"A people that does not honour the great men of its history is like a human who renounces his own parents."
(Berthold Auerbach)
From stone to copper:
Although the Funnelbeaker culture introduced copper to northern Europe it took until after its decline before the use of copper became more wide-spread in this area, therefor the transfer period between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age is often called the "Copper Age".
In the period after the Funnelbeaker culture a new culture was introduced to Europe that covered an enormous area from the lands west of the Rhine to the east of the Wolga, this culture is called the "Corded Ware culture complex" (German: Schnurkeramik, Dutch: Snoerceramiek, Swedish: Snörkeramik), the origins of the Corded Ware culture are debated but one of the most plausible theories says that it was a mixture of the native culture of an area and one or more foreign cultures that were introduced by invaders from the east, it is widely believed that the Corded Ware culture was the first Indo-European culture in Europe but this can not be said with certainty because not enough is known from this period to draw any conclusions yet.
Another culture that played an important role during this period of foreign influences was the Bellbeaker culture that outlived the Corded Ware culture and consisted of many small culture groups scattered over a large area.
The Corded Ware culture:
The Corded Ware culture existed from 2900BC to about 2450/2350BC and can be divided into three groups; the Eastern European group, the Central European group, and the Northern European group (that was also known as Single Grave culture (English), Einzelgrabkultur (German), Enkelgrafcultuur (Dutch), or Enkelgravkultur (Swedish)).
This cultures were named after their pottery that was decorated with thin shaded lines that looked like cords, they also used copper axes but the main characteristic of the Corded Ware culture were the stone battle-axes they used, this axes had a hole in the middle that was fitted on a handle and was then secured with a cord, they had a sharp side and a blunt side that made it look like a combination of an axe and a hammer, because of this axes the Corded Ware culture is also known as the "Battle-axe culture".
The Corded Ware culture also introduced horseriding in many places, the horsebreed they used for this was the Tarpan; a small type of horse that was native to Europe, unfortunately it became extinct in 1876 but during the Bronze Age there were many herds of wild Tarpans that were domesticated and used by the first European horsemen.
The dead were buried in rectangular pits, in most cases a round mound was built on top of the grave and men and women were buried in opposite directions, perhaps this had some religious meaning, men were often given a battle-axe as gravegift though near the end of the Corded Ware culture the axe was replaced by the dagger as the most common male gravegift, perhaps this reflects a shift from the battle-axe to the dagger as the most used weapon.
In a bog near Wiepenkathen in Germany a flint dagger from 2400BC has been found that either dates from the late Single Grave culture (Northern European group of the Corded Ware culture) or the Bellbeaker culture, the dagger was left in the bog as an offering and its grip and sheath were decorated with a herringbone pattern, some daggers from that period also had a grip in the form of a fishtail.
The Bellbeaker culture:
The Bellbeaker culture (German: Glockenbecherkultur, Dutch: Klokbekercultuur) is named after the bell-shaped beakers it produced, this culture existed from around 2900BC to 1800/1700BC and coexisted with both the Corded Ware culture and the cultures after it until the start of the Bronze Age.
The Bellbeaker culture was not a united culture in a single area but rather a group of small related cultural groups that were scattered over Europe; groups belonging to the Bellbeaker culture have been found in Morocco, Spain, France, Italy, the British islands (perhaps the legendary Milesians from Celtic mythology reflect an invasion of Bellbeaker people?), parts of the Netherlands and Germany, northern Denmark, the Alps, and even parts of eastern Europe; perhaps the Bellbeaker culture consisted of semi-nomadic tribes who migrated through Europe and eventually settled when they reached a place they liked.
The amount of Bellbeaker groups in northern Europe was rather small but their culture did leave its mark in many places, the Bellbeaker influence was was especially high in the eastern parts of England and Scotland, Belgium, the Netherlands (excluding the northeast), Denmark (mainly the northern tip of Jutland), and in Germany (along the Rhine and the Danube, the mouth of the Oder, the source of the Elbe, and the Harz area).
