Late Bronze and Early Iron Age
cultures of Europe

Urnfeld Bronze Culture

	1. Urnfeld bronze swords from Friedrichshafen, Gailenkirchen, and Biberach (Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum). The Urnfeld culture cremated its dead and placed their ashes in urns. In the face of worsening environmental conditions, the culture intensified cereal cultivation, had less social stratification and more concentrated defended settlements.
	2. Early Bronze Age Trundhold sun chariot from Denmark, late 2nd millenium B.C. (Copenhagen: National Museum). Early bronze casting technogy derived from central Europe. This bronze was thrown into a bog as a votive object. The Urnfeld Culture spread over a large part of Western Europe and interacted with the older cultures and by the 10th century B.C. laid the basis for iron-age Europe.
	3. Bronze cremation urn placed on a wheeled base from a warrior's grave at Milavec, Bohemia (Prague: National Museum). 42 cm. dia. This prestige good is evidence that sometimes the Urnfield culture could develop to the level of chiefdom.

Halstatt iron age

1. Halstatt earthernware platter (London: British Museum).

Northern iron age

1. The head of Tollund Man, Denmark. The "bog people" represent a less developed northern Germanic culture than the Celtic La Tene. People were thrown into peat bogs as punishment or religious sacrifice, and were tanned and preserved by the tannic acid.