Archaeology Of Europe Research Paper

This research paper is divided into five parts, each of which outlines the major chronological and cultural shifts in European pre and protohistory. Also included are major finds that significantly altered or enriched knowledge of the past.

1. Europe’s Origins—The Paleolithic And The Mesolithic

The first European hominids belonged to the group Homo erectus and migrated from Africa about 1.8 million years ago. Cyclical changes in ice sheets caused them to move frequently. Archaeologically, this period, the oldest in hominid history, is known as the Lower Paleolithic. The second period, the Middle Paleolithic, occurred when Homo erectus was replaced by Homo sapiens neanderthalensis about 130,000 years ago. Unlike their ancestors, these new hominids buried their dead. Several Neanderthal graves have been found with grave goods, indicating that these hominids had some sort of belief system with notions of an after-life. The Neanderthals hunted, gathered, and scavenged.

The Middle Paleolithic ended when Homo sapiens neanderthalensis were rapidly replaced by Homo sapiens sapiens, the first modern humans. Homo sapiens sapiens, whose anatomic structure is the same as ours, emerged in Europe around 40,000 years ago, and soon spread throughout the continent. Their movement was probably facilitated by the steady disappearance of the ice sheet and marks the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. During this time, stone technology advanced and archaeologists have identified four varieties of flint tools which they believe represent distinct societies of hunter–gatherers. They are: Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian. Cave paintings found at Upper Paleolithic sites offer proof of artistic activity and the ability of Homo sapiens sapiens to think symbolically. The paintings mainly depict animals, however abstract patterns of lines and squares are also present. Two sites— Altamira in northern Spain and Lascaux and Cosquer in southern France dating from c. 30,000 BC—offer particularly vivid examples. Equally elaborate are the carved female figurines depicted with exaggerated breasts, stomachs, buttocks, and thighs. They have been found all over Europe, the best example being the Venus of Willendorf.

The Mesolithic is the first period of the Holocene and comes at the end of the Ice Age. Its chronology varies according to region, but it dates from about 10,000–5,000 BC. As the ice sheet disappeared, hunter–gatherers began to inhabit forest land and open tundra that had earlier been unlivable. Warmer temperatures also stimulated great changes in fauna. Mammoths became extinct, reindeer moved north and were replaced by forest-dwelling creatures like red deer, roe deer, and wild boar. In a few regions, a complex settlement and economic pattern emerged which involved a base camp and a number of small, specialized activity camps. In some cases, like in Ertebolle, coastal resources were exploited, while in Star Carr, hunting red deer, roe deer, and aurochs became a specialized task. At Lepenski Vir, located at the Iron Gate of the Danube Gorge, finely worked flint objects, rounded stone sculptures, and trapezoid houses demonstrate the aesthetics of these hunter– gatherers. Overall, the Mesolithic is characterized by an ability to adapt to and exploit diverse environmental climates for personal gain. It is marked by a series of technological innovations, most notably the microlithization of flint tools. These tools were used as projectile points and as components in other tools. In some regions, such as southern Scandinavia and the eastern part of the Baltic Sea, a hunting and gathering economy continued long after farming was introduced in Europe.

2. The Emergence Of Farming And Social Complexity: The Neolithic And The Copper Age

The Neolithic is often identified by the appearance of domestic animals and crops. This huge change revolutionized European history. It is accompanied by an increase in the size and complexity of settlements as well as the use of pottery and polished stone tools, and in some regions, the erection of elaborate monuments. During the Neolithic, people began to view the world in a whole new way. Farming revolutionized ways of life and subsistence. The human diet shifted from an almost total dependence on wild animals to a diet based primarily on cereals and domesticated animals. Sedentary life had demographic consequences and as populations increased, society became more complex and stratified.

