Bronze metallurgy in Iron Age central Europe : a metallurgical study of Early Iron Age bronzes from Stična, Slovenia.

Abstract

The Early Iron Age (750-450 BCE) marks a time in the European Alpine Region in which cultural ideologies surrounding bronze objects and bronze production were changing. Iron was becoming the preferred material from which to make many utilitarian objects such as weapons and agricultural tools; this change can be clearly seen in the different treatments of bronze object deposits from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. The Early Iron Age hillfort settlement of Sticna in what is now southeastern Slovenia was one of the first incipient commercial centers to take advantage of the new importance placed on iron, conducting trade with Italy, Greece, the Balkans, and northern Europe. This metallurgical study of bronze funerary objects from Sticna identifies construction techniques, use patterns, and bronze metallurgical technologies from the ancient region of Lower Carniola. This information is then used to explore the cultural importance of bronze at Early Iron Age Sticna and to compare the bronze work of Lower Carniola with that of other regions in central Europe and Italy from this time of great change in Iron Age Europe.