Adoption of innovations and expansive phenomena in the 2nd millennium BC in Europe.

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• published: 11 Jun 2015
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Abstract: The 2nd millennium BC in Central and Western Europe represents a perfect case study to test different and competing hypotheses of social dynamics and economic changes in early complex societies. Traditionally, for the European Bronze Age scholars have been able to detect the existence of macro-scale spreading phenomena whose material consequences have been recorded in the archaeological deposit. Among the most studied ones we can refer to the diffusion of cremation burials within the so called "Urnfield culture" and the introduction and spread of specific pottery and metal typologies (handles with vertical expansion, fluted pottery and bronze knives). In this presentation, after having illustrated the theoretical aspects relating to the case study, we aim to quantify episodes of adoption of innovation which took place during the 2nd millennium BC in Prehistoric Europe. In particular, our study focuses on those characterized by an expansive behaviour. In order to tackle this issue we present the results of a geostatistical analysis carried out through a computer programmed modeling of different space-time datasets. The data originate from the EUBAR database, which collects more than 1700 georeferenced and radiocarbon dated archaeological contexts of a period between the Early Bronze Age and the beginning of Iron Age from an area including the North-East of Iberian Peninsula, Southern France, Northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Southern Germany. Authors: Giacomo Capuzzo, Juan Antonio Barceló