Bronze and Iron Ages in Italy (Archaeology)

GeoarchaeologIcal perspective to the reconstruction of coastal landscapes and settlement strategies of the Bronze Age Salento - Investigations of coastal landscape archaeology conducted over the last 10 years on the Adriatic and Ionian coastlines of the Salento allowed us to map many geoarchaeological markers of relative sea level changes; these data can give us accurate information on late Holocene phenomena of marine transgression offering a good opportunity to submit some fresh proposals of paleogeographic reconstructions of these territories. A particular attention was paid to the analysis of spatial, chronological and functional data of a group of archaeological markers (sunken and not) connected with forti ed and open settlements dated to the  rst half of the II millennium BC. Torre Santa Sabina, Torre Guaceto-Scogli di Apani and Scalo di Furno-Porto Cesareo stand out among long-lived settlements for the relevance of the research outcomes. Many archaeological evidences (forti cation walls, moats, pavements, occupation layers, dwelling structures, etc.) mark the ancient position and height of the relative sea level, but postholes have a leading role. The mapping and recording of these structural elements allow us to reconstruct the real extension of Bronze Age inhabited areas.

Premières occuPations de la montagne alPine sur les versants du Petit-saint-Bernard (Programme alPis graia). Principaux résultats des prospections et sondages archéologiques sur le versant valdôtain (années 2005-2006). Pierre-Jérôme rey (Umr 5204 edytem) et Bernard moUlin avec la collaboration de Cécile Batigne-Vallet (Umr 5138 -MOM), Julien Boisson, Jimmy Linton (Umr 5594 ARTeHIS), Serge Fudral (Umr 5204 Edytem), Mathilde Minotti (Umr 5608 Traces) et Jean-Michel Treffort (Umr 5594 ARTeHIS -INRAP).

Rome matters. Roman religion is, basically, the religion of one of the hundreds of Mediterranean city states. Many features of this type of territorially bound religion, centred around a politically independent community, characterise Roman religion down to the end of antiquity. However, Roman cults, gods, iconography, rituals, texts, were exported to many places throughout the Roman Empire. A change of the point of view produces similarly ambivalent results. Many of the religious traditions or concepts that attracted people in Rome originated outside of Rome and were shared by many non-Romans. At the same time, even the major religious traditions of antiquity gained distinct features at Rome and these Roman varieties informed developments outside Rome. After all, Rome was a capital, politically for the Imperium Romanum, religiously not only for the cult of the Capitoline triad, but for Isis or Christianity as well. It is one of the many attractions of the theme of “Roman religion” that in dealing with the traditions of a metropolis (and its growing “hinterland”) we are able to look into transformations reaching far beyond. At the same time we are reminded of one of the truths of modern globalisation: place and local culture matters.
Religion matters. Ancient religion is not longer the object of – at best – antiquarian research, interested in “Altertümer” and pre-rational behaviour, i. e. the European exotic. With the cultural and the following “turns,” religious institutions, signs and practices, religious mentalities and language, have come to the centre of mainstream historical and literary studies. Thus, analysis of religion itself can no longer be handled as an isolated sector of culture but has to be contextualized within its cultural, social, and economic setting and has to be analysed for its political function and its use in legitimating power or resistance.

Aims
The volume aims to help its readers
- put the manifold religious symbols, discourses, practices, which they encounter in literally every field of ancient studies, into a larger framework;
- offer a broad range of methodological approaches to seemingly intransigent phenomena; the presuppositions and limits of these approaches will be made explicit;
- offer basic information about the most important religious symbols and institutions; and
- attempt at coherent narratives, yet not to formulate new orthodoxies, but rather to suggest that narrative is an important form of historical explanation and a didactically useful tool.

