Local Societies in Bronze Age Northern Europe

For years the Bronze Age societies of Northern Europe/Arctic Europe were regarded by archaeologists as being on the periphery and a bleak contrast to what was going on in Central Europe and the Near East. This is now changing as archaeology is recognizing the Bronze Age as a whole as the first globalised period with new types of societies and new modes of exchange and trade emerging in Northern Europe as well as in Central Europe and the Near East. Taking this approach, the contributors challenge some of the mainstream opinions on the Bronze Age of Northern Europe. The contributors argue that there was considerable local variation and diversity within the Bronze Age societies of Northern Europe and a movement away from attention merely to local and regional aspects but toward communication, travel and contact with the greater world, not only with Central Europe and the Near East but also towards the Far East. This volume reinstates Northern Europe to the greater picture of the Bronze Age world and is an important corrective to current accounts.