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Bronze Age: A Golden Age for Jewellery

Gold jewellery first made an appearance in the copper age in northeastern Bulgaria. By the bronze age the elites in the bronze age communities throughout Europe were using gold to display their position in society.

By Nick Nutter on 2024-05-11 | Last Updated 2024-05-11 | Titbits and News from the Mare Nostrum

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Spiral gold bronze age bracelet

All That Glitters

While named for bronze, a significant amount of jewellery from the Bronze Age was actually crafted from gold. This precious metal's properties made it ideal for adornment. Gold's rich colour, malleability, and resistance to wear and tear attracted Bronze Age metalworkers. They employed techniques similar to those used for bronze to melt, shape, and transform gold into elegant bracelets, rings, necklaces, and impressive neck collars.

The Rise of the Goldsmith

The skilled individuals who worked with gold, creating prestigious objects and ritualistic pieces, held a high status within Bronze Age societies. Archaeologists often refer to these artisans as "goldsmiths."

Unearthing the Sources of Bronze Age Gold

Bronze age sources of gold in Europe

During this prehistoric period, gold could be found in various regions across Europe, including the Carpathians, Iberia, southwestern France, Brittany, Britain, and Ireland. Notably, Ireland's rich gold reserves earned it the nickname "an ancient El Dorado." The Middle East (Taurus Mountains) and Nubia were also sources of gold. Interestingly, accounts from the Late Bronze Age describe the abundance of Egyptian gold as being "like dust on the streets."

Early Goldwork in Europe

The Varna Culture, a Copper Age society in northeastern Bulgaria, is generally credited with the earliest use of gold in Europe. An elite male burial at the Varna Necropolis, dating back to 4569-4340 BC, was adorned with gold bracelets, rings, studs, and even a mace. Remarkably, this necropolis has yielded more gold artifacts than all the excavated sites combined from the same period across the globe, including Mesopotamia and Egypt. Some of the graves, symbolically empty, contained the most significant quantities of goldwork. Until an even earlier site is unearthed, the Varna goldsmiths appear to be the world's pioneering goldworkers.

Jewellery: A Reflection of Life and Culture

The rise of metalworking techniques led to a surge in the popularity of jewellery during the Bronze Age. It became an integral part of life and culture, serving various purposes. Jewellery was worn for decoration, incorporated into religious ceremonies and rituals, and even included in burials for individuals of high importance, highlighting its value in Bronze Age society. Before the advent of metallurgy, bodily adornment typically consisted of shells, bones, and stones.

Fashions of the Bronze Age

Gold beads

Like trends today, styles in jewellery during the Bronze Age circulated, although at a slower pace. Just as with ceramics, clothing, and hairstyles, fashions in jewellery were shared across communities. Both men and women adorned themselves with jewellery, with the elite of both sexes favouring gold pieces. For those of lesser social standing, accessories were crafted from amber (still a valuable commodity at the time), seashells, or bone.

The ‘Dynasties’ Exhibition at the Archaeological Museum in Alicante devotes part of its display of bronze age life in the Iberian Peninsula, Central Europe and the Carpathian Basin to how men and women decorated their bodies.

Treasures from the Past: Examples of Bronze Age Jewellery

Gold Diadem of Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia)

Gold Diadem of Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia)

This unique piece, dated to the El Argar period (2000-1550 BC), was discovered in Caravaca de la Cruz, Spain. Unlike other diadems found in metalworking settlements, which were made from silver, this one is crafted from gold. Archaeologists believe it was a prestigious object reserved for women, symbolizing power and social status.

This piece lacks a precise archaeological context, although its provenance from an Argaric site, the Estrecho de la Encarnación in the municipality of Caravaca de la Cruz, is well documented, from one of whose graves it could have emerged.

It is a unique piece since all the diadems found in the tombs of metal-working Argar culture settlements, though similar in form, are made of silver. For this reason, archaeologists have interpreted it as a luxury object reserved solely for women, as it appears in a female burial, who used it to publicly display their power and social prestige.

