Culture and Change in Central European Prehistory

Helle Vandkilde

• Publisher: Aarhus University Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9788779342453
• eBook ISBN: 9788779349766
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is a cohesive overview of Central European prehistory from the introduction of agriculture around 6000 BC to the state-forming processes that began to emerge during the first millennium BC. A complex mosaic of culture, society and processes is mirrored in the material world and in certain periods involves a large part of the Eurasian continent. Culture and change must be understood as both localised and macro-regional: the book is a cultural-historical tale - inspired by, for example, the attempts of French historians to integrate different levels of history. Emphasis is laid on the eventful boom periods where innovations and cross-cultural interaction intensified in such a way that history's mainly reproductive pattern was broken. Important turning points are attached, among other things, to the first production of food, copper- and bronze metallurgy, and the sword as a weapon and symbol. These technical innovations were part of a complicated interaction with social and cultural processes, which in many cases are connected in a pattern that can be followed in time and space.

Table of contents

• Front Matter
• Contents
• Preface
• PART I
• PART II
• PART III
• PART IV
• References and Further Reading
• Geographical Index
• Index of Names
• Subject Index