Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T17:54:06.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Inception of the Iron Age in Temperate Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

T. G. E. Powell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The first appearance of iron in Europe north of the Alps involves more than one story, and much, often ambiguous, evidence. It will be necessary to draw on Greece and Italy more than once in due course, but attention in the present state of enquiry should first be given to the region of the lower Danube, and territory stretching south along the Black Sea to the Bosphorus. This is not because of any abstract deductions that Thrace should form a necessary spring-board from Asia Minor into the depths of Europe, but because material is now coming to light that calls for special consideration on its own merits. A major step forward has resulted from excavations at stratified sites in the Dobrogea, in particular at Babadag (Morintz 1964), and at Cernatu (Székely 1966), and from the latter especially there is substantial evidence for iron smelting as well as forged products: iron strips as ready metal, but also shaft-hole and lugged axes, and blades for sickles, and other heavy duty tools. The chronological position of this iron industry remains open to discussion, and is bound up with evaluations of the pottery sequence especially as worked out at Babadag. The iron industry occurred in a level with pottery of the Middle Babadag style at both sites mentioned. Middle Babadag pottery continues shapes and motifs of the Early style, but decoration is executed with twisted and impressed cord, apparently a regional development.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 42 , December 1976 , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andronikos, M., 1969. Vergina I, Athens.Google Scholar
Azarpay, G., 1968. Urartian Art and Artifacts: A Chronological Study, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Balkwill, C. J., 1973. ‘The earliest horse-bits of western Europe’, PPS, 39, 425–52.Google Scholar
Barfield, L., 1971. Northern Italy before Rome, London.Google Scholar
Beck, C. W., 1970. ‘Amber in archaeology’, Archaeology, 23, 7–11.Google Scholar
Berciu, D., 1967. Romania, London.Google Scholar
Bittel, K., 1970. Hattusha: The Capital of the Hittites, New York.Google Scholar
Boehmer, R., 1972. Die Kleinfunde von Boǧazköj (Boǧazköj-Hattusă, VII), Berlin.Google Scholar
Bouzek, J., 1971. ‘Openwork “bird-cage’ bronzes’, in Boardman, J., Brown, M., & Powell, T., The European Community in Later Prehistory, 77–104.Google Scholar
Broholm, W., 1953. Yngre Bronzealder (Danske Oldsager, IV), Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Cowen, J. D., 1961. ‘The Late Bronze Age Chronology of Central Europe’, Antiquity, 35, 40–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowen, J. D., 1967. ‘The Hallstatt sword of Bronze on the Continent and in Britain’, PPS, 33, 377–454.Google Scholar
Desborough, V., 1972. The Greek Dark Ages, London.Google Scholar
Filip, J. (Ed.), 1966. Enzyklopädisches Handbuch zur Ur. und Frügerschichte, 1 (a–k), Prague.Google Scholar
Filip, J. (Ed.), 1969. Enzyklopädisches Handbuch zur Ur. und Frügerschichte, 2 (l–z), Prague.Google Scholar
Forman, W. and Poulik, J., 1954. Prehistoric Art (in Czechoslovakia), Prague and London.Google Scholar
Gallus, S. and Horvath, T., 1939. Un peuple cavalier préscythique en Hongrie (Dissertationes Pannonicae, Ser. II, 9), Budapest.Google Scholar
Gazdapusztai, G., 1967. ‘Caucasian Relations of the Danubian Basin in the Early Iron Age’, Acta Arch. Acad. Hungr., 19, 307–34.Google Scholar
Ghirshman, R., 1939. Fouilles de Sialk, II, Paris.Google Scholar
Ghirshman, R., 1964. Persia, from the origins to Alexander the Great, London.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M., 1956. The Prehistory of Eastern Europe, I, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M., 1965. Bronze Age Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, The Hague.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hase, F-W von., 1969. Die Trensen der Friiheizenzeit in Italien (Prähistorische Bronzefunde, XVI–I), Munich.Google Scholar
Jacob-Friesen, G., 1968. ‘Eine Pferdkopfkeule der fruhen Eiserizeit aus Strebenburgen’, in Clause, M. et al. (Eds.), Studien zur europäischen Vor-und Frügeschichte (Jankhun Festschrift).Google Scholar
Jantzen, U., 1972. Agyptische und orientalische Bronzen aus dem Heraion von Samos (Samos VIII), Bonn.Google Scholar
Kimmig, W., 1964. ‘Seevölherbeiregung und Urnenfelderkultun in von Uslar’, R., and Narr, K. (Eds.), Studien aus Alteuropa, Teil 1, Beihufte der Bonner Jahbücher, 10.Google Scholar
Kossack, G., 1954a. ‘Pferdegeschirr aus Gräbern der älteren Hallstattzeit Bayerns’, Jahrb. Rom. Germ. Zentralmus. Mainz, 1, 111–78.Google Scholar
Kossack, G., 1954b. Studien zum Symbolgut der Urnfeldederund Hallstattzeit Mitteleuropas, R–G F 20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kübler, K., 1943. Kerameikos Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen, IV, Berlin.Google Scholar
Landsberger, B., 1967. ‘Akkadisch-hebräische Wortgleichungen’, in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 16, Leiden, 176–204.Google Scholar
Morintz, S., 1964. ‘Quelques problèmes concernant la période ancienne du Hallstatt au Bas-Danube à la lumière des fouilles de Badabag’, Dacia, n.s. 8, 101–18.Google Scholar
Macnamara, E., 1970. ‘A Group of Bronzes from Surbo, Italy’, PPS, 36, 241–60.Google Scholar
Merhart, G. von, 1969. Bearbeitet u. herausgegeben von G. Kossack, Hallstatt und Italien.Google Scholar
Moorey, P. R. S., 1974. Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Adam Collection. London.Google Scholar
Müller-Karpe, H., 1961. Die Vollgriffschwerter der Urnenfelderzeit aus Bayern (Münchsner Beitrage zur Vor-und Frugeschichte, 6), Munich.Google Scholar
Niklov, B., 1970. ‘Tresor d'objects en fer de l'époque de Hallstatt près de Krividol, dep. de Vracam’, Archeologia Sofia, 51–8.Google Scholar
Petrescu-Dîmboviţa, M., 1958. ‘Objects halstattiens trouvěs a Bîrlad’, Dacia, n.s. 2, 59–67.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1965. Ancient Europe, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Pittioni, R., 1954. Urgeschicte der österreichischen Raumes, Vienna.Google Scholar
Podborsky, V., 1967. ‘Štrambeska dýka (Der Stanberker Dolch mit kreuzfōrmigen Griff)’, Arch. Rozh., 19, 194–230.Google Scholar
Podborsky, V., 1970. Mähren in der Spätbronzezeit und an der Schwelle der Eisenzeit, Brno.Google Scholar
Popa, A. and Berciu, I., 1964. ‘Contribution a l'étude des dépôts d'objects hallstattiens’, Dacia, n.s. 8, 87–100.Google Scholar
Potratz, J. A. H., 1966. Die Pferdetrensen des Alten Orient. (Annalecta Orientalia, 41), Rome.Google Scholar
Potratz, J. A. H., 1968. Luristanbronzen (Sammlung Sarre), Netherlands Hist-Arch Inst. XXIII, Istanbul.Google Scholar
Richlý, H., 1893. Die Bronzezeit in Böhmen, Prague.Google Scholar
Ridgway, D., 1973. ‘The First Western Greeks: Campanian Coasts and southern Etruria’, in Hawkes, C. and Hawkes, S. (Eds.), Greeks, Celts and Romans, London, 5–38.Google Scholar
Roska, M., 1942. Erdély Régészeti Repertoriuma, I, Thesaurus antiquitatum Trans-silvanica-rum, I, Kolozsvař.Google Scholar
Rusu, M., 1960. ‘Dokimmeriiskie detail konskoi sbruii iz Transilvanii’, Dacia, n.s. 4, 161–80.Google Scholar
Sandars, N. K., 1968. Prehistoric Art in Europe, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Sandars, N. K., 1971. ‘From Bronze Age to Iron Age: a sequel to a sequel’, in Boardman, J., Brown, M. and Powell, T. (Eds.), The European Community in later Prehistory, 1–30.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, A., 1971. The Dark Age of Greece, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Sprockhoff, E., 1950. Práhistorische Zeitschrift, 34–5.Google Scholar
Sprockhoff, E., 1956. Jungbronzezeithele Hortfunde der Südzone das nordischen Kreizes, (Periode V), Mainz.Google Scholar
Stenberger, M., 1971. Det forntida Sverige, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Székely, Z., 1966. ‘Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Frühhallstattzeit und zum Gebrauch das Eisens in Romaniën’, Dacia, n.s., 10, 209–19.Google Scholar
Thomas, E. (Ed.), 1956. Archäologische Funde in Ungarn, Budapest.Google Scholar
Thrane, H., 1963. ‘The earliest bronze cheek-pieces in Central Europe’, Aarboger, 1963, 50–99.Google Scholar
Török, G., 1950. ‘Pecs-Jakabhegy …’, Archaeologiai Értesitö, 77, 4–9.Google Scholar
Vanden-Berghe, L., 1959. Archéologie de l'Iran ancien, Leiden.Google Scholar
Vanden-Berghe, L., 1964. La nécropole de Khurvin, Istanbul.Google Scholar
Vasic, R., 1973. ‘The Decorative Style of the sixth century B.C. in the North Balkans’, in Novak, G. (Ed.), Acta 8° Congres 1971, Beograd, 174–9.Google Scholar
Vinski, Z., 1950. ‘Zoomorphe Kleinglastik aus den sudpannonischen Donauraum’, Arch. Orientální, 18, 339–42.Google Scholar
Vinski, Z., 1955. ‘Der “Thrako-Kummerische” Fund von Adarevci in Symrien’, Rond vojvodjanskih muzea, 4, 27–42, Novi Sad.Google Scholar
Werner, J., 1961. ‘Bronzenes Pferdkopfzepter der Hallstatt-zeit aus Předměřice bei Hradec Krālové’, Památhy Archeologosické, 52, 384–9.Google Scholar
Young, R. S., 1951–1966. Gordion: Preliminary Reports, American Journal of Archaeology, 55–70passim.Google Scholar