Bronze Age Amber Trade

Doposud se lokalizovaly možné trasy jantarových stezek hlavně na základě četnosti nálezů jantarové suroviny a šperků. V Německu se podařilo objevit sídliště z doby bronzové v místě nazývaném podle jantaru – Bernstorf 1. Dá se tenhle postup použít i na území Čech?
So far they localize possible routes of amber routes mainly based on the frequency of discoveries of amber jewelry and raw materials. In Germany, discovered a settlement from the Bronze Age in the place called by amber – Bernstorf. It is this technique used in Bohemia?
Bisher Localize Sie Mögliche Routen von Bernsteinstraßen vor allem auf die Häufigkeit der Entdeckungen von Bernsteinschmuck und Rohstoffe. In Deutschland Entdeckt aus der Bronzezeit eine Siedlung in der Platz von Bernstein benannt – Bernstorf. Es ist diese Technik verwendet in Böhmen?
KW: Bernstorf, Bernstein, Knovíz, amber, route, bronz age, Bronzezeit, Bernsteinstraßen, jantarová, stezka,

Uno studio approfondito su Reitia, la somma dea dei Veneti, scoprendo le analogie con le dee solari del Nord-Europa. Attraverso mito e archeologia nuove concezioni ampliano gli orizzonti dell'antropologia dei Veneti antichi. Nove pagine di bibliografia internazionale.

Considerable quantities of Nordic/Baltic amber occur in Irish later Bronze Age deposits. This exotic material reached Ireland through exchange networks that may have stretched all the way to the coasts of Denmark. This paper reviews some of that evidence and then looks to the texts of medieval Ireland in a search for analogies of how such travel might have been socially facilitated.

Baltic amber’s popularity and its role in various cultures, from the prehistoric to the contemporary, is a very broad and complex subject. Therefore in this text I present an overview of selected cultural links and ways of using amber in different times.
There were various attempts to explain the origin of the Baltic fossil resin in the beliefs of many cultures. However, if we look closely at the mythological traditions, we will find that those legends are similar to each other. In Greece the origin of amber was associated with the story of Phaeton, the son of Helios the sun god. The story is told for example in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. They were very popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, translated into many languages, including by art theoreticians (Carel van Mander). The fragment concerning the story of Phaeton and the origin of amber was not often visualised by artists (Goltzius, Santi di Tito, Hans van Aachen).
Humankind has been using Baltic amber since time immemorial. The magical function of amber artefacts very quicky began to be combined with an aesthetical role. Early Modern objects made of multicoloured amber were diplomatic gifts, aristocratic wedding presents and an object of desire of dedicated collectors. It became, as it were, a mirabilium or treasure coveted by collectors. Surrounded with a peculiar aura and care, with time it became a collector’s item and finally also an object of research.

The Late Bronze Age amber working site of Campestrin di Grignano Polesine (north-eastern Italy) - The
settlement of Campestrin Grignano Polesine is located approximately 50 km from the North-western Adriatic coast and 10 km
East from Frattesina. Currently it is the most ancient site with evidences of Baltic Amber workshops in the Mediterranean area
(13th–12th c. BC).
Since 2012 a research on provenance, technology and typology of the amber of Campestrin has been carried out and here the
preliminary results are discussed. A huge amount of sub-centimeter splinters and a more reduced number of blocks of raw material,
semi-finished and finished products - including “Tiryns type” beads - have been found. 20 elements were analyzed by infrared
spectroscopy and they are composed by succinate. For which is concerning the technological and traceological analyses
the preliminary results of the reconstruction of the chaîne operatoire of the “Tiryns type” beads are here discussed. Thanks to
Campestrin is possible to state that the Tyrins beads were produced in Northern Italy during the Recent Bronze Age, at the same
time of the oldest attestations of this kind of beads in the Aegean and Levant Mediterranean

FINAL 2023 update to replace in around 360 pages the existing excessively long "The Veneti Language..." which is close to 1000 pages and some say with too many side topics and repetition and hard to read. It continues to document my improvement of the results in the deciphering and reconstruction of the ancient Venetic Language that is presented in the ancient inscriptions on objects in the Veneto region of Northern Italy.