The origin of the Bellbeaker culture is debated but it is believed to originate from the Iberian peninsula (modern day Spain and Portugal), perhaps later combined with cultural influences from Central Europe.
In most cases a migration of culture is caused by the transfer of ideas rather than a migration of people but this was not entirely true for the Bellbeaker culture; in parts of Denmark and the Netherlands burial places have been found that contained both skeletons of tall long-skulled people (the native Nordic people) and small short-skulled people (who are believed to be the early Bellbeaker settlers), it seems that the immigrants coexisted with the local population who adopted parts of their culture and the use of (among other things) bellbeakers, the short-skulled skeletons are not found in graves from later periods and it is believed that the local population either dislodged or assimilated the Bellbeaker people, there is also evidence of another immigration of Nordic settlers from Scandinavia and other areas, but despite this the cultural influences of the Bellbeaker people remained for quite some time.
The Bellbeaker culture mainly buried their dead though some rare examples of cremation are known too, they are also believed to have had a special warrior-class and some male burials contained daggers made of flint, copper, or even bronze, many men also carried a rectangular bone or stone plate tied around their left arm that was probably used by archers as wrist protection against the recoil of a bow string.
Just like the Corded Ware culture the Bellbeaker culture also introduced horseriding in many places, combined with their large area of settlement they were probably a very mobile people.
The transfer period:
After the decline of the Corded Ware culture northern Europe was dominated by two cultures: the Aunjetitz culture and the Nordic circle, though the Bellbeaker culture also still played a role in this period.
The Aunjetitz culture:
The Aunjetitz culture (also known as Unetice culture) roughly lived between the rivers Rhine, Danube, and Vistula, it existed from about 2300BC to 1500BC but this dates are still debated so there may even be a difference of up to a few centuries.
The Aunjetitz culture was one of the first cultures in northern Europe that started using bronze on a small scale, it also developed glass working and imported exotic materials from abroad.
The villages of the Aunjetitz culture were surrounded with farmland and protected by palisades, many hill fortressess were also built in this time which implies that the people often had to deal with unfriendly neighbours.
The battles of that time became different too; armies became more mobile because of the use of horses and chariots, battle axes and archery became less important and armies started using the spear as their main weapon, the shield also became a part of a warrior's standard equipment as well as the dagger, different types of body armour were also introduced and eventually swords were used too.
The Dagger Culture and The Nordic circle:
After the Single Grave culture a new culture emerged in Scandinavia and the northern shores of Europe that existed from 2400BC to 1700BC, this culture is called the "Dagger culture" after the beautiful stone daggers they made.
These daggers are believed to be flint copies of the bronze daggers that were used in central Europe in that time, the daggers of the Dagger culture are the most advanced examples of flintknapping that are known to historians and these days there are only a handfull of people in the world who have managed to reproduce these kind of daggers.
Although bronze was already in use in Europe is was still hard to obtain, especially in northwestern Europe where the people still mainly used tools and weapons that were made of flint.
Eventually the Dagger culture transformed into a new cultural group called the "Nordic circle" that existed from 1800BC to 1500BC, this new culture consisted of many closely related cultures that inhabited Scandinavia and the northern parts of the Netherlands and Germany, the name "Nordic circle" is a translation of the German name "Nordischer Kreis", which was introduced by the Swedish historian Oskar Montelius to describe the many local cultural groups in that period.
The people of the Nordic circle lived in small villages that consisted of rectangular houses with a small entry hall, they conducted amber trade and buried their dead in mounds.
They mainly worshipped the sun and there are signs that they considered the horse to be a holy animal, in battle they also used war chariots with multiple horses, the Nordic circle started using bronze around 1500BC.
