Handbook To Life In Prehistoric Europe

417 Pages·2006·4.96 MB·English

by  Jane McIntosh

HANDBOOK
TO LIFE
IN PREHISTORIC
EUROPE
S B
ELECTED OOKS
S A
BY THE AME UTHOR
Eyewitness Archaeology
(London: Dorling Kindersley; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994)
The Practical Archaeologist. How We Know What We Know about the Past.
2d edition (New York: Facts On File, 1999)
Civilizations. Ten Thousand Years of Ancient History.
With Clint Twist (London: BBC Worldwide Ltd., 2001)
A Peaceful Realm. The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization.
A Peter Nevraumont Book (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2002)
Ancient Mesopotamia. New Perspectives
(Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2005)
HANDBOOK
TO LIFE IN
PREHISTORIC
EUROPE
JANE MCINTOSH
Handbook to Life in Prehistoric Europe
Copyright © 2006 by Jane McIntosh
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact:
Facts On File, Inc.
An imprint of Infobase Publishing
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McIntosh, Jane.
Handbook to life in prehistoric Europe / Jane McIntosh
p.cm. (Handbook to life)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-5779-6
1. History, Ancient. 2. Civilization, Ancient. 3. Antiquities, Prehistoric. 4. Archaeology—History.
5. Europe—History—To 476. I. Title. II. Series.
D60.M45 2006
930.1′4—dc22 2005019775
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Text design by Cathy Rincon
Cover design by Semadar Megged
Illustrations by Sholto Ainslie
Printed in the United States of America
VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
C
ONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii 3 ECONOMY 101
Agriculture 102
LIST OF MAPS viii Wild Resources 112
Economic Strategies 117
Reading 125
LIST OF TABLES viii
4 SETTLEMENT 127
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Construction 128
Domestic Architecture 132
INTRODUCTION xi Settlements 140
Landscapes 158
1 GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT Reading 163
EUROPE 1
The Mediterranean 2 5 TRADE AND TRANSPORT 165
The Mountains 5 Trade 166
Temperate Europe 5 Land Transport 180
The Atlantic Facade and the North Sea 8 Water Transport 183
The Far North 9 Reading 189
Environmental Change 10
Reading 12 6 INDUSTRY AND CRAFTS 191
Wood 192
2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE 15 Textiles, Basketry, Nets, and Mats 195
Palaeolithic Europe 16 Leather and Furs 202
Early Postglacial Europe 24 Bone, Horn, Antler, and Ivory 204
Neolithic Consolidation 39 Stone 206
Late Neolithic 46 Salt 211
Chalcolithic 55 Metallurgy 212
The Bronze Age 63 Ceramics 226
The Iron Age 80 Vitreous Materials 230
After the Roman Conquest 96 Other Materials 232
Reading 98 Reading 236
7 RELIGION 239 11 SOCIETY AND LIFE 329
Religious Belief and Practice 240 Social and Political Organization 330
Shrines and Sacred Places 253 Crime and Punishment 333
Reading 270 The Organization of Industry 333
Gender 334
8 DEATH AND BURIAL 271 Everyday Life 335
Funerary Practices 272 Personal Appearance 339
Monumental Tombs 286 Food 344
Reading 293 Health and Medicine 347
Reading 349
9 WARFARE 295
Weapons and Armor 297 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 351
Fortifications and Defenses 301
Warriors 305 LIST OF MUSEUMS WITH
Conflicts, Battles, and Wars 308 IMPORTANT EUROPEAN
Reading 312 MATERIAL AND OPEN-AIR
MUSEUMS 358
10 LANGUAGE, LITERATURE,
AND THE ARTS 315 BIBLIOGRAPHY 361
European Languages 316
Writing 319 ELECTRONIC RESOURCES 373
Literature 320
Visual Arts 321 INDEX 375
Performing Arts 325
Reading 326
L I
IST OF LLUSTRATIONS
Romantic view of Palaeolithic Europeans 21 Grimes Graves 208
Mesolithic and Palaeolithic harpoon heads 27 Stone shafthole axes 210
Early farming 31 Elaborate bronze axes 215
Neolithic polished stone axes 36 A bronze founder’s workshop 219
An early Breton megalith 45 Molds for casting bronze axes 220
Beaker grave goods 61 A gold torc 222
Copper and bronze axes 68 Iron pincers and shears 224
A Danish flint dagger 70 A Celtic bronze coin 226
A decorated bronze disc 72 A TRB collared flask 228
A burial from Hallstatt 88 Glass gaming counters 231
The Torrs pony-cap 91 Shale buttons 233
A Roman killing barbarians 96 Amber ornaments 235
Cereal cultivation 103 A bronze figure of a god 244
A scavenging dog 112 Two lurer 246
Hunting wild boar 115 Pieces from the Rynkeby cauldron 247
Bronze fish hooks 117 The Ballachulish wooden figure 251
A flint sickle 121 The Corrymuckloch hoard 256
Skara Brae 130 Lindow Man 260
Mousa broch 139 Carnac alignments 265
An Iron Age settlement 145 Plan of the Avebury area 268
A Swiss lake village 147 Reconstruction of a funeral party entering
Section through a crannog 149 a megalithic tomb 272
The Trundle Iron Age hillfort 155 A Danish tree-trunk coffin burial 279
The Vix krater 168 A cinerary urn 284
A stone ax in a wooden haft 170 A Danish megalithic mound 288
Two bronze spearheads and a palstave 172 The passage grave of Newgrange 289
A Beaker 176 A French gallery grave 290
A rock carving of a wagon 181 Bronze swords 299
Log boats 184 A shirt of chain mail 300
Razors decorated with boats 188 An attack on a fortified camp 302
A decorated wooden bowl 195 Rock carvings of warriors 305
Clothing from a Danish tree-trunk coffin 198 The Deskford carnyx 310
The Iceman 203 A Neolithic carved stone ball 321
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
vii
A Danish pottery bowl 322 Material from a Swiss lake village 338
A lunula 323 A mended fibula 339
A bronze situla 324 Bronze Age woman’s clothing 342
The Basse-Yutz flagon 325 Two fibulae 343
A bronze arm ring 326 Two bracelets 343
A bronze horn 327 Personal toilet equipment 344
A rich grave at Varna 330 A saddle quern 345
Two flint axes 331
L M
IST OF APS
Political map of Europe 3 Later farming communities 56
Topographical map of Europe 6 Flint mining and the spread of metallurgy 57
Changing coastlines in Europe following Bronze Age trade and industry 64
the last Ice Age 25 Bronze Age Europe 65
Postglacial hunter-gatherers and the spread Early Iron Age Europe 81
of farming to 4500 B.C. 30 Europe in the Early La Tène period 90
The further spread of farming to 3500 B.C. 47 Europe in the Late Iron Age 93
Neolithic monumental tombs 53
L T
IST OF ABLES
Postglacial climate and vegetation 11
HANDBOOK TO LIFE IN PREHISTORIC EUROPE
viii
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Iam deeply indebted to the late David Clarke and encountered with whom I have enjoyed many fruitful
Eric Higgs and their still flourishing colleagues discussions. I owe special thanks to Dr. Alison Sheri-
whose inspired teaching first introduced me to Euro- dan, who very kindly made it possible for my artist,
pean prehistory, and to my fellow students of those Audrey McIntosh, to draw objects from the collec-
distant days and the other scholars I have since tions of the National Museums of Scotland.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ix