. Rowland, Archaeology and history in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages (2007), pp. 35-44; G. Lilliu, Arte e religione della Sardegna prenuragica (1999).} Spirals also appear in an Ozieri Culture tomb. In fact this form of decoration links a number of Neolithic cultures which created monumental tombs, and so had a history before the Copper Age. Yet the date at which this culture springs up is suggestive. It was around this time that many tell settlements in the Balkans were abandoned. Their craftsmen would need another home.

The Maikop Culture

The first cities in the world appeared in Mesopotamia around 3,800 BC. Civilization had a huge appetite for metal. Since the plains of Mesopotamia had no metal deposits, the craving had to be satisfied by imports. The nearest sources of copper, in what is now Iran, were exploited. An alternative source up the Euphrates from the expanding city of Uruk were the copper-producing strongholds of Hacinebi and Arslantepe, which began to trade with Uruk around 3,700 BC. From Arslantepe it seems that scouts discovered the gold, silver and copper in the Caucasus Mountains. The trade route thus created brought wealth and metallurgy to what had been a quiet corner of the North West Caucasus. The result was the Maikop (or Maykop) Culture (c. 3,700-3,100 BC). Physically the Maikop appear different from the steppe people - more Near Eastern. The astonishingly rich tombs of Maikop chiefs seem to be one end of a cultural corridor to the palace and tombs at Arslantepe and on to the cities of Sumer. By this time smiths had discovered that arsenic mixed with copper made a harder alloy - the first type of bronze. Some kind of upheaval in Sumer brought an end to the trade with the Maikop people, and thus their culture.^{5D. Anthony, The Horse, The Wheel and Language (2007), pp. 49-50, 263-66, 282-98; P.L. Kohl, The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia (2007), pp. 54, 58-9, 72-83; A.A. Kazarnitsky, The Maikop crania revisited, Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, vol. 38, no. 1 (March 2010), pp. 148-155.} The cultural trail suggests that some moved north-east to blend with the people of the steppe, while others appeared in Anatolia as the Hatti.^{6I. Manzura, Steps to the steppe: or, how the North Pontic region was colonised, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol. 24, no. 4 (2005), pp. 313–338 (329); C.A. Burney, Historical Dictionary of the Hittites (2004), p.106.}

Otzi the Ice-Man

The Alps were also rich in copper, which was discovered by metal-workers c. 4,500-4,000 B.C. Experiments were made in smelting the local ore at Brixlegg above the middle Inn Valley in the Austrian Tyrol. The smelters may have been Balkan prospectors. Those early experiments do not seem to have prospered, for it is not until the Bronze Age that the Alps became notable copper-producers.^{7B. Höppner et al., Prehistoric copper production in the Inn Valley (Austria), and the earliest copper in central Europe, Archaeometry, vol. 47, no.2 (2005), pp. 293–315.} Initially copper would have been taken from surface outcrops, but when those gave out, mining began. The search for copper had spread to northern Italy by c. 3,500 B.C., where the earliest known copper mines in Western Europe were found at Monte Loreto (Castiglione Chiavarese, Liguria).^{8R. Maggi and M. Pearce, Mid fourth-millennium copper mining in Liguria, north-west Italy: the earliest known copper mines in Western Europe, Antiquity vol. 79 (2005), no. 303, pp. 66-77.} Around 3,200 B.C. Otzi, the famous Alpine Iceman, was above the Inn Valley when he was struck by an arrow and died of his wound. His mummified body caused a sensation when it was discovered. As well as his own bow and arrows, he carried a copper axe of the Remedello type, made in the Po Valley of northern Italy, using the ores of Tuscany. Analyses of his teeth and bones show that he spent his entire life in the Alps, while his clothes suggest that he was a herder. Ötzi's mtDNA is of a K1 subclade first found in him, and so named K1ö for Ötzi, but now appears on Phylotree as K1f. ^{9W. Müller et al, Origin and migration of the Alpine Iceman, Science vol. 302. no. 5646 (2003), pp. 862-866; L. Ermini et al., Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Tyrolean Iceman, Current Biology, (30 October 2008); Mummified iceman's ancient job determined, Live Science, 20 August 2008; P. Endicott et al, Genotyping human ancient mtDNA control and coding region polymorphisms with a multiplexed single-base-extension assay: the singular maternal history of the Tyrolean Iceman,BMC Genetics, vol. 10, no.29 (2009).} Only 10 matches have subsequently been found: one each in Greece, Norway, Russia and Scotland and six modern inhabitants of the Val Venosta area where Otzi was found.^{10A. Moffat and J. Wilson, The Scots: A genetic journey (2011), p.32.} His Y-DNA was G2a2b (L91: formerly G2a4). Looking at his whole genome, Otzi clusters closest to modern-day people of Sardinia.^{11A. Keller, et al, New insights into the Tyrolean Iceman's origin and phenotype as inferred by whole-genome sequencing, Nature Communications, vol. 3, article number 698 (Published 28 February 2012).}

