Wessex culture

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Wessex
Age : Bronze Age - Early Bronze Age
Absolutely : 2000 BC Chr. - 1600 BC Chr.

Relative : A1

expansion
North: Downs
South: Wessex
Leitforms

Composite objects made of gold and amber

The Wessex culture (also Wessex grave series ) was an early Bronze Age culture in southern Great Britain . It should not be confused with the later Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex .

Burials

The knowledge of the Wessex culture of the first half of the second millennium BC is based solely on grave finds, as settlements have not yet been discovered. The burials are under burial mounds , initially buried in the ground, later as cremations, and are characterized by rich grave goods , most of which lack ceramics . Exotic objects such as Armorican daggers , amber and Irish gold and Cornish pewter are common, and several materials were often combined, such as gold and amber, silver and amber or gold and jet ( lignite ). At the same time, there are burials with late bell beakers and food vessels . Dagger diggers are interpreted as male burials, those without weapons as female burials.

origin

Stuart Piggott wanted to trace the Wessex culture he named in 1938 back to an invasion from Brittany. That is now considered obsolete. Whether the Wessex burials represent an elite form of the late bell-cup culture , and their relationship to the burials with foodvessels, is controversial. Overall, the Wessex burials fit well into the circle of rich Early Bronze Age (Reinecke A1) burials, as they are from Brittany (series I dagger diggers), Singen , the Netherlands ( Hoogeloon ) and the Aunjetitzer area ( Leubingen , Helmsdorf ) are known.

trade

The bearers of the Wessex culture seem to have carried on extensive trade with mainland Europe. Amber from the Baltic States , jewelry from Germany , daggers from Brittany and gold from Ireland were found. So-called faience pearls , which were once thought to be Mycenaean imports, are local products. They can also be found in Brittany and the Netherlands ( Exloërmond , Drenthe).

Cult buildings

The prosperity gained through trade probably allowed the Wessex people to expand the third phase of Stonehenge .

Social structure

A developed social organization can also be adopted to organize such extensive trade . Colin Renfrew postulates early chiefdoms, following the social-evolutionary model of Elman Fried .

chronology

Arthur ApSimon proposed in 1954 a breakdown into Wessex 1, combined with copper devices of the Willerby horizon, and Wessex 2, combined with the Arreton type. The division into Wessex I and II can no longer be maintained in the light of the 14 C data. A 14 date of human bones from the central burial of West Overton Hill G1 assigned to Wessex I provided an uncalibrated date of 3550 ± 35 BP (SUERC-26203). This corresponds to a calibrated date (according to CalPal online) of 1880 ± 60 BC. Chr.

Important sites

  • Bush Barrow , Wiltshire
  • Norton Bavant Borrow Pit, Wiltshire
  • Roundway G8 Barrow, Wiltshire
  • West Overton Barrow (G1), Wiltshire

literature

  • Lawrence H. Barnfield: Wessex with and without Mycenae: new evidence from Switzerland. In: Antiquity. Vol. 65, No. 246, 1991, ISSN  0003-598X , pp. 102-107, online .
  • David Leonard Clarke , Trevor G. Cowie, Andrew Foxon (Eds.): Symbols of power at the time of Stonehenge. National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland et al., Edinburgh 1985, ISBN 0-11-492455-4 .
  • John M. Coles, Joan Taylor: The Wessex Culture: a minimal view. In: Antiquity. Vol. 45, No. 177, 1971, pp. 6-14, online .
  • Harald Meller (ed.): The forged sky. The wide world in the heart of Europe 3600 years ago. Bookstore edition. Theiss, Halle Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1907-9 .
  • Stuart Needham, Mike Parker Pearson , Alan Tyler, Mike Richards, Mandy Jay: A first "Wessex 1" date from Wessex. In: Antiquity. Vol. 84, No. 324, 2010, pp. 363-373, online .
  • Colin Renfrew : Wessex without Mycenae. In: The Annual of the British School at Athens . Volume 63, 1968, pp. 277-285.
  • Colin Renfrew, Roger G. Newton: British faience beads reconsidered. In: Antiquity. Vol. 44, No. 175, 1970, pp. 199-206, online .
  • Colin Renfrew: Monuments, mobilization and social organization in neolithic Wessex. In: Colin Renfrew (Ed.): The Explanation of Culture Change: Models in Prehistory. Duckworth, London 1973, ISBN 0-7156-0673-5 , pp. 539-558.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stuart Needham et al.: A first "Wessex 1" date from Wessex. In: Antiquity. Vol. 84, No. 324, 2010, pp. 363-373, here p. 363.
  2. ↑ Stuart Needham: Power pulses across a cultural divide: cosmologically driven exchange between Armorica and Wessex. In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 66, 2000, ISSN  0079-497X , pp. 151-207.
  3. ↑ Arthur M. ApSimon: Dagger graves in the "Wessex" Bronze Age. In: Institute of Archeology, London. Annual Report. Vol. 10, 1951/1953 (1954), ZDB -ID 208203-2 , pp. 37-61.
  4. ^ Stuart Needham et al.: A first "Wessex 1" date from Wessex. In: Antiquity. Vol. 84, No. 324, 2010, pp. 363-373, here p. 366.

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