From copper to bronze:
Although copper was used to make tools it was too soft to be durable and therefor the people started looking for ways to make it stronger, they added arsenic to it which made the copper harder and lowered the melting temperature but it remained too soft, eventually they discovered that adding a small amount of tin to the copper created an alloy that was much harder than copper or arsenic-copper, this alloy is called bronze; to make bronze one first had to obtain tin and copper, this materials were harvested in the mountains or in deep mines:
Tin was obtained by mining cassiterite and extracting the tin from it by burning it with coal in a furnace so that only the tin remained.
Copper was found in green- or blue-coloured copper veins, this veins were first heated with fires after which water was poured over the heated rock; the copper ore and the surrounding rock then expanded and contracted in different ways which caused cracks between those two, wooden wedges were then driven between this cracks and water was poured over them; the wet wood expanded and made the cracks even wider after which the copper ore was loose from the rock and could be collected.
The copper ore that can be found in Europe is strongly contaminated with sulfur and iron so before it could be used it had to be purified; the ore was first roasted in a fire to make the sulfur in it burn up and what remained was melted in an oven together with charcoal and quartz, this separated the iron from the copper.
After the melting process the iron was often thrown away because it was hardly used for anything (iron use was introduced much later), the copper was used to make bronze for weapons and jewellry, for normal every day items the people still used stone.
To make bronze the copper (90%) and tin (10%) were melted in ovens and mixed together, this created the alloy known as bronze, to create a bronze object the bronze had to be melted to at least 950° Celcius or 1742° Fahrenheit (the melting point of bronze) after which it was poured into a mould.
A mould was made of stone or a metal with a higher melting point than bronze, for unique objects the cire-perdue or "lost wax" method was used in which the form of the desired object was made of wax and then covered with clay, it was then heated which hardened the clay and melted the wax inside, the remaining clay mould was then filled up with bronze and when it was hard the clay was broken and a bronze object remained.
The Bronze Age cultures:
The introduction of bronze resulted in many local bronze cultures, during the Bronze Age there were so many of this small cultural groups that they are too numerous to name here and would only make it more confusing for the reader, therefor I shall only name the largest and most important cultures, most of the smaller cultures fell within their sphere of influence:
The Urnfield culture:
The Urnfield culture (German: Urnfeldkultur, Dutch: Urnveldcultuur) existed from about 1250BC to 600BC but as usual this dates are debated, the Urnfield culture originated from Hungary and in 800BC it stretched out from Spain to the Balkans and from Italy to Central Germany, because of that it was a very heterogenous culture that was adopted by many peoples throughout Europe.
In the Urnfield culture the dead were cremated and the ashes was put in urns that were placed above ground in long rows on hills in a field, hence the name "urnfield".
The Urnfield culture was very skilled in bronze working and the people lived in fortified villages that were often situated near lakes, it was also a real warrior culture; the Urnfield armies used chariots, shields, helmets, bronze body armour, and bronze swords.
In central Europe the Urnfield culture eventually gave birth to the Celtic Hallstatt culture though this two cultures existed side-by-side for some time, the Urnfield culture is often seen as the Proto-Celtic culture but it also influenced many other cultures in Europe.
The Hallstatt culture:
The Hallstatt culture was the first Celtic culture and it originated from the heart of the Urnfield culture, it existed from 800BC to 450BC and was one of the first cultures in Europe that started using iron, it is estimated that they started with that around 750BC.
From the Hallstatt culture the use of iron as well as the Celtic language and culture was spread over Europe which resulted in a Celtic hegemony over Europe that would last until the Roman conquest of Gaul in 52BC.
The Nordic bronze cultures:
While most of Europe was dominated by the Urnfield culture northern Europe was a patchwork of many small bronze cultures that were influenced by the Urnfield culture but remained largely independant, especially around the coasts of the North Sea this people had developed into skilled seafarers with a large trading network, at the end of the Bronze Age this cultures started moving south and layed the foundations of the later Germanic culture.
Just like the Germans later did the Nordic Bronze Age people carried cloaks made of fur or wool over their normal clothing (both men and women), men also carried blouse-like garments and sometimes caps, women carried long or short skirts that sometimes had beautiful embroideries, shoes were made from a single piece of leather.
Jewellry (especially bronze) was also very popular in that time and the people carried it everywhere; around their upper- and lower arms, fingers, legs, neck, on their heads, and sometimes even on their clothing.
During the beginning of the Bronze Age the dead were still buried in graves with small mounds built on top but eventually cremation became more popular and the dead were interred in urns, this may have been an influence from the Urnfield culture.
Bronze Age religion:
Although not much is known about the religion of the Bronze Age it is still possible to learn from archeological evidence (offerings, rock carvings, etc.) and the religion of the succeeding cultures.
It can be said with certainty that sun worship played an important role in the religion of the Nordic Bronze Age people and in Trundholm (Denmark) a beautiful wagon carrying a sundisk was found with a miniature horse in front of it, which reminds of the Germanic belief that the sun and the moon were carried across the sky by horse-pulled chariots.
Besides this sundisks the people also made golden sunships, which reflects an alternative belief about the sun being carried by a ship, such a sunship is believed to be depicted on the stardisk of Nebra (Germany), it is also possible that the worship of the Germanic sungod Balder dates from this time but this is mere speculation of course, as is the theory that the wargod Tiwaz was adopted from the Indo-European pantheon during this period.
Rock carvings from the Bronze Age also show sundisks, ships, and depictions of what are believed to be gods, some of them are depicted with a spear (Wodan?) and others carry something that looks like an axe or a hammer (Thunar?).
Ships were also important to the Bronze Age people and they are often depicted on rocks and objects, symbols like the sunwheel (circle with cross in it) were also used and seem to have been associated with wagonwheels and the sun.
Just like in the preceding periods it seems that holy places in nature still played an important role during the Bronze Age and most of the offerings in that time were deposited in water, clefts in rocks, on mountains or hills, and in bogs.
In some bogs wooden idols were placed that probably served as special offering places, a practice that is also known from the Germanic period, perhaps this idols represented a god to whom the bog was dedicated.
Weapons and other spoils of war were also offered, in most cases the items were first bended or broken to prevent the offerings from being stolen, other offerings were jewellry, pottery, wagonparts, horseriding-gear, agricultural tools, and semi-finished products.
The most characteristic offerings of the Nordic Bronze Age are the lyres (wind instruments) that were mainly found in bogs in Scandinavia, though examples from Germany are known too, most of them were offered in pairs and they are believed to have played an important role in religious rituals, other spectacular offerings are golden dishes and cone-shaped golden hats that were used throughout Europe in that time, probably by heathen priests or other important persons.
In a bog near Metz in Germany a deposit of 70 centimeter (28 inches) long bronze halberds was found that dates from about 2100-1950BC, the halberds were not strong enough for practical use so they are believed to have been used as sceptres by important persons, this type of halberds have also been found in Scandinavia though they were originally imported from central Europe.
Something that dates from a later period (1300-1050BC) is the bog body that was found in a bog in the Dutch province of Drenthe, the body is named "the man of Emmer-Erfscheidenveen" and it was ritually strangled, it is the oldest bog body that was found in the Netherlands.
Another interesting offering is the crown-shaped neckring that dates from 600BC and was found in a bog near Emmendorf in Germany, it was probably worn during religious ceremonies and weighs 770 gram, it must have been an uncomfortable item to wear.
Although most holy places during the Bronze Age were places in nature there are also some examples of man-made structures; on the Spandau lake in the German capital of Berlin there used to be a wooden platform where weapons (spoils of war?) were offered into the lake for a long time and in Bargeroosterveld in the Netherlands a temple was found that was built between 1478BC and 1470BC (middle Bronze Age), it was made of wooden beams with horn-like tips pointing upwards, within the structure there were 4 posts on which a small plateau may have rested that was perhaps used to lay offerings on, another theory is that it served to lay dead people on during funeral ceremonies though its location in the bog suggests that it was an offering place, eventually the little temple was destroyed, the reason for this is unknown but it may point to a religious conflict or a ritual offering of the temple by destroying it.
