Bronze Age Flashcards
Date
1500-500 BC
Periods
Early (2000-1500 BC)
Middle (1500-1200 BC)
Late (1200-500 BC)
Difference between stone age + bronze age:
Stone Age
- Designs drawn freehand
- Pagan rituals + worship more of a focus in design
- Large elaborate burial tombs
- Carved designs on stone
Difference between stone age + bronze age:
Bronze Age
- Designs drawn by mechanical means (compass + rulers)
- Art + craftmanship seen in object design
- Smaller graves
- Developed metalworking techniques (casting, hammering, twisting metal)
Beaker People topics
Copper
Bronze
Gold
Skilled metalworkers
Beaker People - Copper
- Beaker people mined for copper ore
- Miners heated rock face
- Shattered rock with cold water
- Crushed fallen rocks with stone hammers to release copper ore
- Bronze Age copper mine on Mount Gabriel, Co. Cork
- Produced flat copper axes
Beaker People - Bronze
- Produced by mixing copper w/ imported tin
- Alloy bronze stronger than pure copper
- Produce weapons, tools, jewelllery, cauldrons
Beaker People - Gold
- Found alluvial gold in Tyrone + Wicklow
- Collected by panning in riverbeds
- Gold flakes melted to create solid gold ingots
Beaker People - Skilled metalworkers
- High level of craft skills
- Made wide variety of goods, incl. swords, daggers, cauldrons, axe heads, spear heads
- Trade links w/ Britain + mainland Europe -> borrowed techniques + ideas abroad
- Applied decoration by limited range of abstract geometric motifs:
- > Concentric circles
- > Hatched triangles, chevrons, squares
- > Rope + herringbone patterns
- > Circles + dots
Bronze Age People
Called beaker people bc of clay pots
Early Bronze Age artefacts
- Sun disc
- Lunula
Middle Bronze Age artefacts
- Ribbon Torc
- Derrinboy Armlets
Late Bronze Age artefacts
- Castlederg cauldron
- Clones dressfastner
- Gleinsheen Gorget
- Bulla Bog of Allen
- Gorteenreagh Hair lock Rings
Early Bronze Age Metalworking Techniques
- Sheeting and cutting
- Incision
- Repoussé
Sheeting and cutting
Gold ingots hammered into thin sheets, required shape cut out, use compass guide lines
Incision
Decoration scratched on front surface of gold using pointed bronze scriber
Repoussé
Decoration lightly punched/hammered into back of metal using hammers + punches. Resulting deco. stands out on front side in raised relief
Incision techniques
- Concentric circles
- Circle within circle
- Hatching
- Parallel lines
- Cross-hatching
- Chevron
- Triangles
- Punch marks
Designs made by repoussé technique
- Parallel ridges
- Beads within circles of beads
- Rope or string pattern
- Raised cone shape
- Rows of beads
- Punch marks
Tedavnet disc - Form
- Disc circular in shape
- Rises slightly towards centre
Tedavnet disc - Function
- Decorate a garment worn on special occasions
- Two tiny holes in centre of each disc suggest they were stitched to textile/leather
Tedavnet disc - Decoration
- Cruciform motif in centre surrounded by concentric circles
- Zig zag lines between concentric circles
- Punched dots make edges of cross + circles stand out
Tedavnet disc - Metalworking techniques
- Cut discs from thin sheet of hammered gold
- Used repoussé + punching to decorate discs
Ross Lunula - Form
- Lunula = ‘little moon’ in latin
- Flat sheet of gold cut into crescent shape
- Tapers towards each end
- Spoon-shaped ends twisted at right angles to body of lunula
Ross Lunula - Function
- Maybe worn for ceremonial/religious occasions
- Worn by high-status individuals?
Ross Lunula - Decoration
- Abstract geometric lines
- Decorative border incised w/ zigzags (parallel to inner + outer edges of crescent)
- Hatched triangles + squares at narrow ends
- Balance + symmetry and contrast between textured + smooth areas carefully planned. Strong sense of design
Ross Lunula - Metalworking techniques
- Gold ingot beaten into thin sheet from which crescent shape was cut out
- Deco. incised w/ pointed metal scriber
- Use of compass is evident in cutting + laying out of surface deco.
Middle Bronze Age Metalworking Techniques
- 1200 BC - goldsmiths began to twist bars + ribbons of gold in order to make torcs
- Diff.styles of torcs by varying thickness + width of bars or ribbons
Ribbon Torc - Form
- Spiral-twisted gold band narrowing at ends
- Locking clasps, thicker than rest of torc