Iberia

Another rich Copper-Age culture appeared in Iberia, accompanied by social changes. The earliest dates of copper-working there (c. 3,100 BC) are for specialised, large-scale mining-metallurgical factories in South-western Iberia, such as Cabezo Jure and Mocissos.^{12F. Nocete et al., Direct chronometry (14CAMS) of the earliest copper metallurgy in the Guadalquivir Basin (Spain) during the third millennium BC: first regional database, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 38, no 12 (December 2011), pp. 3278-3295; E. Hanning, R. Gauß and G. Goldenberg, Metal for Zambujal: experimentally reconstructing a 5000-year-old technology: Metal para Zambujal: reconstrucción experimental de una tecnología de 5.000 años, Trabajos de Prehistoria, vol. 67, no 2, (July-December 2010), pp. 287-304. An earlier date for Iberian metallurgy was once argued, but on insecure evidence. See B. Roberts, Creating traditions and shaping technologies: understanding the earliest metal objects and metal production in Western Europe, World Archaeology, vol.40, no.3 (2008), pp. 354–372.} Yet the two foci for Copper Age Iberia became the lofty, fortified settlements of Zambujal (Torres Vedras, Portugal) and Los Millares (Almería, Spain). Both were distant from the main sources of copper. Both were set on promontories commanding approaches by river or sea. Zambujal and its satellites had the most easily defended position on a peninsula carved out by the great River Tagus meeting the sea. Ease of defence was combined with ease of access by sea. The Tagus estuary formed a natural harbour, and Zambujal itself once had a channel to the sea close by. The position speaks of a seaborne people, anxious to defend itself. Both Zambujal and Los Millares began as small strongholds, and expanded with the creation of new walls enclosing greater areas: four walls have been discovered at Zambujal.^{13M. Kunst, Zambujal (Torres Vedras, Lisboa): relatório das escavações de 2001, Revista Portuguesa de Arqueologia, vol. 10, no. 1 (2007), p. 95-118.} There is ample evidence of warfare in both weaponry and death by violence.^{14L. García Sanjuán, Funerary ideology and social inequality in the Late Prehistory of the Iberian South-West (c. 3300-850 cal BC), in P. Díaz-del-Río and L. García Sanjuán (eds.), Social Inequality in Iberian Late Prehistory, BAR International Series vol.1525 (2006), p. 154.}

There are also clues to clannishness in enigmatic plaques in burials, whose markings may record the lineage of the dead.^{15K.T. Lillios, Heraldry for the Dead (2008).} Western Iberia was part of the Neolithic culture of the Atlantic seaboard, noted for its megalithic monuments, but burial in caves was common. When copper-working appears around the Tagus, so do artificial cave-tombs. (These can also be found on Sardinia.) Around Los Millares we see the emergence of the beehive tomb or tholos, with a circular chamber and corbelled vaulted roof. Gold and ivory, statues and jewellery suggest wealthy elites. We can build a picture of heavily-defended centres of regional power.^{16L. García Sanjuán, Funerary ideology and social inequality in the Late Prehistory of the Iberian South-West (c. 3300-850 cal BC), in P. Díaz-del-Río and L. García Sanjuán (eds.), Social Inequality in Iberian Late Prehistory, BAR International Series vol. 1525 (2006).}

Although walled towns were a feature of the Near East, these Iberian settlements of round huts are more like defended villages than truly urban. The ivory was probably traded from Morocco.^{17T.X. Schuhmacher, J.L. Cardoso, A. Banerjee, Sourcing African ivory in Chalcolithic Portugal, Antiquity, vol. 83, no. 322 (December 2009), pp. 983-997.} The once-popular idea that these cultures were direct transplants from the Near East is no longer seen as tenable. So where had the copper technology come from?

Metal-working went hand-in-hand with wider social and economic changes. Europe was transformed in the third millennium BC. New ways of living spread across the continent. Overland travel was speeded up with horse-riding and wheeled vehicles. Cultivation was easier with the ox-drawn plough. The birth of leaders and elites was allied to the cult of the warrior. From bronze came swords.

To follow the story of copper and bronze we need to go forward to the early Bell Beaker ware clustered around Zambujal and other places along the copper trail, and consider the languages spoken in those areas in pre-Roman times. The conclusive clues turn out to be genetic. But first we need to go back to the beginning of that particular story.

Notes

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• Peopling of Europe
• First Europeans
• Mesolithic hunters
• Genetic debate
• Who do you look like?
• The first farmers
• Copper Age
• Indo-European family
• Indo-European genetics
• Linguistic arguments
• Beaker Folk
• Iron Age
• Early Greeks
• Etruscans and Romans
• Great Wandering
• Germani
• Goths and Vandals
• Slavs
• Vikings
• Conclusion
• Supplements
• Basques
• Origin stories
• Y-DNA I
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