From bronze to iron:
Although bronze was a good and useful metal there was an even stronger type of metal whose secrets were reveiled to the people at the end of the Bronze Age; iron, this metal was called something like "isarna" by the early Germans, a word that was adopted from Celtic or Proto-Indo-European and meant something like "strong metal" or "holy metal".
Iron ore can be found in iron veins underground and in mountains though it can also be found in swamps and other places with a wet soil where iron particles in the water oxidize and form iron depositions, this type of iron is called limonite or swamp iron and was often used in northern Europe.
The temperature needed to melt iron into a liquid state is 1540° Celcius (2804° Fahrenheit) and to make it soft enough to work with a temperature of at least 1000° Celcius (1832° Fahrenheit) is needed, such extreme temperatures can not be reached with wood so charcoal was needed to make the fire hot enough, a fire in the open air cools down too quickly so a furnace also had to be built; a hole was dug in the ground and from mat-plaiting and clay a 1 meter (39 inch) high cone-shaped furnace was built on top of it, it was then alternately filled with pieces of swamp iron (or iron ore) and charcoal.
When the furnace was full everything was set on fire and stirred up with bellows until it reached a temperature of 1050 - 1150° Celcius (1922 - 2102° Fahrenheit), this did not melt the iron but transformed it into a sticky, almost liquid mass of which the iron and the waste products (also called "slag") were separated.
The slag was thrown away and the iron had to be heated again and was hammered to remove further contaminations from it, contaminations make the iron weak so the more it was heated and hammered the better the quality became, after that the iron could be used to make weapons or other objects, this method was used until far in the Middle Ages.
To make steel a small amount of carbon has to be added to the iron, which makes it harder but also more brittle, steel was unknown in the Iron Age but there is evidence that the Vikings made it during the early Middle Ages.
Stainless steel was invented much later (in 1913) by the Englishman Harry Brearley and is made by adding chromium to the steel (minimal 10.5%), a small amount of nickel is also added, stainless steel is shinier, harder, but more brittle than normal iron and has a high resistance to corrosion (rust).
This last two metals are a bit off-topic but I wanted to mention them anyway to show what the discovery of iron has led to, just take a look in your kitchen drawer and imagine we would still use stone and bronze.
The Iron Age:
The first indications for the use of iron in central- and northern Europe date from the 8th century BC but large scale use of iron was introduced to northern Europe around 500BC by the Germanic Jastorf culture who probably learned it from the Celtic Hallstatt culture, therefor the beginning of the northern European Iron Age as well as the birth of the Germanic culture are dated to 500BC.
From stone to copper:
The dead were buried in rectangular pits, in most cases a round mound was built on top of the grave and men and women were buried in opposite directions, perhaps this had some religious meaning, men were often given a battle-axe as gravegift though near the end of the Corded Ware culture the axe was replaced by the dagger as the most common male gravegift, perhaps this reflects a shift from the battle-axe to the dagger as the most used weapon.
After the Single Grave culture a new culture emerged in Scandinavia and the northern shores of Europe that existed from 2400BC to 1700BC, this culture is called the "Dagger culture" after the beautiful stone daggers they made.
The Bronze Age cultures:
Although not much is known about the religion of the Bronze Age it is still possible to learn from archeological evidence (offerings, rock carvings, etc.) and the religion of the succeeding cultures.
Something that dates from a later period (1300-1050BC) is the bog body that was found in a bog in the Dutch province of Drenthe, the body is named "the man of Emmer-Erfscheidenveen" and it was ritually strangled, it is the oldest bog body that was found in the Netherlands.