Metal, Warfare, and Chiefdoms: The Bronze Age Roots of European Civilization

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course focuses on investigating the types of societies that occupied Europe in the Bronze Age. A range of themes will be addressed including patterns of production, exchange and interaction, the exceptional social and economic developments in Iberia and in the Aegean region, the role of warriors, and patterns of metalwork deposition and hoarding. Following these thematic treatments, we will investigate the nature of Bronze Age societies by focusing on how the concept of 'chiefdoms' has been developed and used by anthropologists and archaeologists. This will involve a close look at some Polynesian chiefdoms that have been used as interpretive models to help understand Bronze Age European societies and specific European case studies focusing on Wessex in England, and Denmark.