Tourist guide of the Roman Villa of Larderìa (Roggiano Gravina, CS) and the Esaro valley (Calabria), from the Prehistoric period to the Early Middle Ages.
- I section: The territory of the Esaro valley. From the first prehistoric frequentations to the Enotrian settlements;
- II section: The territory of the Esaro valley. From the "Empire" of Sybaris to the affirmation and decline of the Italic populations (end of VIII-III century BC);
- III section: The Romans in the Bruttii. Organization of the territory and production facilities;
- IV section: The Esaro valley in Roman and Late Antiquity;
- V section: The Larderìa Villa;
- VI section: Villa Larderìa: thermal baths and mosaics.

La présente contribution vise à préciser les aspects géographiques et chronologiques liés à l’apparition, au développement et au déclin d’un type de construction en pierre sèche localement appelée « torre ». Ces édifices monumentaux, qui présentent une forme de tour tronconique, sont élevés selon un cahier des charges architectural précis, et trouvent leur strict équivalent en Sardaigne avec les milliers de nuraghi monotorre du Bronze ancien et moyen. La publication du détail du maigre corpus des torre de Corse, ainsi que la révision des données chronologiques fournies par les fouilles et les prospections opérées ces cinquante dernières années, seront également l’occasion de souligner l’importance prise par ces monuments dans l’évolution de la construction du discours archéologique depuis les années 1960 et les travaux de Roger Grosjean.

Sebbene l'archeologia subacquea mantenga presso il grande pubblíco un'aura di mistero e di diversità, i dibattiti teorici che hanno caratferizzato l'ultimo trentennio sono serviti, in definitiva, anche a sgomberare il campo dalle sovrastrutture dí caîattere psicologico che tendevano a vedere nell'attività di ricerca subacquea un terreno quasi privo di regole ed aperto alle improwisazioni e ali'awentura.

THE MALAFEDE SITE - VALLE PORCINA (ROME): TRACES OF A DWELLING STRUCTURE. - During an excavation campaign realized in 1997- 98 in Malafede
area, were found the remains of a dwelling structure characterized by the presence of lithic industry and pottery sherds, chronologically referred to the beginning of Bronze age.

Si presentano i risultati preliminari del progetto di studio “Paesaggi d’acque” condotto dal Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Sezione Archeologia, dell’Università di Milano in collaborazione con la Soprintendenza Archeologica della Toscana, con lo scopo di ricostruire il popolamento della fascia costiera tra Fiora e Albegna durante la pre- protostoria. In questa
prima fase, che ha visto la verifica delle segnalazioni precedenti e l’avvio della ricognizione sistematica del tombolo di Feniglia e del monte Argentario, si sono potuti conseguire interessanti risultati, permettendo di correggere la datazione a età protostorica di alcuni siti che sono invece risultati di età etrusca o medievale. Si sono individuati inoltre nuovi siti di età paleolitica e della prima età del ferro, tra cui due vasti insediamenti del tipo denominato “giacimenti di olle a impasto rossiccio” posti alle due estremità del tombolo di Feniglia.

La zona de Tharros representa un espacio ideal para el estudio de la evolucion de los paisajes en epocas preteritas, por la intensidad de la ocupacion, por la calidad de la informacion disponible y por la cantidad de investigaciones pasadas y presentes. En este texto queremos presentar un viaje personal de “arqueologia de los paisajes” en el que la evolucion de los factores sociales y culturales como productores de paisajes se situa en el centro de la argumentacion. Los paisajes tharrenses se caracterizan por una fuerte movilidad y profundos cambios entre las fases que van desde el Bronce Final hasta la Segunda Edad del Hierro, con trayectorias diferentes en los distintos periodos y no referibles a una evolucion lineal. Los elementos de crisis / cambio nos proporcionan pistas utiles para plantear la hipotesis de como un proceso urbano de tipo “nuragico”, que comenzo hacia el Bronce Final / Primera Edad del Hierro, no pudo encontrar una salida lineal pero estuvo sujeto a formas de tension interna en el transito entre los siglos VIII y VII a.C. que acabaron socavando su compacidad y dando lugar a la formacion de una ciudad de tipo “fenicio” a finales del siglo VII a.C., tras el contacto con los componentes orientales que llegaron a Cerdena.

