Birds in the Bronze Age
A North European Perspective

Shows how archaeologists gain knowledge about past ontologies, and explores the role that birds played in Bronze Age economy, ritual and religion.

Joakim Goldhahn (Author)

9781108499095, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 October 2019

446 pages, 95 b/w illus. 16 colour illus.
26 x 18.5 x 2.7 cm, 1.11 kg

This book provides new insights into the relationship between humans and birds in Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. Joakim Goldhahn argues that birds had a central role in Bronze Age society and imagination, as reflected in legends, myths, rituals, and cosmologies. Goldhahn offers a new theoretical model for understanding the intricate relationship between humans and birds during this period. He explores traces of birds found in a range of archaeological context, including settlements and burials, and analyzes depictions of birds on bronze artefacts and figurines, rock art, and ritual paraphernalia. He demonstrates how birds were used in divinations, and provides the oldest evidence of omens taken from gastric contents of birds - extispicy - ever found in Europe.

Part I. Liftoff: 1. Strange birds
2. Bird divination in the ancient world
3. The Hvidegard burial revisited
Part II. Birdscapes: 4. Bronze birds
5. Birds of the living
6. Birds of the dead
7. Birds of the rocks
Part III. Intra-actions: 8. Rethinking Bronze Age worldings
9. The animacy of the rocks
10. Bird intra-actions
11. Cave birds: becoming bird.

Subject Areas: Environmental archaeology [HDP], Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA]