Barbarians Read online

  Soon after the discovery of the Archer, the skeleton of a young man about 20–25 years old was found nearby. His bones yielded a date of 2350–2260 BC. Grave goods included boars’ tusks, flint tools and gold ornaments like those of the Archer, but no beaker. Both men must have been related, since they shared a rare hereditary fusion of foot bones, so the younger man has been called the ‘Archer’s Companion’. Strontium isotope ratios showed, however, that the younger man grew up locally in southern England. Was he a descendant of the Archer?

  Then, archaeologists found a collective burial at Boscombe Down, also near Stonehenge, that contained the skeletons of at least five adult men, a teenager who was also probably male, and one, possibly two, children. One man was between 30 and 45 years old and had suffered an injury earlier in life that shattered his thighbone. He was buried in a crouched position with his head towards the north. The other men died in their late twenties, while the teenager was between fifteen and eighteen years old. Their disconnected bones were spread around the skeleton of the older man, so this was not their first burial spot. All the men and the teenager seem to have been related due to shared features of their skulls.

  An abundance of arrowheads in the grave led archaeologists to name these individuals the ‘Boscombe Bowmen’. The beakers that accompanied them were decorated with cord impressions showing continental connections. Strontium and the oxygen ratios in their teeth narrowed their points of origin to Wales, although Brittany, Portugal, the Massif Central of France and the Black Forest are also possible. Their premolars and molars, however, had different isotopic signatures, indicating that the Bowmen lived in one place until the ages of five to seven and another between the ages of eleven and thirteen, before moving to the Stonehenge area. This is very strange, since they are of different ages. Was this a routine pattern of movement, in which children were sent to a different region later in childhood? Or had these related men been born and grown up around the same time and then moved to the Stonehenge region together, before dying at different ages, and then those who had died earlier were reburied with the last one when he finally passed away?

  These three burials show how people travelled to the Stonehenge area from great distances. Clearly, the ritual landscape and mortuary monuments of this region held a powerful attraction. The story of the Amesbury Archer, his Companion and the Boscombe Bowmen provides a small snapshot of the people who lived during the late third millennium BC in southern England. Archaeology is a collection of such snapshots, a few crisply focused, most very blurry. Let us now back up a few thousand years and zoom out to include more space and time to examine the changes in Stone Age society that culminated in the people who made the Bell Beakers.3

  After the ice

  By about 10,000 years ago, the ice sheets that had covered much of northern Europe had retreated back to northern Scandinavia. Forests sprang up over regions that until recently had been covered by ice and tundra. The glaciers left the landscape dotted with lakes, and rivers carved new courses on their way to the sea. The new forests were full of game and edible plants, while rivers, lakes and seas teemed with fish and other aquatic animals as well as being magnets for waterfowl. Vast colonies of seals sprang up along the coasts. Stone Age people who lived by hunting, gathering, fishing and collecting quickly recognized the possibilities that these rich resources presented.

  The coastlines of northern Europe were still changing; hunters could still walk from Denmark to England. Ireland, however, became separated very soon after the glacial retreat, which is why no snakes lived there. The Baltic Sea started as a freshwater lake fed by retreating glaciers, but rising global sea levels eventually overcame the land bridge between Denmark and Sweden. The North Sea basin was eventually flooded as well. By about 7,500 years ago, the European coastline looked much more modern, although parts of Scandinavia freed from the crushing burden of ice continue to move upward even today, resulting in further changes to the coastline.

  Bottom of a Stone Age dugout canoe on the seabed at Ronæs Skov, Denmark.

  The post-glacial hunter-gatherers of temperate Europe adapted their technology to new environmental conditions. These included new types of stone tools that made more efficient use of flint resources when embedded in handles of wood and antler. Antler was also used for making harpoons. A very clever and effective fish spear was called a ‘leister’. Leisters were composite tools, consisting of two curving and barbed pieces of antler and a bone or wood point attached to a wooden handle. When thrust downward over the back of a fish spotted in the clear water, the antler pieces would grip the fish at the sides and the point would pin it in place just long enough for it to be pulled from the water. Combinations of materials, such as flint with wood, to make composite tools represented a major advance over Ice Age technology.