The Tharros area is an ideal place to study the evolution of landscapes through the ages, due to the intensity of the occupation, the quality of the available data and the variety of past and present research. In this text we want to give an account of a personal journey of “landscape archaeology” in which the evolution of social and cultural factors as producers of landscapes are located at the centre of the discussion. Tharros landscapes are characterised by a strong mobility and change that span from the Late Bronze Age to the Second Iron Age, following different trajectories in the different periods, and not reduced to a linear evolution. The elements of crisis / change provide us with useful clues to hypothesise how an urban process of “Nuragic” type, that began around the Final Bronze Age / Early Iron Age cannot find a linear exit, but was subject to forms of internal tension in the passage between the 8th and 7th centuries BC that eventually undermined its compactness and led to the formation of a city of “Phoenician” type in the late 7th century BC, following contact with the eastern components that arrived on Sardinia.

Short critique on the presentation and preliminary publication of the Early Bronze Age village buried by the Avellino eruption of Somma-Vesuvius. For an updated bibliography on the site, see the website of the principal excavator: http://alborelivadie.eu/, with downloads, and at academia.edu: http://cnrs.academia.edu/ClaudeAlboreLivadie

This thesis has the subject of the Apulo-Corinthian Helmet, a south-east Italian helmet type and what it can say about the culture in which it was used. After establishing what an apulo-Corinthian helmet exactly is and which Type’s there are, I went on and found out that we can also order these helmets by Groups that were made by the same craftsman. After this I investigated the spreading, which very clearly pointed out Apulia was the region were these helmets originate from. Then I explained that to helmets with a known context were all from tombs, some very rich, some of them poorer than other graves of their time, but most of the tombs had the same objects within them; military equipment, metal vessels, Lucanian, Campanian and local pottery, and some had Attic pottery. In the conclusion I answered the research questions, Where, when and in which contexts do these helmets occur? And What is the meaning of this type helmet in these contexts and what does this meaning of the helmets say about the cultural character of Apulia between the end of the 6th and the end of the 4th century B.C.?

Due to probable copyright resting on some photo's used in this thesis I decided not to publish it. If you want to read it send me an e-mail.

THE BRONZE AGE IN WESTERN SICILY. - Many cultures developed during bronze age in western Sicily. Sometime they were contemporary showing the presence of very interesting ethnical dynamics bringing to acculturation phenomena like in the case of Bell Beaker mainly diffused in south west regions.
During early bronze Castelluccio culture was diffused also in western Sicily, but it developed slowly towards what was called Rodì Tindari Vallelunga facies and that now we think is a process of typological as cultural change between Castelluccio and Thapsos. During this last phase we encounter the origin of some
regional differences among the same culture that will be more evident during late bronze age. We see that there are aspects more tied with a Mediterranean tradition, such as Mokarta. But we also see that there areas where it is strong a Tyrrhenian tradition and also a continental one with Ausonian affinities.

Chronology, distribution and interpretation of Urnfield metal-hilted swords

Subject, regions and period of time covered (chapter 1)

This study was basically concerned with the supra-regional investigation of a sufficiently differentiated group of bronze objects, which will allow for a taxonomic, chronological, chorological and interpretative analysis. In consideration of their advanced state of research, treatment and publication, the metal-hilted swords (‘Vollgriffschwerter’) of the Urnfield period appeared to be an excellent field for further research. First of all, it was an important prerequisite for my study to synchronize the regional chronological systems which have been established for the Urnfield period; the result of this effort is shown in Fig. 1. In order to avoid confusion between the innumerable regional nomenclatures of the relevant archaeological phases, terms such as Reinecke’s ‘Bz D’ or ‘Ha B1’ are used supra-regionally.