Early Neolithic communities came to Europe from the Near East and Anatolia around 7,000 BC, and first settled in the southeastern part of the continent in Greece and the Balkans. As in Anatolia, subsistence was based on emmer, wheat, sheep, goats, pigs and cattle. Farmers inhabited open settlements and lived in free-standing, rectangular houses. Some settlements were inhabited for long periods and the constant building and rebuilding led to the emergence of large settlement mounds (tells). From these southeastern settlements, Neolithic communities dispersed across Europe. The movement went in two general directions: To the north and north-west and to the west along the Mediterranean coast. The process of colonization varied tremendously, as did the adoption of domesticates. In southern Scandinavia and the British Isles, for example, it occurred around 4,000 BC, while in central Germany, it occurred about 1,300 years earlier. The western route of Neolithic colonization led along the Mediterranean coast to southern Iberia and southern France, both of which were colonized around 5,500 BC. These routes have been identified closely with the spread of Impressed Ware Pottery. From the Mediterranean, domestication and farming moved northward along the Atlantic coast into the Parisian Basin. Here, the southern route met the northern route. This route, which followed the Danube through Central Europe, is associated with Linear Pottery and showed advances in the use of long-houses, incised decorated pottery and the shoe-last adze for clearing forests. By 5,300 BC, the Neolithization of continental Europe was complete. The most significant pottery emerged from the Chasseen culture in France, the Michelsberg culture between the Rhine delta and the Alps and the Trichterbecher culture in northern and eastern Europe. Along the Atlantic coast, from Portugal in the south, the Orkney Isles and Scandinavia in the north, and Poland in the east, large megaliths in the form of standing stones, stone circles, henges, and cursus monuments have been found. During the fifth millennium BC, copper metallurgy was introduced into southeastern Europe, specifically in the Balkans and the Carpathian Basin. This period, which lasted from 4,500 to 2,500 BC, is hence known as the Copper Age.

Economic changes such as the introduction of the wheel and plow, wool production, and the increased use of animals for specialized tasks occurred. Together, this is known as the Secondary Product Revolution. At this time, more emphasis was placed on creating cemeteries than on erecting domestic structures. Cemeteries were a means of establishing group identity and instilling a sense of belonging. A spectacular example of this is in Varna on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. Here, individual graves featured sophisticated gold and copper work. By 3,000 BC, the explosion of new innovations ruptured traditional lifestyles across the continent and change occurred rapidly. As wealth became portable, emphasis shifted from places to people and from collective to personal possessions. A symbol of this change is Corded Ware pottery, which is decorated with impressed cords. Such pottery has been found in male graves located under circular mounds across Northern and Central Europe.

In addition to the pottery, men were found in single graves accompanied by stone battleaxes. This has both been interpreted as a sign of the importance of fighting and drinking and of individualization within a stratified society. A second type of pottery, handless drinking-cups know as Bell-Beakers, appeared concurrently and slightly later in the expansive area from Scotland to Sicily and Spain to Central Europe. Graves were flat graves and in some regions also individual round mounds and, along with BellBeakers, contained daggers and archery equipment such as triangular barbed-flint arrowheads and wrist guards of fine stone. The vast distribution of the BellBeakers across temperate Europe and the Mediterranean indicates an increasingly mobile lifestyle that arrived just as traditional social structures disintegrated.

3. The Emergence Of Elites: The Bronze Age

During the second millennium BC, bronze became the universal medium of ordinary objects and also of prestige. Horses and wheeled vehicles, textiles, amber necklaces, and metal dress-pins for clipping wool clothing emerged as visible signs of wealth. Trade in bronze expanded and bronze became popular for manufacturing weapons, ornaments and tools. Most importantly, metallurgy shifted as copper became regularly alloyed and tin began to replace arsenic. Although copper is relatively rare as a naturally occurring material, tin is even rarer and the creation and circulation of bronze objects depended on regular supplies of both. This led to the rise of leading centers of metalwork, each of which made technical advances in bronze casting that were widely diffused and adopted. As techniques of war changed, so did the types of weapons used. New bronze weapons and designs spread across the continent.

In Central Europe, in a region known as the Carpathian Basin, where the Unetice culture flourished, large hoards of bronze objects and magnificent burial mounds filled with gold and bronze objects have been uncovered. The influence of these communities stretched from Denmark to Italy to Greece, and to some degree, the British Isles. In the western Mediterranean, similar developments around 2,200 BC spawned the establishment of new centers along the coast of the Iberian Peninsular. Here, hilltop settlements containing rectangular houses and streets were surrounded by stone walls. These settlements lasted throughout the second millennium and are called El Agrar. The proximity of urban cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean also provided alternative centers of trade and exposure to novel eating and drinking habits, clothing, furniture, means of transport, prestige ornaments, and weaponry.

Demand for bronze by the populations of the northpontic steppes spurred trade and soon communication and exchange networks were established. North of the Caspian Sea, new grave architecture that included timber-built underground chambers known as Timber Grave culture was found. Eastward, the closely-related Andronovo culture perfected the use of horses and created a horse-driven chariot complete with a bridle-bit with spiked cheek pieces made of antler. At the timber-grave cemetery of Sintashta in the southern Urals, shaft graves similar to those of Mycenae were found containing wheeled chariots and horses.

