Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T13:22:08.604Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Flint and metal daggers in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. A re-interpretation of their function in the Late Neolithic and Early Copper and Bronze Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Niels V. Skak-Nielsen
Niels V. Skak-Nielsen*
Affiliation:
*Gentoftegade 42, 2 tv, DK 2820 Gentofte, Denmark (Email: ns-n@mail.dk) Translated from the Danish by Martin Rundkvist
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We are honoured to present this pivotal paper by a senior Danish scholar (born in 1922) that promises to revise many views of Late Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe. Prehistoric daggers found in graves in Scandinavia and beyond have long been interpreted as weapons wielded by warriors, giving the whole period a rather belligerent flavour. In a radical re-interpretation, the author demonstrates that their use was most probably for the despatch of cattle or other livestock, and the dagger is thus the implement of sacrifice and the symbol of its office.

Keywords

EuropeScandinaviaLate NeolithicBronze Agefunctiondaggerhalberdsacrifice
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 320 , June 2009 , pp. 349 - 358
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Apel, J. 2001. Daggers, knowledge and power. The social aspect of flint-dagger technology in Scandinavia 2350-1550 cal BC (Coast to Coast 3). Uppsala: Coast to Coast Project, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Apel, J. 2005. Flinthandverk och samhälle i södra Skandinavien under senneolitikum och tidig bronzalder, in Goldhahn, J. (ed.) Mellan sten och järn: 1–12. Göteborg: Gotarc Inst för arkeologi.Google Scholar
Brøndsted, J. 1957. Danmarks Oldtid SI.tenalderen. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Evans, J. 1872. The ancient stone implements, weapons, and ornaments, of Great Britain. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Jensen, J. 2001. Danmarks Oldtid. Stenalder 13000-2000 f. Kr. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Jensen, J. 2002. Danmarks Oldtid. Bronzealder 2000-500 f. Kr. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Harding, A. 1999. Warfare: a defining characteristic of Bronze Age Europe?, in Carman, J. & Harding, A. (ed.) Ancient warfare: archaeological perspectives: 157–15. Stroud: Sutton.Google Scholar
Harding, A. 2006. What does the context of deposition and frequency of Bronze Age weaponry tell us about the function of weapons?, in Otto, T., Thrane, H. & Vandkilde, H. (ed.) Warfare and society. Archaeological and social anthropological perspectives: 505–50. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, R.J. 1980. The Beaker folk: Copper Age archaeology in Western Europe. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Kaul, F. 2006. Udgravninger ved helleristninger. Adoranten 2006: 28–49.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H. 1996. War before civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lomborg, E. 1973. Die Flintdolche Dänemarks. Studien über die Cronologie und Kulturbeziehungen des Südskandinavischen Spätneolithikums (Nordiske Fortidsminder, serie B in Quarto, bind 1). Copenhagen: Universitetsforlaget; I kommission hos. H.J.Lynge.Google Scholar
O'flaherty, R. 2007. A weapon of choice - experiments with a replica Irish Early Bronze Age halberd. Antiquity 81: 423–42.Google Scholar
Randsborg, K. 2006. Opening the oak-coffins. New dates - new perspectives. Acta Archaeologica 77: 1–162.Google Scholar
Rassmann, K. 1993. Spätneolithikum und frühe Bronzezeit im Flachland zwischen Elbe und Oder. Lübstorf: Archälogisches Landesmuseum für Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.Google Scholar
Stensköld, E. 2004. Att berätta en senneolitisk histotia, Sten och metall i södra Sverige 2350-1700 f.Kr. (Stockholm Studies in archaeology 34). Stockholm: University of Stockholm.Google Scholar
Thorpe, N. 2006. Fighting and feuding in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland, in Otto, T., Thrane, H. & Vandkilde, H.. (ed.) Warfare and society. Archaeological and social anthropological perspectives: 141–14. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Thrane, H. 2006. Swords and other weapons in the Nordic Bronze Age: technology, treatment and contexts, in Otto, T., Thrane, H. & Vandkilde, H. (ed.) Warfare and society. Archaeological and social anthropological perspectives: 491–504. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Vandkilde, H. 1996. From stone to bronze. The metalwork of the late Neolithic and earliest Bronze Age in Denmark (Jutland Archaeological Society Publications 32). Aarhus: Jutland Archaeological Society.Google Scholar
Vandkilde, H. 2000. Material culture and Scandinavian archaeology: a review of the concepts of form, function and context, in Olausson, D. & Vandkilde, H. (ed.) Form function & context. Material culture studies in Scandinavian archaeology (Acta archaeologica Lundensia 31). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Vandkilde, H. 2005. A review of the early Late Neolithic period in Denmark: practice, identity and connectivity. Published online on 15 December 2005, www.jungsteinSite.de.Google Scholar
Vandkilde, H. 2006. Warriors and warrior institutions in Copper Age Europe, in Otto, T., Thrane, H. & Vandkilde, H. (ed.) Warfare and society. Archaeological and social anthropological perspectives: 393–422. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Varberg, J. 2005. Oprindelsen til en ny tidsalder. Mellem stenalder og bronzealder i Sydskandinavien 2350-1700 BC. Fornvännen 2005/2: 81–95.Google Scholar
Wall, J. 1987. The role of daggers in early Bronze Age Britain: the evidence of wear analyses. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 6(1): 115–1.Google Scholar
Willroth, K.-H. 1985. Die Hortfunde der älteren Bronzezeit in Südschweden und auf den dänischen Inseln (Offa-Bücher 55). Neumünster: Wachholtz.Google Scholar