Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I am grateful to David Fontijn and Arianna Bruno for reviewing the manuscript. Thanks
to their comments and remarks this papers quality was substantially improved. Certainly
all the mistakes remain my responsibility.
2
Gosselain 2000, p.189.
3
Brysbaert 2011, pp. 1-3.
4
This approach is exemplified by the work of Arjun Appadurai, Alfred Gell, Richard
Davis and Nicholas Thomas. See also Hodder 2012.
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Hahn 2012, p. 7.
Kopytoff 1986, pp. 64-91.
7
Hahn Weiss 2013.
8
See Carl Gori in this volume.
9
Due to limited space here, it is not possible to deal exhaustively with hoard burial
locations, which however represent a fundamental aspect of hoarding practices. For the
most recent contribution on this topic refer to Hansen Neumann Vachta 2012 and in
particular to the contributions of Fontijn and Hansen Neumann Vachta.
10
Bruno 2012.
6
On this topic see Pare 1999, pp. 510-514, which speaks for this period of weighted
currency economy. According to Pare 2000, p. 29, the first evidence of the system of
bronze exchange based on hoarded scrap metal occurred in the Bhl-Ackenback horizon
at the transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age (16th century BCE), and was
then adopted over most of the European Metallurgical Province.
12
On the use of fragmented sickles as premonetary artefacts see Primas 1986 and
Sommerfeld 1994.
13
Peroni Carancini 1997, pp. 595601.
14
Peroni and Carancini have interpreted Late Bronze Age hoards as a transcultural
phenomenon characterised by craftsmens and finished products great mobility. In their
interpretation, the metallurgical koin (koin metallurgica) reflected the increasingly
high demand for prestige goods of the lites, which shared a common system of values
and ideologies.
15
Huth 2000, pp. 177-193.
16
Humphrey Hugh-Jones 1992.
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Urnfield
Cultures
Central Europe
Relative chronology
Ha B2B3
Ha B1
Ha A1A2
Br D
Br BC
1050-750
1100-1000
1250-1050
1400-1200
1500-1300
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had at least some metallurgical knowledge. The treatment to which they were
subjected speaks in favour of an intentional defunctionalisation of metal objects
and transformation of their meaning and status trough uncontrolled rage,
euphoric frenzy and ecstatic violence.36 The presence of unfinished and miscast
artefacts suggests the practice of casting objects expressly for these scrapping
ceremonies where ritual violence was used. Voluntary destruction was recorded also in several other Late Bronze Age hoards in Atlantic Europe.37
A similar violent behaviour is frequently recorded also in hoards belonging
to different metallurgical circles. The hoard of Koprivnica (Croatia), for
example, belongs to the so-called Danube-Carpathian metallurgical circle and
presents similar characteristics. Koprivnica is composed of forty-seven bronze
scraps. Signs of ritual violence are particularly evident on a bronze ring which
was intentionally twisted and bent to hold together a fragmentary razor, a small
fragment of a socketed axe and a twisted wire.38
There are several studies that deal with the fractures of metal objects, in
particular with the s.c. Waffenbruch,39 which demonstrate that the pattern of the
objects buried in hoards followed a deliberately chosen canonical selection.40
Lately, the relation between scraps and entire weapons was analysed by A.
ivilyt in her study on weapons depositions in north-central Europe.41 Comparing different types of damaged bronze weapons swords, daggers, axes,
spearheads which were found in different contexts, A. ivilyt demonstrates
that there are certain deposition trends that can be observed. The breaks operated
on the weapons before their deposition in hoards followed different rules in respect to the weapons deposed in the graves. Swords, for example, were unlikely
buried entire in graves, but they were often buried entire in a hoard and particular parts of the scrapped sword were more likely to enter in the hoard than
others.42
J. Brck argues that fire and fragmentation were media of transformation for
the human self,43 and that technological operations from the raw material to the
finished product were highly ritualised.44 Technologies such as metallurgy and
36
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Milcent 1998, pp. 55-69. Le Petit Villatte dates to the ninth century BCE (Ha B2-B3).
However, Milcent points out that among local bronzes it is possible to identify several
homogeneous sub-sets, like a batch of ten entire bracelets of type Ballingen or eight
bracelets of type Homburg (Milcent 1998, pp. 63-64).
60
Douglas and Isherwood 1996, p. 83.
61
Gregory 1980, p. 645 (original emphasis).
