Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T08:27:41.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Gifts for the gods’: lake-dwellers' macabre remedies against floods in the Central European Bronze Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2015

Francesco Menotti ,
Benjamin Jennings  and
Hartmut Gollnisch-Moos
Francesco Menotti
Affiliation:
Institute of Prehistory and Archaeological Science, Basel University, Spalenring 145, 4055 Basel, Switzerland
Benjamin Jennings
Affiliation:
Institute of Prehistory and Archaeological Science, Basel University, Spalenring 145, 4055 Basel, Switzerland
Hartmut Gollnisch-Moos
Affiliation:
Department of History and Geography, Thurgau University of Teacher Education, Unterer Schulweg 3, Postfach, CH-8280 Kreuzlingen 2, Switzerland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The lake-dwellings of the Circum-Alpine region have long been a rich source of detailed information about daily life in Bronze Age Europe, but their location made them vulnerable to changes in climate and lake level. At several Late Bronze Age examples, skulls of children were found at the edge of the lake settlement, close to the encircling palisade. Several of the children had suffered violent deaths, through blows to the head from axes or blunt instruments. They do not appear to have been human sacrifices, but the skulls may nonetheless have been offerings to the gods by communities faced with the threat of environmental change.

Keywords

Central EuropeFederseeLake NussbaumLate Bronze Agelake-dwellingshuman sacrificeofferingsenvironmental change
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 340 , 01 June 2014 , pp. 456 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrey, S. 2006. Les ossements humains épars des stations littorales de la région des Trois-Lacs. Cahiers d'Archéologie Fribourgeoise 8: 146–61.Google Scholar
Arbogast, R.M., Jacomet, S., Magny, M. & Schibler, J.. 2006. The significance of climate fluctuations for lake-level changes and shifts in subsistence economy during the late Neolithic (4300-2400 BC) in Central Europe. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 16: 403–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/S00334-006-0053-y Google Scholar
Armit, I. 2012. Headhunting and the body in Iron Age Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139016971 Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. 2009. Opfergefässe oder Kinderspielzeug? Überlegungen zur Kinderheit in der Bronzezeit, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 50–53. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R., Menninger, M. & Trautmann, I.. 2009. Totschlag, Überfall oder Menschenopfer?, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 81–87. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Beeching, A. 1977. Le Boiron: une nécropole du bronze final près de Morges (Vaud, Suisse) (Cahiers d'Archéologie Romande 11). Lausanne: Musée d'Archéologie et d'Histoire.Google Scholar
Billamboz, A. 2003. Tree rings and wetland occupation in southwest Germany between 2000 and 500 BC: dendroarchaeology beyond dating. Tree-Ring Research 59: 37–49.Google Scholar
Billamboz, A. 2004. Dendrochronology in lake-dwelling research, in Menotti, F. (ed.) Living on the lake in prehistoric Europe: 150 years of lake-dwelling research: 117–31. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Billamboz, A. 2009a. The absolute dating of Wasserburg Buchau: a long story of tree-ring research, in Manning, S.W. & Bruce, M.J. (ed.) Tree-rings, kings and Old World archaeology and environment: papers presented in honor of Peter Ian Kuniholm: 33–40. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Billamboz, A. 2009b. Jahrringuntersuchungen in der Siedlung Forschner und weiteren bronze- und eisenzeitlichen Feuchtbodensiedlungen Südwestdeutschlands. Aussagen der angewandten Dendrochronologie in der Feuchtbodenarchäologie, in Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (ed.) Siedlungsarchäologie im Alpenvorland XI: 399–556. Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss.Google Scholar
Billamboz, A. 2010. Dendroarchéologie sur le bord du lac de Constance: de la forét au village, que de bois devant la maison palafittique, in Matuschik, I., Strahm, C., Eberschweiler, B., Fingerlin, G., Hafner, A., Kinsky, M., Mainberger, M. & Schöbel, G. (ed.) Vernetzungen: Aspekte siedlungsarchäologischer Forschung (Festschrift für Helmut Schlichtherle): 81–94. Freiburg: Lavori.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1990. The passage of arms: an archaeological analysis of prehistoric hoards and votive deposits. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 2005. Ritual and domestic life in prehistoric Europe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Coles, J. & Minnitt, S.. 1995. Industrious and fairly civilized: the Glastonbury Lake Village. Taunton: Somerset Levels Project.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W. 1991. Iron Age communities in Britain: an account of England, Scotland and Wales from the seventh century BC until the Roman conquest. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fredengren, C. 2011. Where wandering water gushes-the depositional landscape of the Mälaren Valley in the Late Bronze Age and earliest Iron Age of Scandinavia. Journal of Wetland Archaeology 10: 109–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/jwa.2011.10.1.109 Google Scholar
Friedrich, M., Remmels, S., Kromer, B., Hofmann, J., Spurk, M., Kaiser, K.F., Orcel, C. & Küppers, M.. 2004. The 12 460-year Hohenheim oak and pine tree-ring chronology from Central Europe-a unique annual record for radiocarbon calibration and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Radiocarbon 46: 1111–22.Google Scholar