Lead Isotopes Analysis (LIA) is a well-established technique, that is used to determine the origin of copper in an artefact under investigation (i.e. “provenancing”), through lead isotopes ratios.
By comparing the ratios of the lead isotopes 204, 206, 207 and 208, the isotopic signature of an archaeological relic, whether it appears as an artefact, semi-finished or remnant, can be characterized in a three-dimensional space. This characterization can be compared with that obtained from samples, taken in mines or in ore fields, that were supposedly used in ancient times.
However, this technique introduces many risks that cannot be unspoken which, if not properly evaluated, can lead to conclusions even far from reality. These risks were examined and investigated by many authors.
In this paper, I'll focus only on two major risks: the lack of geographic coverage of the possible ancient ores and the possibility that, starting at least from 12th century BC, the pick-ingots have been produced from many plano-convex ingots and therefore from different copper sources.

The present book which has just made its way to you did so for a reason. It is because books, just like any other objects, have their own soul and their own history that have to be respected, and they will stay only with such persons who pay them respect. In fact, this book is an “object” about objects that have been re-discovered. It is about lost things, about buried treasures, personal and collective, beloved and kept, discarded and unwanted, old and new, about symbols and metaphors… it is about objects that did not mark only their own, but also my and our common past. In the course of their life cycles their “soul” has been purified and their past is thus very remote. Through a “rebirth” in our era they got a chance to have their past interpreted, which is a complex and never ending “mission”. However, with a reliable provocation and a perfect motivation, the research of their meanings, values and backgrounds within a broader, larger and more detailed cultural context, enables us to discover “worlds” of consciousness and knowledge about the period of their then present. This was the time of the so called Late Bronze Age, an exceptional period covering the last centuries of the 2nd and the transition to the 1st millennium BC. It displays a specific manifestation on the territory of the northern Adriatic, in particular on the Kvarner territory – the area of my “object”, of my past and of our common present. The Kvarner area is the “point of departure” of every single, selected object presented in this book. In a specific “form”, which managed to be preserved or to “survive” for more than 3.000 years these artifacts reached me/us in extremely reduced quantities and in states of preservation which often required much effort in trying to understand their initial, primary, secondary and metaphorical meaning. Since this is one of the most poorly researched areas of the eastern Adriatic coast, as well as on the territory of today’s Croatia, this book presents, analyzes and interprets an impressive number of finds. Although the majority of those objects was published and is well known in the scientific literature, the attitude to those finds was often not satisfactory. In fact, it was an attitude of superficiality and underestimation, depriving them of that certain respect. It is because of such an attitude, which has unfortunately been confirmed lately, and from the perspective of that ancient culture of living and behaving, that I have tried to include amongst known artifacts also such finds from old, forgotten publications, both from chance finds and private property, as well as recent discoveries. This is why only a smaller number of finds has been published for the first time. However, the cultural, stylistic and typological, interactive and significant context of their essence and “soul” within the vast network of knowledge and skills of that past has been significantly extended and explained. “Old” and “new” artifacts united into one single “object” will redirect their manipulation and thereby also the evaluation of their cultural past and heritage of one of the most interesting and most colorful areas of the whole Adriatic basin.
The book has several units. The introductory discussions about the spatial reach and the natural features of the Kvarner area, as well as an overview of the sites and history of research provide basic information and illustrate the situation that follows in the most important part of the book – i.e. the Typological classification, chronological determination and cultural interpretation – containing all the finds that have been collected, by applying the archaeological method, but which have been analyzed and interpreted within a broader spatial and cultural context. The interpretations set and accepted are put into a more relative perspective in the final chapter, they are discussed within a reconstructed context of social potential, of cultural and historical manifestations which have not been critically evaluated in this way so far.
Being aware of the fact that every inconsistency or mistake in the present work is exclusively and only my responsibility, I wish you, dear readers, a pleasant and/or useful reading of the past which surely has its own soul.

