The Nordic Bronze Age relied heavily on British and continental European trade.

What is it about?

New analyses reveal the Nordic Bronze Age relied heavily on British and continental European trade- with smiths often recycling and mixing metals of imported objects.

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Why is it important?

2000-1700BC marks the earliest Nordic Bronze Age, when the use and availability of metal—specifically tin and copper, which when alloyed together creates bronze—increased drastically in Scandinavia. Using isotope and trace-element analyses on 210 Bronze Age artifact samples, predominantly axeheads ( 50% of all known existing Danish metal objects from this period) this research presents the first large-scale insight in early Bronze Age metal trade. The results of these analyses reveal the trading networks established to import raw metals as well as crafted weapons into Scandinavia via a maritime trade route to the British Isles and a river-based route leading south towards the Únetice (a Bronze Age civilization in what is now eastern Germany and Bohemia). The predominance and importance of the trade of British axes to Scandinavia is underscored by the data showing particular isotopic signatures as well as their high tin contents with relatively pure copper used in many of the western-style axes studied. The authors also uncovered an unexpected predominance of Slovakian copper, and suggest that Únetice traders acted as middlemen to transport this desirable copper to Scandinavia. The results provide new evidence for the earliest Bronze Age period in Scandinavia as distinct from the previous Neolithic period (prior to 2000BC) and the later “breakthrough” period of the Nordic Bronze Age, characterized by highly-sophisticated bronzework (1600-1500BC).

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