When the palatial societies of the eastern Mediterranean collapsed after 1,300 BC, dramatic changes swept across Europe. This period is known as the late Bronze Age and is characterized by hill-forts, flat cemeteries, scrap hoards, and votive finds from rivers. The most striking sign of the changes is the almostuniversal shift from burying the dead in graves to cremating them and putting their ashes in pits or funerary urns. The period lasts until c. 800 BC and has been named the ‘Urnfield Period.’ It is a transitory time, a phase in between the Bronze and the Iron Age, in which economic, social, military, and religious changes that are of pivotal importance in the formation of historic Europe occurred. For the first time, swords, spearheads, armor, safety pins, and certain ornaments from central and northern Europe appeared in the Mediterranean. Hilltop forts and stockades on lower ground became popular around 1,100 BC and lasted until c. 550 BC. At Biskupin, near Bydogszcz in Poland, a fortified settlement island with thirteen parallel rows of houses divided by roads and encircled by a rampart were excavated. The layout resonates communal order and indicates the presence of a coercive power. Throughout the period, exchange networks allowed goods to travel over vast distances and for the first time salt from the Austrian Alps and other places emerged as a valuable trade commodity. Hallstatt, the richest cemetery of the period, sits on top of a salt mine. Spiritual life also took on great importance and the bird became a beloved symbol. Figurines in the shape of birds have been found, as have numerous pots, cauldrons, and cult wagons with bird applications. Numerous rock carvings with engravings of humans, animals, boats and a variety of symbols were found in Sweden (Tanum), the Alps at Val Camonica north of Brescia, and on Monte Bego near Bordighera. The abundance of swords, daggers, spearheads, arrowheads, and armor found indicate the importance of war and the extensive choices available to the warrior.

4. From Chieftain To ‘State’ Organization In Celtic Europe: The Iron Age

By 600 BC, iron became the standard material for tools and weapons, while bronze was used for high quality art products. The explosion of trading ports around the Mediterranean provided a strong incentive for European development. Mediterranean goods were sought avidly and the most valuable ones were acquired by the wealthy as proof of their exalted status. The valleys of the Rhone and Saone provided easy access to the region from Burgundy to southern Germany. This west Hallstatt zone was pivotal as it spanned the upper courses of the Seine, Saone, Rhine, and Danube rivers and directly linked the continent north of the Alps. Greek-led trade intensified through the colony of Massalia in the sixth century and the elite in this northern zone controlled trade of exotic Mediterranean products, including prestige equipment for wine-drinking rituals of the Greek symposium. Large valuables, such as the human-sized bronze crater from Vix, were imported and were exchanged for local products and slaves. The native elite maintained full control of these exchanges and likely held lavish feasts and gift exchanges among important chieftains, including the famous chief from Hochdorf. At graves, social prestige was demonstrated by the inclusion of costly sets of wine-drinking equipment and other exotic gear with the dead. Funerary rituals took place in large-scale religious structures surrounding burial mounds. At Glauberg in Hessen, a kilometer-long ceremonial path leading to a grave from the early La Tene period was recently discovered. Hilltops also emerged as prime locations for defended residences for the nobility. At Mount Lassois in Burgundy and at the Heuneburg in Germany, huge quantities of Mediterranean luxury goods were found. The Heuneburg was surrounded by a mud-brick wall built on dry stone footings with forward-projecting rectangular bastions. This technique, common enough in the Greek world, was totally alien to temperate Europe, and is a striking example of how avidly the European elite adopted Mediterranean achievements, even when they were impractical for the climate. In the east, in Slovenia, a second group of less wealthy communities known as the east Hallstatt zone arose from the eighth to the fifth centuries. They were characterized by fortified settlements such as Magdalenska Gora, Vace, and Sticna and large cemeteries with aristocratic graves furnished with sheet bronze body armor and decorated situlae.