Baltic amber reached the Mycenaean and Levantine kings by means of a prestige circuit of royal gift-exchanges extending across the Mediterranean area. Amber was valued for its magical properties, which were believed to guarantee victory, fertility, and fortune. It was used for its healing and therapeutic powers, and served as an ingredient in incense, unguents, and perfumes. Jewelry made of ambler could signal allegiance to another person, provide guidance, serve a talismanic function, or ward away danger. A more complex analysis of ancient texts and archaeological finds in the framework of a cross-cultural perspective may reveal the significance of possessing (wearing), giving (gift-giving), and offering (funerary and votive amulets) raw or worked amber in the Late Bronze Age Levant.

"Approximately 4ooo amber items from the Bohemian Únětice
Culture are known from a total of 1o7 sites: 87 burial grounds
(3o4 graves), seven deposits, seven settlements and six undetermined
sites. The amber comes from approximately 15–2o %
of all classic Únětice Culture graves (36oo pieces = 9o %). Existing
analyses have confirmed the Baltic origin of the amber.
We date nearly all of the finds to the classical Únětice Culture
(ca. 2o5o/2ooo–18oo/175o B. C.). Bohemia is far richer in
amber than all of the surrounding regions and was the main
target area for trade with amber in the broader central European
region. If it is already possible to speak of an »amber
trail« at this time, it would have run from the Polish Baltic
coast to Bohemia. Amber was then distributed from Bohemia
to further regions (Moravia, the Danube Valley, central
Germany).
The massive influx of amber into Bohemia suddenly stops
around the middle of the 18th century B. C. with the end of the
classical phase of the Únětice Culture; the Maďarovce-
Věteřov cultural complex then formed to the immediate
southeast.
Bohemia then lost its privileged status and
became a peripheral territory. The centre of development
shifted to the area of Maďarovce-Věteřov, a fact supported by
amber finds which disappear from Bohemia and appear in
greater amounts in precisely this area (see Jelšovce). As such,
the change in the distribution of amber finds over time documents
not only the collapse of the existing system of the
amber trade in the decades around 175o B. C., but also the
collapse of the system of supra-regional contacts on which
the blossoming of the advanced civilization of the classical
Únětice Culture had been based. Nevertheless, our current
state of knowledge does not permit us to connect this process
with the volcanic eruption on Thera, which occurred up to
several generations later (1613 ± 13 B. C.)."

About 4000 amber artefacts from the Bohemian Aunjetitz culture are known from a total of 112 sites, mainly burial
grounds (90 sites/312 graves). Nearly all of the finds can be dated to the classical Aunjetitz culture (ca. 2000–1750 B.C.).
The amber comes from 15–20 % of all graves of this period. Analyses have confirmed the Baltic origin of the amber.
Bohemia is far richer in amber than all of the surrounding regions and was the main target area for trade with amber
in central Europe. If we can speak at all about an “Amber Road” for this period, it leads from the Polish Baltic coast to
Bohemia. Amber was then redistributed from Bohemia to further regions (Moravia, the Danube Valley, central Germany).

This paper represents an introduction to the issues relating to the presence of amber in Middle Bronze Age on the territory of present-day Hungary. The first half of the second millennium BC, the Carpathian Basin saw the emergence of a specific settlement network, based largely on stable and often fortified settlements. Those communities have traditionally been attributed the key role in maintaining extensive networks of exchange, including long-range interaction with the Aegean zone. The text addresses the issues of chronology, distribution and the context of amber finds.