Classification systems of swords and their theoretical-methodical background (chapter 2)                                                             

The analysis of the various classification systems used for metal-hilted swords must be preceded by a reconsideration of basic methodical principles of classification.
Every classification – an intrinsically arbitrary construct in itself – can prove its justification by nothing but its heuristic value. In addition to the type-bound study of given combinations of attributes, it appears equally useful and helpful to proceed to a systematic consideration of individual attributes in their localized and chronological perspectives as well.
Within the taxonomic hierarchy which I used for the classification of metal-hilted swords, the highest tier is represented by the so-called ‘basic form’ (‘Grundform’) which is determined by the configuration of the pommel. The next subordinate tier is the ‘species’ (‘Art’) level, which is characterized by the outline of the hilt. This level can again be subdivided into different types, which is done by considering the combination of at least two formal and/or ornamental attributes of the hilt. By additionally taking at least one other formal, ornamental or production-related attribute into consideration, it is possible to break the type level down into different variants of a type, although it is to be noted that the different classes of variants need not contain all representative embodiments of a particular type.

History and state of research of the classification of Urnfield metal-hilted swords (chapter 3)

A critical comparison of the more important classification systems used for metal-hilted swords and an evaluation of their respective methodical validity resulted in the adoption and use of those types and variants of swords that proved to be coherent. On the other hand it was found necessary to also define new taxonomic units. The understanding of representative embodiments of variants to be closely affiliated but not to belong to the class of the corresponding type turned out to be particularly problematic. It was, therefore, a methodological necessity to revise the classification of this kind of ‘variants’.
The result of my analyses is shown in Figs. 5-11, where the diagnostic attributes of all individual taxonomic units are specified in detail. As a consequence, it is to be found that only a sword which possesses all of these attributes can validly be assigned to the respective class of the corresponding taxonomic unit. 

Dating and distribution of Urnfield metal-hilted swords (chapter 4)

The clear distinction of those types of metal-hilted swords which are dated per definitionem and those which yet need to be dated is of great importance. The present study accepts and adopts the type form character of the Riegsee and Ragály types for Bz D, of the Dreiwulstschwert (‘sword with three bulges’) species for Ha A, of the basic form Schalenknaufschwert (‘sword with disc pommel’) for Ha B1 and of the Mörigen, Auvernier and Tachlovice types for Ha B3. On the other hand, H. Müller-Karpe’s (1959, 156f. 172; 197; 1961, 24; 29; 31; 47) distinction between older and later types of Dreiwulstschwerter, which he considered as being type forms of his Ha A1 and A2 phase definitions and which was based on an assumed formal development, had to be questioned. So had the early dating of some antennae swords into Ha B2 and Ha B1, respectively.
According to the formal attributes seen as chronologically relevant for the Dreiwulstschwerter (shape of the pommel knob, outline of the blade), a conical pommel knob can be regarded as an older, and a willow-leaf-shaped blade as a later attribute for southern Germany and neighbouring regions – although this will go with certain reservations only. Representative embodiments of the Schwaig and Erding types, maybe also of the Gundelsheim type, can be accepted as belonging to the older, those of the Aldrans type as belonging to the later Dreiwulstschwerter in this area. In eastern central Europe such a distinction is, however, not possible, since a great number of swords found in this particular area show a combination of both of those attributes which are considered as being chronologically indicative in western central Europe. Moreover, the definition of the eastern central European hoard phases (‘Depotfundstufen’) corresponding to Ha A1 and Ha A2 respectively, as well as their parallelization with southern Germany, was mainly done in line with Müller-Karpe’s classification of the Dreiwulstschwerter. Mutual confirmations of western and eastern central European sword datings are, therefore, of a circular character.
The heterogeneous dating of the antennae swords was already noticed by E. Sprockhoff (1934, 34; 71) and further extended by Müller-Karpe (1961, 53-55; 57f. 65; 88) with the object of confirming his tripartition of Ha B. The seven antennae swords which are either definitely or with all probability to be dated into Ha B1 do not show any attributes which they have in common, which means to say that no such type can be regarded as characteristic for Ha B1. Those final Urnfield metal-hilted swords not deposited until Ha C cannot be typographically differentiated from those swords which are dated into the Ha B3 phase, either. Dating of the antennae swords into Ha B1 or Ha C, respectively, can therefore only be done as a result of a thorough study of the context of any one find. These dating problems show quite clear that it is out of question to segregate type forms for the one or the other phase of the basic form antennae sword.
The clarification of taxonomic and chronological questions is succeeded by the regionally oriented criticism of sources and the epistemological evaluation of the distribution maps to determine their historical validity. Following H.J. Eggers (1950, 55; 1986, esp. 258), I differentiate between the levels of the ‘living’, the ‘dead’ and the ‘re-discovered’ culture. In order to draw conclusions from the ‘re-discovered culture’ about the ‘dead culture’, it was necessary to analyse the state of research, treatment and publication as well as that of the conditions in which the finds were made. These factors proved to be comparable in the setting of this study. By carrying out a large number of cross-checks, it is possible to get an idea of both the dimension and the distribution of sources, in which metal-hilted swords could have passed on at least theoretically. An aspect which was of particular importance was the question to what extent metal-hilted swords and swords with an organic hilt were considered to be functionally equivalent at least in the context of their deposition and in how far they were thus considered as being of a ‘substitutive character’. This study also shows to what extent the currently known area of distribution of certain classes of swords allows for insights concerning their prehistoric spread.

