Moving metals V: The question of shared copper sources between Scandinavia and Hungary 1700–1500 BC

Abstract

The remarkable typological parallels between Carpathian and Scandinavian metalwork, especially from around 1700 to 1500 BC, have long been stressed as evidence that the Carpathian tell communities supplied the Scandinavians with copper. Thus, this study's main objective was to investigate if Bronze Age societies in Scandinavia and the Carpathian basin utilized the same copper sources. To test this hypothesis, analyses, comprising lead isotopes and trace elements, were executed on bronzes from Scandinavia and Hungary. In the current study, the Hungarian data set of 31 artefacts from the famous Százhalombatta hoard and its nearby settlement, is in detail compared to 62 Scandinavian artefacts of various types. The outcome points to that Scandinavia and Hungary partly shared copper sources between 1700 and 1500 BC. The most potential sources are the ones from the Slovak Ore Mountains and Mitterberg in Austria. However, the Scandinavian artefacts from this period also show consistency with additional copper sources, such as Great Orme in Wales and in the Italian Alps. The findings of this study support both the traditional theory, which stated that metal supplies and metalworking traditions were closely related, and the more recent insight, which suggests that style and content may have entirely separate origins. As a result, the intricacy of the production, exchange, and consumption patterns of metal throughout Bronze Age Europe cannot be explained by a simple model that equates stylistic influence and metal suppliers.