Europe before History

by Kristian Kristiansen

Overview

The societies of the European Bronze Age produced elaborate artifacts and were drawn into a wide trade network extending over the whole of Europe, yet they were economically and politically undiversified. Kristian Kristiansen attempts to explain this paradox using a world-systems analysis, and provides a rich body of evidence to support his case. The result is a coherent overview of this period of European prehistory that addresses some of the larger questions raised in the study of the period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521784368
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/02/1999
Series:	New Studies in Archaeology
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	540
Product dimensions:	6.89(w) x 9.72(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Kristian Kristiansen is a pre-eminent archaeologist. He is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and a prolific author. His main research interests are in the European Bronze Age, archaeological theory and archaeological heritage.

Table of Contents

1. Background to the inquiry; 2. Background to the archaeology; 3. Theoretical context; 4. Regional systems: the social and cultural landscape in Europe in the Late Bronze Age, 1100–750 BC; 5. Regional divergence: the Mediterranean and Europe in the 9th-8th centuries BC; 6. The new economic axis: Central Europe and the Mediterranean 750–450 BC; 7. Transformation and expansion: the Celtic movement, 450–150 BC; 8. The emergence of the European world system in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age: Europe in the 1st and 2nd millennia BC.

Editorial Reviews

"Students will welcome this book about the Iron Age of Europe and the way it uniquely incorporates chapters on the Late Bronze Age urnfield cultures, which in many ways foreshadow developments in the Iron Age." Choice

From the Publisher