  Mastery of wood was a hallmark of these Stone Age communities. Much of it was used to make equipment for fishing. Conical traps into which fish (especially eels) could swim but not escape were made with willow, dogwood or hazel branches. Wooden fences of stakes and branches were built across shallow bays. At high tide, fish could swim over them, but at low tide they would be stranded and could be collected. Such facilities permitted catching of fish on an immense scale. They required concepts of property and ownership, since people would not invest time in building and maintaining them if the fish could simply be taken by others.

  In the watery world of northern Europe, Stone Age people regarded streams, rivers, lakes and calm seas as places for hunting and catching, as well as routes for movement so they could position themselves to get the most out of the environment. They developed new watercraft as well as the equipment needed to use them effectively. Dugout canoes made from tree trunks appear in the archaeological record around 8000 BC, usually in waterlogged sites like bogs, lakeshores and shallow bays. Along with canoes, wooden paddles have also been found. At the Danish site of Tybrind Vig, about a dozen paddles made mainly from ash wood were discovered.4 Some were decorated by carving, stamping and painting, indicating that their owners not only considered them to be tools but also a medium for artistic expression.

  The development of watercraft and their associated technology permitted hunters and collectors to travel much further from home, but at the same time they could maintain settlements without having to relocate often, perhaps even throughout the year. Here, they could use large fixed structures like fish traps rather than carry their equipment from place to place. The concept of a place to call home replaced the idea of a territory or home range. Some locations, like the ‘kitchen midden’ shell mounds along the shores of Denmark, were heavily used, presumably by a resident community.

  Another indication of an attachment to particular places is provided by the development of cemeteries during the sixth and fifth millennia BC, such as the ones found at Skateholm in Sweden, Zvejnieki in Latvia and Oleneostrovskii Mogilnik in Russia. Great care was taken with burying the dead. Many bodies were sprinkled with red ochre (iron oxide), while deer antlers and flint tools were often placed in graves. At Skateholm, dogs were buried with the same care as people,5 indicating their importance as companions and guardians.

  The post-glacial hunters, fishers and gatherers of northern Europe are now recognized for their creativity in adapting to new environmental conditions and developing new social arrangements. Their way of life was quite successful. Deer, wild pigs, fish and hazelnuts provided a reliable supply of food. In fact, the abundance of resources from the forests and oceans may have contributed to a delay in the adoption of agriculture by Stone Age communities across much of northern and western Europe.

  Farmers in the forests

  Around the same time that ice was disappearing from northern Europe, prehistoric communities in the Near East began intensively harvesting certain plant species and controlling certain animal species. Around 11,000 years ago, the selection for desirable characteristics in wheat and barley and in sheep and goats began to manifest itself in the archaeological record in
the Levant and the hills of Turkey and Syria.6 Later, cattle, pigs, lentils and peas were also domesticated. These plants and animals formed what could be called the ‘founder crops’ and ‘founder livestock’ of the earliest Old World agriculture. From this core area, domestic plants and animals, as well as the embrace of the changes in human society that such a transformation entailed, spread outward to North Africa, southwest Asia and Europe.

  The spread of farming to Europe began about 9,000 years ago, or just after 7000 BC, from Anatolia to Greece.7 All the principal plants and animals used by the earliest European farmers were first domesticated in the Near East. In some cases, farming communities migrated to settle new fertile soils, while elsewhere hunter-gatherers chose to settle down and adopt crops and livestock. From Greece, we can trace the spread of farming and farmers northward and westward through the appearance of the bones of domestic animals, charred grains and distinctive pottery. By 6000 BC we find agricultural communities in Italy and in the Danube valley. A millennium later, they had reached the Atlantic and the English Channel.

  Reconstruction of the burials of two young Stone Age women at Téviec, Brittany, France, showing shell necklaces and deer antlers.