Four diadems of similar shape made of silver, although smooth, come from the burials excavated by the brothers Henry and Luis Siret in the eponymous site of El Argar. Those diadems are today dispersed between the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, the British Museum in London and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

These four diadems corresponded to funerary trousseau composed of ceramics and decorative elements, which have been interpreted as corresponding to women. Luis Siret himself, based on his findings, made a drawing in which he reconstructed the way in which Argaric women would have worn this type of jewel, girding their hair and with the front end covering the nose.

Gold Headband from Quinta da Agua Branca, Portugal

Gold Headband from Quinta da Agua Branca, Portugal

Dating to around 2000 BC, this headband was unearthed in a cyst grave. Notably, the grave also contained an arsenical bronze sword and several rings, indicating it belonged to a male warrior. This finding indicates that men were not shy about wearing jewellery during the Bronze Age.

Amber Bead Bracelet from Nizna Mysla

Amber Bead Bracelet from Nizna Mysla

Amber requires specific conditions to form and was a valuable material. While amber deposits exist worldwide, only Baltic amber was accessible to Europeans during the Bronze Age.

The Nizna Mysla cemetery of the Otomani-Füzesabony Culture in the Carpathian Basin is considered to be one of the most important early bronze age sites in Central Europe.

This beautiful bracelet, crafted from Baltic amber beads, dates to between 1780 and 1690 BC.

Bronze Age Ear Decorations

Bronze age ear tunnels and rings

Earrings were a popular adornment for both sexes during the Bronze Age. In El Argar territories, enlarged earlobes with tunnels for dangling earrings were considered particularly stylish. Elite females wore silver earrings, while men sported gold ones.

Bronze Age Headdresses

Ornamental bronze age headdress

People of the Otomani-Füzesabony Culture in the Carpathian Basin adorned their heads with elaborate headdresses. A tomb excavation at Encs yielded an exquisite headdress crafted from gold, bronze, and shells, dating back to 1900-1700 BC.

Bronze Age Hair Care

Bronze Age ivory comb - El Argar

Far from being an unkempt ruffian, the well-dressed bronze age human took care of their hair. An ivory comb found at Cabezo Redondo dates to about 1400 BC.

Note the work that must have gone into carving out the tines and the finger holes for extra purchase. This artefact also shows that ivory from either Asian or African, probably the latter, elephants, was making its way into the Iberian Peninsula during this period.

Cabezo Redondo was a Bronze Age settlement during the El Argar period. Its location, alongside the now-disappeared Lagoon of Villena near Alicante, gave the inhabitants easy access to fresh water, salt, pastures, fishing and hunting.

Princely Gold Bracelet

Solid gold bracelet

About 1940 BC, an elite male was buried at the Leubingen Tumulus.

The Leubingen tumulus is an Early Bronze Age "princely" grave of the Unetice culture, dating to about 1940 BC. It is located near the hills of Kyffhäuser in Leubingen, an Ortsteil of Sömmerda in the eastern German state of Thuringia.

Part of the grave goods included this fine gold bracelet. Notice the fine ornamental engraving.

Spirals

Gold spiral ring

The spiral had been a popular decorative feature for thousands of years before the bronze age. It was used to denote infinity either past or future. Spirals of one sort or another can be seen in cave paintings and engraved on stelae and plagues. During the bronze age the spiral was incorporated into the design of all sorts of jewellery, with the spiral shape particularly lending itself to bracelets and rings.

This spiral ring, in gold, is typical of those found in bronze age graves throughout Europe.

The First Kingdoms of Prehistoric Europe Exhibition

Dynasties. ‘The First Kingdoms of Prehistoric Europe Exhibition’ is being held at the Archaeological Museum in Alicante until October 2024. The exhibition concentrates on the bronze age cultures of El Argar in the Iberian Peninsula, the Únetice Culture in central Europe and the Otomani-Füzesabony Culture in the Carpathian basin.