Interpretation of the distribution of Urnfield metal-hilted swords (chapter 5)

To allow for an interpretation of the Urnfield metal-hilted swords’ distribution, it was necessary to define a number of what are called ‘custom circles’ (‘Sittenkreise’), which enable us to validly grasp the behaviour of prehistoric man.
The so-called ‘workshop circle’ covers the sum of stationary workshops inclusive of possible migrant craftsmen in a certain region at a certain period of time. This is complemented by the ‘demand circle’, i.e. the area in which there was a demand for the products of a certain workshop circle, and also by the ‘costume circle’, i.e. the territory within which the respective swords were part of the costume of the particular ‘community of traditions’ (‘Traditionsgemeinschaft’). The question of the localisation of workshop circles was prevailing in my study.
Factors which are indicative of the production of a certain class of swords within a certain region are (1) a comparatively high relative frequency of finds in the specific area and at the same time a comparatively low relative frequency in the neighbouring regions – although it must be understood that neither high nor low frequency may be derived from the state of available sources –, (2) the deposition of these swords in compliance with the usual customs of this area, (3) the existence of forerunners and successors in the region concerned, (4) a possible connecting link between the swords in terms of their production, (5) a stylistic, especially an ornamental relationship to other material groups of the area, in particular bronzes, and possibly also pottery.
In order to get an impression of the geographic distribution of numerous formal and ornamental attributes, which can be another indicator for workshop circles, if a great number of individual attributes was found to be concentrated in a given region, the distribution area of the Bz D and Ha B1 metal-hilted swords was subdivided into a western and an eastern sector, whereas the spread of the ‘...

During the Early Iron Age (ca. 950–720 bc) Nuragic Sardinia experienced the rise of monumental public sanctuaries. This study addresses the formation of the votive record in sanctuaries in order to explore the relationship between socio-economic control and the ritual dynamics of legitimation of authority. In Nuragic sanctuaries, large amounts of wealth were collected in the form of significant accumulations of bronze objects. The accumulation of metal objects in sanctuaries probably reflects a model of elite-controlled wealth redistribution. It is argued that the rise of sanctuaries is part of a planned ‘ritual strategy’, put in action by Nuragic elites, in order to pursue ideological legitimation to their claims for hegemony. The subject is set within a proposal of a general redefinition of the Nuragic Early Iron Age, making it possible to propose a contextualization of the local phenomenon within the contemporary western Mediterranean framework.