  Within the area that we are calling the Barbarian World, the first farmers settled fertile soils in the river basins of central Europe like those of the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe and the Vistula. They made distinctive incised pottery, and their settlements have traces of large timber houses, sometimes over 21 metres (70 ft) long. These longhouses were the largest free-standing buildings in the world 7,000 years ago.8 Their inhabitants grew wheat, barley and peas and kept mainly cattle, unlike the early farmers in Greece and the Balkans, where sheep and goats were the main livestock. Chemical analyses of ceramics have shown that cattle were used for milk as well as for meat. Not all was happy, however, and evidence of massacres at Talheim and Schöneck-Kilianstädten in Germany indicates that the early farmers had a violent side.9

  The hunter-gatherers who lived along the coasts of northern Europe in 5000 BC, with their abundant resources, did not immediately find much attraction in agriculture. Hunting, fishing and collecting were more than adequate for their needs. For over 1,000 years, they continued their way of life. Around 4000 BC, however, something led them to adopt domestic plants and animals. The reasons for this transition in Scandinavia and the British Isles are unclear. Something disrupted the hunter-gatherer economy, perhaps climate change or a new technology like dairying, that ultimately caused the adoption of farming in northwestern Europe. By 3000 BC farming could be found as far north as the Shetland Islands and to the limit of the growing season for early wheat. A similar transition took place in the Alpine regions of central Europe, where agricultural communities were established on the shores of lake basins in Switzerland and adjacent parts of Germany, France, Austria and Italy starting just before 4000 BC. The story of the ‘Swiss Lake Dwellings’, which follows below, is a case study in the history of archaeology and in modern analytical approaches.

  Original wooden piles in Lac de Chalain, rive occidentale (FR-39-02) with the reconstruction of a Stone Age dwelling in the background.

  Lake views at the foot of the Alps

  During the cold and dry winter of 1853–4, lake levels near Zürich dropped. The receding water revealed a layer of black sediment, out of which rows of wooden posts protruded. The sediment layer contained animal bones, antlers, pottery and objects made from wood, bone, antler and flint. Since the local schoolteacher collected antiquities, the residents brought it to his attention, and he in turn notified Ferdinand Keller (1800–1881) of the Antiquarian Society in Zürich.10

  Keller realized that the posts were parts of structures and the artefacts were the traces of prehistoric settlement. Unlike dryland sites, the waterlogged finds from the Zürich lakes were exceptionally well preserved and included hides and textiles, seeds and fruits. The fact that they had been submerged was also unusual. There was no question that these were prehistoric sites, but the question of ‘how old?’ was not easily answered. Keller first attributed them to ‘Celts’, and thus began public fascination with the ‘Swiss Lake Dwellings’.

  Seeing the posts sticking out of the lake mud, Keller proposed that the houses were built offshore on platforms, connected to the shore with gangplanks, and their residents simply pitched rubbish into the water. He called them ‘pile dwellings’, or Pfahlbauten in German. It is not certain where he got this idea, but around the same time, travellers were reported seeing pile dwellings on lakes in Malaya and the East Indies. He may also have heard about Irish and Scottish sites called ‘crannogs’ built on artificial islands in lakes.

  The romantic vision of prehistoric people living on platforms fired the imagination of the public, and archaeologists embraced it as well. Paintings and models depicted pile dwellings fancifully, with happy people living an idyllic life. Over time, it became clear that the inhabitants of these sites were farmers, since the sediments yielded bones of domestic animals and plants, along with many wild species, but most of them lacked metal finds. Wooden artefacts included picks, hoes, sickles, axe handles and arrows. Fishing nets, baskets, ropes and textiles were made from plant and animal fibres.