62
On gift-giving in the Homeric poems see Bertelli in this volume.
63
Swords, spears and daggers (ivilyt 2009). A completely opposite opinion is
presented by Mdlinger 2011. For use-wear analysis and the background surrounding the
real quantity of swords in circulation during the Bronze Age see Molloy 2011.
64
Mauss 1923-24; Godelier 1999; se also Rowlands 1993, in particular pp. 147-149,
where he argues that sacrifice and the production of memory are intertwined in the New
59
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Ireland material. This technique of gift production through mnemonics allows its imagery
to be spread over an expanding region and to serve as a means for the creation and the
apprehension of new forms of ranking.
65
For religious aspects between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age in Europe
refer to Schauer 1996.
66
bona-Trkman Bavdek 1996, pp. 31-71.
67
bona-Trkman Bavdek 1996, p. 65. One comparable pendant was found in a grave
from Grnwald, Bayern. From the Terramare area in north-western Italy come several
antler pins close to the bronze pendants. The double bird protome or barca solare has an
explicit cultural meaning in all Europe.
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7. Conclusion
The analysis of the chane opratoires steps that stand behind the metal
artefacts forming the so-called mundane or profane hoards clearly speaks in
favour of their interpretation as ritual rather than functional depositions. In all
cases, hoarding performance entails an everlasting alienation of prestige goods
in form of scraped or entire metal objects or casted and rough metal ingots
which can be interpreted as a gift to gods.76 In scrap hoards metal objects
undergo a process of ritual defunctionalisation which radically transforms their
status and meaning.77 Hoarding performance seems to have been complex and
articulated as it involved different segments of the society with different statuses
(metal holders, metal producers, etc.).
In merchants hoards the transformation process appears to be less marked,
and the buried objects retained, at least partially, their previous status and meaning. Metal items were probably purchased directly from the metallurgists in the
form of ingots and mint-fresh objects and given to the gods as such. As it can be
observed in Kanalski Vrh I, ritual violence is absent78 and the hoarding performance seems to be simplified in respect to the one observed in the scrap hoards.
In both cases, the ritual and the mundane-economic sphere of hoarding are
not to be detached and merge together trough the life-path of the objects, which
entire and fragmented pass through different stages that define their
transitory value and meaning. Differences in the hoards composition and the
objects state of conservation are not expressions of the hoards functional
variation. Rather, they mirror the changes in social structure occurred during the
Late Urnfield period.
Late Bronze Age hoards represent an alienation of metal from a natural
person (the individual, the community) to a non-natural person (god). Gifts to the
gods cannot be returned and these are the only gifts that increase personal
prestige over a long period, when the relation of the giver to a god is manifestly
a vehicle for the expression of relations between humans.79 In other words, ritual
gifts are not given with the aim of trying to gain a tangible counter-gift by the
gods, but to establish a prominent position in the community. Such conspicuous
76
80
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central Europe may have been connected with rituals as butchering and
harvesting tools. The presence of bronze ingots has been connected to the
offering of value in form of an aniconic gift offered to the gods.
An increased emphasis on wealth consumption in funerary contexts can be
observed in the Late Urnfield period, when ritual practices expressed through
metal hoarding were partially absorbed in funerary ceremonies.86 In this perspective it can be argued that during the Early Urnfield period local elites were not
able to maintain and pass their prominent position from one generation to
another, and inter-clan rivalry motivated the alienation of metal in form of
hoards as gift to gods. On the contrary, in the Late Urnfield period, as can be
inferred by metals distribution pattern in graves, the social status becomes
inheritable and social stability increased. Through this diachronic perspective,
the difference between Early and Late Urnfield hoards has to be interpreted in an
economic and sociological rather than in a functional perspective. The introduction of different types of objects and different ritual performances corresponds to different modes in which wealth was displayed and consumed, alike
directed to achieve and maintain status.
As C. A. Gregory observed in his study on modern Papua, where a gift-tomen was replaced by a gifts-to-god system, it is the ranking achieved by
alienation that is important, not the mode of alienation itself.87 Following P.
Bourdieus habitus theory, it can be argued that Late Bronze Age hoarding
performances can be regarded as the transfiguration of economic acts into
symbolic acts, where the gift ceases to be a material object to become a symbol
suited to creating a social link.88
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88
Bourdieu 1998, p. 104.
87
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