It has been forty-one years since I presented my initial work on the Etruscan language to the curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. It was about this time of the year and at the time I was thirtyeight years old. The curator kindly met with me but was not able to help me beyond suggesting meeting with some professors at the Sorbonne University. I was looking, of course, for the scholastic world s interest in the work and help in pursuing it in detail. I went to the Sorbonne without any positive result. I had been working then on the Etruscan language for about ten years, having been curious about Michael Ventris decipherment of Linear B, a writing system used in Crete by the Mycenaean civilization. Having spent some time on it and Linear B (which continues to be undeciphered, I switched to the examination of a curious Etruscan lead tablet called the Magliano Disk which had an inscription in the form of a spiral or meander. The Magliano Disk has been date to be around 500 B.C. Another document like the Magliano Disk is the Phaistos Disk which dates to 2,000 B.C. The Magliano Disk prompted me into searching out all of the Etruscan texts I could find, the results of which are provided on my Etruscan Phrases web pages. All written documents are intended to be understood and assume that the reader knows the value of the characters used to communicate the ideas expressed in a document. The Etruscan characters posed a unique problem, since they are almost the same as the Roman or Western alphabet and one is tempted to assign the values we know and understand to the Etruscan writings. But there is a problem with this, since the Etruscan writing often did not separate characters, phrases, or sentences, and separating distinct words in the texts is a challenge. Complicating the reading of the texts is the problem peculiar to Phoenician and later Hebrew texts where vowels are omitted. The omission of vowels in the Etruscan texts, however, did not appear to be systematic. The values of the Etruscan characters turn out to be not the same as our alphabet. The V, for instance, is not the Roman v but used as a u and o. The Etruscan F is interesting since it serves both as a consonant and a vowel. It is a v and a u, as in the word for Dionysus, Bacchus, L. Euias, Euan, which is Etruscan EFAIS, Euais. Euan is Etruscan EFAN. These and other similar relationships will be seen in the Copeland-English-Etruscan Dictionary (as well as the Etruscan Glossary A). In any event, it is now October 17, 2022 after preparing the Introduction to the Etruscan Language and further pursing the draft findings of this document, identifying specific declension and grammatical applications, another document has grown out of the work which is the Copeland-English-Etruscan Dictionary. It has been compiled using a worksheet at the end of this document called the Etruscan Glossary. Since the Etruscan Glossary is an excel spreadsheet, it could be used to organize refine and translate the Etruscan words of the Etruscan texts. Associated with preparation of the Etruscan Glossary is my Indo-European Table1 which is in 11 parts, available on academia.edu at: Introduction to the Etruscan language 2 https://www.academia.edu/35148685/Etruscan_Phrases_Indo_European_Table_1_Update_02_06_22_ The purpose and function of the table can be easily discerned by one s first look at the table and its succeeding 10 parts. Its 11 parts can also be easily accessed at: http://www.maravot.com/indo-european_Table.html. The Indo-European Table is not what I intended it to be, for it has grown into a table and worksheet on Eurasian languages. Each language represented in the Table reveals relationships that may be surprising. For instance, those who are interested in the origins of certain English words will see entries on origins (taken from The Concise American Heritage Dictionary, 1987 Houghton-Mifflin Company. Many of the English source or origin entries may not be correct, as will be seen in the Table. What does all this have to do with the Etruscans, who date from about 1,000 B.C. in Tuscany, Northern Italy? A good part of the English language derives from Latin, and Latin is very closely related to Etruscan (an older civilization that the Latin/Roman civilization). Civilizations influence on another, either by trade or conquest or both. We know the relationship of English-Latin, or French-Latin, etc. because of the Roman conquests. The Etruscan-Latin relationship is more perplexing, since the Etruscans had an established civilization long before, hundreds of years before, Rome came into existence. There were Latin-speaking tribes that were neighbors of the Etruscans but since the relationship between them and the Etruscans was before Rome came into existence we can t speak to the history of the Etruscans and Latin-speaking people. Could they understand one another? It s hard to say. We can assume that old Latin was closer to Etruscan than Roman Latin. The name of Hercules, for instance, in Etruscan is HERCLE, in old Latin it appears to be the same. In French the name of Hercules is Hercule. There is a possibility that we can write a history the Etruscan world from the Etruscan point of view and that is through the translation of the Etruscan texts. This leads you to the Copeland-English-Etruscan Dictionary, currently in preparation. There are 136 pages in the document and growing, as I convert the Etruscan Glossary A data into a working dictionary. The final Etruscan dictionary will be in excess of 300 pages, estimated to include about 3,000 words.