  During the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, more waterlogged settlements were discovered around the Alpine foothills. Excavation techniques in early years were crude, but more refined methods and better understanding of how lake levels changed over the centuries led to reappraisal of the idea of houses built on platforms over open water. Traces of hearths and floors were identified among the posts. By the middle of the twentieth century, the idea of wooden islands was discarded, and archaeologists accepted the idea that the settlements had been built on the lakeshores. Since the ground was wet and soft, the posts that formed the structural elements were driven deep to keep the buildings from sinking. As lake levels rose, the bottoms of the posts and the domestic rubbish deposits were covered by water and preserved.

  New methods of excavation and analysis, as well as the frequent discovery of new sites, make the lake dwellings an important area of current research. Arbon-Bleiche 3 lies submerged in a shallow bay on the south shore of Lake Constance. We know that this shoreline settlement was occupied between 3384 and 3370 BC based on the tree rings of the timbers.11 The inhabitants of 27 houses grew wheat, barley, peas, flax and opium poppy and collected elderberries and hazelnuts. They raised pigs, sheep and cattle, hunted deer and wild pigs and caught many kinds of fish. A typical house at Arbon-Bleiche was about 4 by 8 metres (13 × 26 ft), with walls made from branches plastered with clay and sealed with moss. A fire swept the settlement around 3370 BC, and due to rising lake levels it was not rebuilt. Arbon-Bleiche 3 is an excellent example in which the combination of remarkable preservation, modern analytical methods and the ability to date finds precisely using tree rings has advanced our knowledge of early European farmers.

  Wheeled vehicles

  The Stone Age caveman chipping a wheel from a block of stone is a figment of the cartoonist’s imagination. In reality, wheels and wheeled vehicles were invented around 4000–3500 BC, and there is considerable evidence for their early use in central and northern Europe. Before getting to the wheel, it was necessary to have something to pull the wagon, and the use of oxen for traction began during the late fifth millennium BC. The recognition that large domestic animals could be used for their power was as significant a development as agriculture itself.

  Evidence for early wheels comes in three forms: actual wooden wheels preserved in waterlogged deposits; models or depictions of wheels and wagons; and rutted tracks made by repeated passes of wheeled vehicles.12 The waterlogged lake-dwelling sites of Alpine Europe have yielded almost two dozen preserved wheels dating to the fourth and third millennia BC. Most were made from three boards (usually maple) connected by strips of wood (usually ash) fitted tightly into slots across the joints. Representations of wagons on pottery and models are found a bit further east. A vessel at
Bronocice in Poland from about 3500 BC had a schematic image of a four-wheeled wagon, while several ceramic wagon models are known from Hungarian sites like Budakalász. A pair of oxen made from copper was found at Bytyń in Poland, unfortunately without a precise date but probably from the third millennium BC. Finally, ruts interpreted as having been caused by ancient wheeled vehicles have been found at Flintbek in northern Germany.

  The invention of wheeled vehicles had important consequences for the lives of early farming communities. Draft animals – for drawing heavy loads – would have been major investments, and a family that owned them would be significantly wealthier than one that did not. Initially, wheeled vehicles probably simplified life close to home, enabling a family to transport crops from fields and firewood from the woods with less effort. Eventually, they came to be used over longer distances.

  Copper metallurgy

  Beginning in the sixth millennium BC in the Balkans but starting in earnest during the fourth millennium elsewhere in central Europe, Stone Age farmers began to mine and smelt copper in order to make artefacts and tools. In order to do this, they had to achieve very high temperatures. Pure copper melts at 1981°F (1083°C), and thus pottery technology had to advance sufficiently to attain such high heat. When copper ore is heated above this point, the metal separates from impurities. It can then be hammered into strips and sheets, which were used by Stone Age people to form artefacts such as beads, bracelets and pendants, or it can be cast in moulds to make larger objects like axes.

  Copper ores like malachite and azurite occur in very specific locations.13 In northern Europe, the best-studied sources are found in the eastern Alps, in the Harz mountains of central Germany, in northern Wales and in southwestern Ireland. Mines were dug into the sides of mountains, where seams of ore were heated and then doused with cold water to crack the rock. From these sources, smelted copper was passed on to metalsmiths, who shaped it into ornaments and tools.