The rise of a new warrior elite and the drying up of the market for luxury goods in the early fifth century destabilized the east and west Hallstatt systems and by the middle of the fifth century caused their demise. A new, northern elite arose and relied on native craftsmen to produce luxury goods. Numerous late fifth century elite tombs have been found containing locally-made masterpieces of Celtic-style art. Schools of creative metalworkers emerged during this period and their work led to the creation of the first truly PanEuropean art style, known as Celtic or La Tene art. A rapid population increase, evident in the growth in the number of cemeteries, ensued and shook the social equilibrium. Over time, the system collapsed and resulted in a widespread migration. Late fifth and early fourth-century cemeteries which extend south into the Po Valley and east along the Danube into Hungary trace the path of this migration. Some early groups also crossed the great Hungarian plains and settled in Transylvania. In the Marne–Moselle region, elite burials continued at Somme-Bionne, Reinheim, and Waldalgesheim. But overall, the number of cemeteries decreased, indicating migration. In the tombs, young men were usually found accompanied by spears, swords and shields. Wealthier men had bronze helmets and some possessed two-wheeled chariots. It is these warriors, called ‘Gauls’ or ‘Celts,’ who, in tens of thousands, made their way across Europe seeking new lands to conquer and settlements to plunder. The Celtic migrations between 450 to 200 BC can be traced archaeologically across Europe through the La Tene culture, which is characterized by art depicting mobility, upheaval, and turbulence.

The northern limit of La Tene culture lay at the mouth of the Rhine and across southern Germany and northern Italy to the Carpathians. Further east, the Celts were well-established in the lower Danube region. In the early fourth century, they began moving eastward into Transylvania and in the third century they pushed into southern Thrace and Greece. In the north-east, Celtic groups crossed the Prut and Dnestr, exploiting the power vacuum left by the decline of the Scythians. One of the few surviving pieces of silver made during the disrupted Celtic period is the Gundestrup cauldron found in Jutland. The puzzle of this elaborate cauldron encapsulates the complexity of these migrations. The techniques used to make it are typically Augustian Thracian. Some of the figures on it, such as a warrior wearing a bird-crested helmet look Celtic, while other motifs are reminiscent of steppe shamanism. The cauldron was probably carried north as booty by raiding Germans.

5. Center And Periphery: Barbarian Europe And The Roman Empire

For Rome, the Rhine River marked an ethnic divide between the Celts to the south and the Germans to the north. In reality, tribes on both sides of the river had integrated to such a degree that few ethnic differences existed. Wealth derived from constant access to particularly fertile land and did not build up in the hands of any single group. Status could, however, be acquired by acts of bravery and leadership in raids. Power at this time lay with the elite and was measured by entourage and the ability to bestow patronage. The elites formed the tribal council. Caesar overran Gaul fairly easily because the Gauls were a settled people with a well-developed agricultural base and tribes centrally located on permanent defended settlements known as oppida. Oppida were the first urban centers in temperate Europe and have been found from France to Serbia. At Manching in southern Germany, the settlement was densely built up with regularly laid out timber buildings aligned along straight, ordered streets. A wide range of craft skills were practiced and coins were minted. Commodities such as wheel-turned pottery, glass beads, bracelets, and ironwork of every kind was done on an industrial scale. In oppida like Bibracte, cargoes of wine amphorae were exchanged with the local aristocracy for slaves and other commodities. This stability made Gaulish society soft and vulnerable. Germans were the opposite. Mobility and warfare were central to their lives and they had few southern luxuries. Since they had no oppida to protect, they could simply retreat and disappear. The Roman Empire desperately needed a continuous supply of raw materials and manpower. As its frontiers continued to expand, valuable metals and other commodities arrived. Rome’s greatest dependence lay in its need for slaves to keep the Roman system working. The scale of the slave trade was enormous. Judging from the distribution maps of artifacts in Free Germania, Romans traded coins extensively, but also traded sets of metal vessels used for wine-drinking rituals, buckets, situlae, and jugs. In this zone, a number of rich burial sites known as Lubsow were found. The graves contained extraordinary luxury goods, indicating that the dead were members of the elite, who, by virtue of their rank, were able to acquire a set of the most costly Roman items. Such local elite served as middle men between the Roman world and the Baltic region. This system of socioeconomic zones continued until the middle of the second century AD, when population expansion, social instability, and folk movements in Central Europe built up and pressured tribes along the frontier. They then threatened the stability of the Empire. The territory occupied by the warrior burials coincides with the region from which the Burgundians and Vandals are thought to have emerged. The first recorded indications of the growing problem came in AD 162 when a frontier tribe, the Chatti, attempted to migrate south into Roman territory. A few years later, the Longobardi and Marcomanni crossed the Danube into transdanubian Hungary. This was followed by even more massive movements by other tribes. These events, and the Marcomannic War fought by Rome between 166 and 180 AD, mark the beginning of a wave of migrations which within three centuries destroyed the Empire and laid the groundwork for the formation of medieval Europe.

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