a cura di Giovanni Tasca Cristiano Putzolu David Vicenzutto in collaborazione con Le ricerche di cui si dà conto in questo libro devono molto all'opera appassionata e all'entusiasmo di Adriano Fabbro. Alla sua grata memoria intendiamo dedicare questo lavoro.

The collection "Art and Religion of Ancient Societies" is a continuation of the series of the scientific publications which is devoted to the problems of study of the spiritual culture in the primitive societies. The previous edition "Art and Ritual of Ice Age", that was published in 2005, covered a circle of questions directly connected with the theory and practice of study of the Paleolithic Art. In this collection we also address to the same problematic. However, taking into account that the understanding of the most ancient culture stages of the human society is connected to a wide circle of questions of the study of the traditional communities, we think it is necessity to expand the edition’s subjects. Therefore we have tried to capture not only questions directly connected with field and basic study of the ancient art, but also practical analysis of the cultural and ethnographic facts. The questions of the aesthetics and theory of development of the early forms of art are considered as separately subjects in works. The published materials enable the reader to familiarize with the questions and methods of their analysis more in details, which are submitted in works of the researchers from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Germany, Canada, USA, Australia.

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.

Die ältesten eisengegenstände treten in Ägypten, Mesopotamien und anatolien sowie im raum zwischen der pontischen steppe und südsibirien im späten 4. und 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr. auf. Bei diesen frühen eisengegenständen handelt es sich oft um Meteoriteisen. im nachfolgenden 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. ist eisen vor allem aus anatolien überliefert. Die ausbreitung der eisenmetallurgie im Vorderen orient, im ostmittelmeerraum und in der Ägäis im späten 2. und frühen 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. wird eingehend behandelt und im hauptteil die einführung des neuen Metalls im südeuropäischen arbeitsgebiet detailliert beschrieben (portugal, spanien, italien, westliche und zentrale Balkanhalbinsel, rumänien, Moldawien, Ukraine bis zur Dnjepr). Die frühen eisenfunde im zentralen und westlichen Mittelmeerraum zeigen eine küstennahe Verbreitung, u.a. in südwestalbanien, im Karst/Soča-Gebiet Sloweniens, in Süditalien, in Südostsizilien, in Sardinien, in den Balearischen Inseln und in Zentralportugal. es erscheint plausibel, dass eisen im 11./10. Jahrhundert v. Chr. zunächst von ägäischen und/oder ostmediterranen seefahrern dorthin vermittelt wurde. im raum nördlich des schwarzmeers wird eisen ungefähr gleichzeitig vor allem für Messer und Dolchmesser eingeführt. etwas unklar ist immer noch die Frage nach dem möglichen frühen Beginn der Eisenverarbeitung bzw.-gewinnung in Rumänien und der Slowakei, wo einige Fundstücke schon vor das 11. Jahrhundert v. Chr. datiert werden. in der abschließenden Diskussion wird der historische Kontext der ausbreitung des neuen Metalls im 12./11. Jahrhundert v. Chr. erörtert und die früheste Verwendung des eisens – z.B. als " special purpose metal " – diskutiert.