The focus of this report and catalogue is the amber discovered at Bernstorf, Freising district between 1997 and 2005. 56 pieces of amber were recovered over a period of nine years. Of these, 50 were studied by the author in October 2014 at the Archäologische Staatssammlung (State Archaeological Collection) in Munich (ASM). The amber and gold finds have been attributed to the Bronze Age, but strong differences of opinion still remain about their authenticity. The rather disparate publication history of the site and its finds has made it difficult for those not intimately involved to build a coherent picture of the situation. The aim of this current paper is, for the first time, to present and discuss the amber assemblage as a whole by building on the additional, but still incomplete, information about the amber which was provided in the recent publication of a collected volume about the archaeology of, and archaeological investigations at Bernstorf. This provides an opportunity to review interpretations of and research on the amber which have been ongoing over twenty years. This report begins with a brief introduction to the history of archaeological activity on the site. Amber as a material is introduced and its various characteristics described. Next, the amber from Bernstorf is examined in more detail. For the first time a chronological listing of all the amber and gold finds is published. A discussion follows about the amber and the various analyses and interpretations over the years. New evidence and interpretations proposed in the 2016 Bernstorf volume are critically assessed. Although this report touches on where the Bernstorf amber would fit into a wider European Bronze Age context, a full discussion of this is not included. On the basis of the physical condition of some of the amber, the author’s conclusion is that the amber found at Bernstorf was not placed there during the Bronze Age, but in more recent times. The report concludes with a catalogue of the 56 amber pieces.

Archaeological researches occurred in the Florentine area since many years show that in this part of Tuscany several cultural stimuli drawn from the northern areas beyond the Apennines - especially the eastern Po plain -  and from the Tyrrhenian Central Italy have been prolifically  elaborated by prehistoric communities. Authors present studies on settlement contexts of Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the Florentine area analysing them within a  geographical framework  throughout a Geographic Information System with the aim to investigate also the possible trans Apennine and inter-regional paths. These paths involved the circulation of different kinds of models and matherials, from the everyday ones to the precious ones, as the long-range circulation of amber suggests. The study seems to underline the consolidation of cultural exchanges along the geographical directions used in earlier times since the Neolithic period.

European geological ambers of five different localities and types, and Italian geological
ambers from seven different deposits have been studied with Fourier transform infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR) and diffuse-reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT). Ambers
from several localities have been characterized for the first time. The research aims to create
a database of European ambers, containing both FTIR and DRIFT data. The FTIR spectra
are easily comparable with the data commonly available in the literature, whereas
DRIFT analyses are shown to be more useful to characterize the archaeological finds. The
provenance of several archaeological ambers from northern and southern Italy, dating from
the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age, is assessed on the basis of the developed database.
Of the 35 analysed archaeological objects, all but five are composed of Baltic succinite
amber.

Baltic amber reached the Mycenaean and Levantine kings by means of a prestige circuit of royal gift-exchanges extending across the Mediterranean area. Amber was valued for its magical properties, which were believed to guarantee victory, fertility, and fortune. It was used for its healing and therapeutic powers, and served as an ingredient in incense, unguents, and perfumes. Beads of amber have been recovered from the Uluburun shipwreck (late 14th century BCE), on the south coast of Turkey. The amber beads can be interpreted within a context of “gift-exchange” between royal elites, or of trade, or as the personal belongings of Mycenaean envoys onboard. The large cargo of the Uluburun ship indicates the concentrations of valuable items that moved by sea, and the complex interdependence of elites in different areas served by maritime trade. A more complex analysis of ancient texts and archaeological finds in the framework of a cross-cultural perspective may reveal the significance of possessing (wearing), giving (gift-giving), and offering (funerary and votive amulets) raw or worked amber in the Late Bronze Age Levant.

The second millennium BCE is a time in human history when the archaeological record, both in terms of travelled finds and ideas, reflects a networking of unprecedented intensity and velocity. This phenomenon of heightened networking and interconnectivity is recognised as one of the earliest manifestations of globalization, occurring in Afro-Eurasia during the Bronze Age, and is tentatively termed bronzization. The engine of any globalization is a transculture, which emerges from a broad network and permeates regional groups, thus creating at these entry points the contact zone, a social space that merges the global with the local, but also gives birth to autoethnography and transculturation. Furthermore, the transculture has a democratising effect, in the sense that previously valued goods and ideas, to which access was restrictive and controlled, become available to a large group of people. The result is a cascade effect on networking and interconnections with a myriad of directionalities, choke points and dead ends as well. From a methodological point of view, a mind-set that allows for the recognition and research of such a complex web of contacts is histoire croisée, which from its conceptions considers more than just single, directional dependencies and bi-directional flows.
The transculture of this age is bronze. The desire to acquire this good as raw material (copper and tin), semi-finished product (ingot) or finished goods, echoes through all corners of Afro-Eurasia. These in turn prompt the circulation of goods, symbols, styles and technologies, but also of people and views of their world and lives. Several find categories and lifestyles are already highlighted as clear indicators of such an interconnectivity; amber, vitreous materials, ceremonial hearths, horses, wagon/chariots and afferent harnesses, warriorhood and warfare, Bronze Age specific womanhood are just a few of the clear beacons that convey the occurrence of bronzization.