Gollnisch-Moos, H. 1999. Ürschhausen-Horn: Hausund Siedlungsstrukturen der spätestbronzezeitlichen Siedlung. Frauenfeld: Departement für Erziehung und Kultur des Kantons Thurgau.Google Scholar
Green, M.J. 2002. Humans as ritual victims in the later prehistory of Western Europe. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 17: 169–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0092.00057 Google Scholar
Hänsel, A. & Hänsel, B.. 1997. Gaben an die Götter. Schätze der Bronzezeit Europas. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz.Google Scholar
Hansen, S. 1994. Studien zu den Metalldeponierungen während der älteren Urnenfelderzeit zwischen Rhôntal und Karpatenbecken. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Jennings, B. 2012. Settling and moving: a biographical approach to interpreting patterns of occupation in Late Bronze Age Circum-Alpine lake-dwellings. Journal of Wetland Archaeology 12: 1–21.Google Scholar
Keller, F. 1854. Die keltische Pfahlbauten in den Schweizerseen. Mitteilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zürich 9(3): 65–100.Google Scholar
Kimmig, W. 1992. Die “Wasserburg Buchau” eine spätbronzezeitliche Siedlung. Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss.Google Scholar
Künzler Wagner, N. 2005. Zürich-Alpenquai V: Tauchgrabungen 1999-2001-Funde und Befunde (Zürcher Archäologie 13; Seeufersiedlungen). Zurich: Kantonsarchäologie.Google Scholar
Magny, M. 2004. Holocene climate variability, as reflected by mid-European lake-level fluctuations and its probable impact on prehistoric human settlements. Quaternary International 113: 65–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6182(03)00080-6 Google Scholar
Magny, M. 2013. Palaeoclimatology and archaeology in the wetlands, in Menotti, F. & O'Sullivan, A. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of wetland archaeology: 585–97. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Menninger, M. 2009a. Ernährungslage und Gesundheitszustand, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 34–35. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Menninger, M. 2009b. Ein gewaltsamer Tod? Der Befund, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 72–74. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Menotti, F. 2001. ‘The missing period’: Middle Bronze Age lake-dwellings in the Alps. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Menotti, F. 2003. Cultural response to environmental change in the Alpine lacustrine regions: the displacement model. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 22: 375–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1468-0092.2003.00194.x Google Scholar
Menotti, F. (ed.). 2004. Living on the lake in prehistoric Europe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Menotti, F. 2012. Wetland archaeology and beyond: theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moinat, P. & David-Elbiali, M.. 2003. Défunts, bûchers et céramiques: la nécropole de Lausanne-Vidy (VD) et les pratiques funéraires sur le Plateau Suisse du XIe au VIIIe s. av. J.-C. (Cahiers d'Archéologie Romande 93). Lausanne: Cahiers d'Archéologie Romande.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. 1999. The archaeology of death and burial. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar
Parson, W. 2009. Molekularbiologische Untersuchungen an zwei Zahnproben der spätbronzezeitlichen Kinderschädel aus der Wasserburg Buchau, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 31–33. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Perini, R. 1987. Scavi archeologici nella zona palafitticola di Fiavè-Carera. Trento: Servizio Beni culturali della Provincia di Trento.Google Scholar
Pétrequin, P., Magny, M. & Bailly, M.. 2005. Habitat lacustre, densité de population et climat. L'exemple du Jura français, in Casa, P. Della & Trachsel, M. (ed.) WES'04: wetland economies and societies: 143–68. Zurich: Chronos.Google Scholar
Reinerth, H. 1928. Die Wasserburg Buchau: eine befestigte Inselsiedlung aus der Zeit 1100-800 v. Chr. Augsburg: B. Filser.Google Scholar
Schlichtherle, H. 2009. Die archäologische Fundlandschaft des Federseebeckens und die Siedlung Forschner-Siedlungsgeschichte, Forschungsgeschichte und Konzeption der neuen Untersuchungen, in Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg (ed.) Siedlungsarchäologie in Alpenvorland XI: 9–70. Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss.Google Scholar
Schöbel, G. 1998. Die spätbronzezeitlichen Ufersiedlung ‘Wasserburg-Buchau’, Kreis Biberach, in Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg (ed.) Archäologie unter Wasser 3: 85–116. Stuttgart: Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg.Google Scholar
Schöbel, G. 2009. Die “Wasserburg Buchau”. Eine Ufersiedlung der Spätbronzezeit am Federsee in Südwestdeutschland, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 6–9. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Stephan, E. 2009. Woher stammen die Toten? Strontiumisotopen-Verhältnisse als Herkunftsmarker, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 36–38. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Trautmann, I. & Wahl, J.. 2009. Menschliche Überreste im Moor-fünf Kinder und eine Frau, in Baumeister, R. (ed.) Mord im Moor?: 10–12. Bad Schussenried: Federseemuseum Bad Buchau.Google Scholar
Van Der Sanden, W. 1996. Through nature to eternity: the bog bodies of northwest Europe. Amsterdam: Batavia Lion International.Google Scholar
Van Der Sanden, W. 2013. Bog bodies: underwater burials, sacrifices and executions, in Menotti, F. & O'Sullivan, A. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of wetland archaeology: 401–16. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar