Werkzeuge, Waffen, Würdezeichen. Beile und Äxte der Aunjetitzer Kultur in Mitteldeutschland
Bunnefedl, Jan-Heinrich (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt (Halle (Saale), Alemanya))
Wunderlich, Christian-Heinrich (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt (Halle (Saale), Alemanya))
Meller, Harald (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt (Halle (Saale), Alemanya))
Risch, Robert (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag (16th : 2023 : Halle an der Saale, Germany)

Additional title:	Tools, Weapons, and Symbols of Dignity : Axes of the Únětice Culture in Central Germany
Date:	2024
Description:	57 pàg.
Abstract:	In this contribution, the Early Bronze Age axes of Central Germany will be evaluated according to their typology and chronology and, above all, their production method, function, and significance. Our evaluation is based on experimental tests, metallographic investigations, morphotechnical analyses, and a detailed re-examination of the flanged axes and ribbed »double axes« of the Dieskau type from the hoards of the Dieskau microregion. The large number and variety of the Central German Únětice axes demonstrate their great importance. The biggest group, the Saxonian flanged axes, mainly stems from hoards that contain up to 300 specimens. Their basic shape is fairly uniform, with numerous variations, and they were centrally produced from cast blanks that were intensively forged. Several smiths were demonstrably involved in the manufacture of each individual axe, probably in a workshop, of the hoard from Dieskau III. According to their occasionally extensive use-wear, the flanged axes served as tools and weapons, whereas an application as ingots and standards of value can pretty much be ruled out. The axes that do show signs of wear had been used in a similar way and probably together before being deposited in various hoards. The Únětice rulers most likely awarded the axeheads to their men-at-arms. The ribbed »double axes« are solely known from hoards. They had no practical function but are to be interpreted as status symbols or insignia that were not put into the graves. Other, sometimes unique, axes may also be interpreted as symbols of status or dignity. Among them are tin-bronze axes (which once shone like gold and were found in a few graves such as the princely graves), the early socketed axe from Kütten-Dobritz, the crest-butted axe from Naumburg, and the Nordic Fårdrup axe from Löbschütz, as well as two imported »Anglo-Irish« flanged axes and their imitations. These partially foreign shapes were only deposited outside of graves. The gold axe from Dieskau was an exceptional and almost singular status symbol in the Early Bronze Age of Central Europe. It might originally have been discovered in the monumental burial mound called Bornhöck and certainly belonged to the very top of Únětice society. The princely graves and other outstanding burials often contained Neolithic stone axes that had probably served to legitimise rule. Although the finds stem from the entire Central German distribution area of the Únětice Culture, the particular wealth of the Dieskau microregion and the thus expressed power of the local rulers are obvious in particular against the background of the concentration in number and variety of axes there.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Alemany
Series:	Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle ; 31
Document:	Capítol de llibre ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Early Bronze Age ; Axe ; Forging ; Metal craft organisation
Published in:	Der soziale Wert prähistorischer Beile: neue archäologische und archäometrische Ansätze /The social value of prehistoric axes -new archaeological and archaeometric approaches, (2024) , p. 510-567, ISBN 978-3-96929-367-6

DOI: 10.11588/propylaeum.1474.c21035

59 p, 57.8 MB

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