This paper will synthesize some of the multifaceted arguments about Bronze Age amber finds and trade networks connecting the Baltic and Aegean Sea regions. Bronze Age trade networks were far more complex than previously thought, as recent archaeological discoveries have proven. The items found at the excavations at Bernstorf, Bavaria are paramount in understanding the significance of this complexity, as they show deep political and cultic connections between the elites of Mycenaean Greece and Central Europe. From the amber seal stone incised with Linear B, Object B, to the golden diadem, scepter, and jewelry of Mycenaean origin found at Bernstorf, we can extrapolate many elements of these pre-history societies. By investigating the amber finds in Greece, the distribution of certain swords types across Europe, and the gold and amber items found at Bernstorf, the long distance trade relation of the Late Bronze Age can be directly linked to prestige gift-exchange of amber between chiefly rulers, as it had not only a high value in trade but also social status and ritual properties.  These exotic prestige items, along with the Naue II swords and their precursors, were highly desirable for both Nordic and Central European chieftains as well as for Mycenaean rulers with the intent of linking themselves with the wider network of ideas and technologies of the societies of Europe in this era.

Thy forms a maritime nodal point for North Sea travels; via the calm waters of the Limfjord to the east, Thy connects with Kattegat and the west coast of Sweden. The amber-rich North Sea coast to the west would have been the starting point for sea journeys to Norway in the north, to the rivers Elbe and Weser, and Ems and Rhine fur- ther south, and possibly also for travels across the North Sea to the United Kingdom. From a mari- time point of view, Thy occupied a key position, one
which entrepreneurial chiefs could exploit to their advantage as a potential bottleneck for both north- south and east-west maritime trade (Earle and oth- ers 2015; Skoglund 2017). In the following we will delve more deeply into the role of Thy in this wider interregional and international trade network, which brought not only goods, but also people to Thy.

Lead Isotopes Analysis (LIA) is a well-established technique, that is used to determine the origin of copper in an artefact under investigation (i.e. “provenancing”), through lead isotopes ratios.
By comparing the ratios of the lead isotopes 204, 206, 207 and 208, the isotopic signature of an archaeological relic, whether it appears as an artefact, semi-finished or remnant, can be characterized in a threedimensional space.
This characterization can be compared with that obtained from samples, taken in mines or in ore fields, that were supposedly used in ancient times.
However, this technique introduces many risks that cannot be unspoken which, if not properly evaluated, can lead to conclusions even far from reality.
These risks were examined and investigated by many authors.
In this paper, I'll focus only on two major risks: the lack of geographic coverage of the possible ancient ores and the possibility that, starting at least from 12th century BC, the pick-ingots have been produced from many planoconvex ingots and therefore from different copper sources.

""Amber in Czech Únětice (Aunjetitz) culture – on the origin of the Amber Route. Approximately 4,000 amber artefacts from
a total of 106 sites in Bohemia are known from the Early Bronze Age. The majority of these sites are burial grounds (82 %); the others
are comprised of seven deposits, five settlements and seven unidentified finds. Approximately 3,600 (90 %) of the amber artefacts
were found in 304 graves at 87 burial sites. Most often these were beads with a simple hole of various shapes (97.6 %), which were
typically parts of necklaces. Also found were so-called “Schieber” or “Abstandhalter” (24 artefacts from 18 graves at 12 burial
grounds), rings and disks (14–16 artefacts from 13 burial grounds) and a button. In one case the amber was part of a bronze dagger
with a cast handle. The richest site yet (Mikulovice, no. 1963) contained at least 430 amber beads, six Bernsteinschieber, four bronze beads, approximately 15 shells, two gold earrings, three bronze pins, five bronze bracelets and one vessel. We date the vast majority of the finds to the classic phase of Aunjetitz culture (ca. 2050/2000–1750 BC). All of the roughly 100 analyses conducted on artefacts from nine sites confirmed the Baltic origin of the amber. The greatest concentration of finds is from central Bohemia, in the area northwest of Prague. Bohemia is far richer in amber than all of the surrounding territories and was the main target area for trade with
amber in the broader Central European region. If it is possible to speak of an “Amber Route” that was already in existence at that
time, it would have run from the Polish Baltic coast to Bohemia. The massive influx of amber into Bohemia stops abruptly with the
end of the classic phase of Aunjetitz culture around the middle of the 18th century BC; the Maďarovce-Věteřov cultural complex then
formed to the southeast. Bohemia lost its prominent position, and the centre of development shifted down to the new area. This is
also documented by finds of amber, which disappeared in Bohemia and emerged instead in Maďarovce-Věteřov. The fundamental
change in the distribution of amber finds documents not only the collapse of the existing system of amber trade in the decades around
1750 BC, but also the breakdown of the entire system of supra-regional contacts – a cornerstone of the advanced civilization of classic Aunjetitz culture.""

This paper presents a case of funerary re-utilisation of the Dolmen de Palacio III megalithic monument (Almadén de la Plata, Sevilla) by the Early Iron Age communities of the Sierra Norte de Sevilla region. This case is first discussed as evidence of the strong durability of religious traditions among the local populations as opposed to the dynamics of orientalising influences to which Andalusian indigenous communities are exposed since the IXth century cal BC. Secondly, this case is interpreted from the viewpoint of the powerful permanence through time of megalithic monuments as material expressions of the religious memory

The exchanges and relations established during the Late Bronze Age between the territory of the present day Albania and the Aegean have been treated by various authors, focusing mainly on the pottery, but also on the metal objects such as elements of weapons and tools. However, the elements of body adornment such as the beads produced of exotic material have not had any specific attention in the studies of late prehistoric periods in Albania. This paper deals with this particular category of body adornment, as an important evidence which supports the contacts and relations established during the Late Bronze Age with the regions further south in the Aegean. The observations are based on the carnelian and amber beads attested in funerary contexts dating to the Late Bronze Age, coming mainly from southern Albania, with a particular concentration in the south-eastern region.

The study of prestige materials is one of the best approaches to obtain information on different aspects of a society, such as internal complexity or, due to the exoticism of many materials, the external relations and mobility of groups. Of those high-value materials, ivory is especially useful due to its restricted provenance and its availability to characterize its source relatively easily, both visually and by spectrometric techniques. Ivory from the Early Minoan period has been mainly identified as hippopotamus ivory, the product of trade with the Syrian area or Egypt. Our recent investigation of 35 ivory seals from the Early Minoan tholoi shows that ivory supply was less homogeneous than previously thought. Four of the seals, from Ayia Triada and Archanes, have been identified as cetaceous ivory, while one amber seal from the tholos of Platanos has also been identified. During the same period (3rd millennium B.C.), the use of cetaceous ivory is only identified in the Iberian Peninsula, where it is possible to identify the presence of similar typologies, such as the anthropomorphic folded-arm figurines and the important number of tholoi present in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. These typologies, together with the sharing of the same prestige material supplier, support the existence of long-range contact around the Mediterranean World at this early date.

Presented paper deals with long-discussed issue of amber route in the circum-Adriatic zone during the Bronze Age, specifically with traditionally assumed character of this phenomenon and theoretical basis for such notion. First part of the paper is aimed at defining key terms related to amber circulation, such as exchange and trade. Second section shortly describes the history of creation and development of amber routes concept in archaeology, followed by a proposition of an alternative view. Finally, new approach towards amber studies, based on Network Analysis and World System Analysis, is suggested.