Establishing the age at which prehistoric individuals move away from their childhood residential location holds crucial information about the socio dynamics and mobility patterns in ancient societies. We present a novel combination of strontium isotope analyses performed on the over 3000 year old “Skrydstrup Woman” from Denmark, for whom we compiled a highly detailed month-scale model of her migration timeline. When combined with physical anthropological analyses this timeline can be related to the chronological age at which the residential location changed. We conducted a series of high-resolution strontium isotope analyses of hard and soft human tissues and combined these with anthropological investigations including CT-scanning and 3D visualizations. The Skrydstrup Woman lived during a pan-European period characterized by technical innovation and great social transformations stimulated by long-distance connections; consequently she represents an important part of both Danish and European prehistory. Our multidisciplinary study involves complementary biochemical, biomolecular and microscopy analyses of her scalp hair. Our results reveal that the Skrydstrup Woman was between 17–18 years old when she died, and that she moved from her place of origin -outside present day Denmark- to the Skrydstrup area in Denmark 47 to 42 months before she died. Hence, she was between 13 to 14 years old when she migrated to and resided in the area around Skrydstrup for the rest of her life. From an archaeological standpoint, this one-time and one-way movement of an elite female during the possible “age of marriageability” might suggest that she migrated with the aim of establishing an alliance between chiefdoms. Consequently, this detailed multidisciplinary investigation provides a novel tool to reconstruct high resolution chronology of individual mobility with the perspective of studying complex patterns of social and economic interaction in prehistory.

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The bronze razor with the horse-head handle appeared in Scandinavia in the fifteenth century BC. Where did it come from and what did it mean? The author shows that the razor had some antecedents in the Aegean, although none of these objects were imported to the north. He argues that the Scandinavian warrior class consciously adopted elements of the Mycenaean warrior package, including a clean-shaven face. This vividly exposes new aspects of the busy and subtle nature of international communication in the Bronze Age.

Bronze Age tripartite cosmologies 135 When working with Prehistoric religion and its many expressions, different definitions of religion can be used. I shall not here go further into the discussions as to definitions of religion, or whether we can allow ourselves to use the word religion at all on Prehistoric non-literate material, but emphasize the definition by Armin Geerts: "Religion is a cultural system and a social institution that governs and promotes ideal interpretations of existence and ideal praxis with reference to postulated transempirical powers or beings" (Geertz 1996, 121; Geertz 1999, 471). This definition seems useful also for archaeologists, though it should be noted that it is only in certain periods that a narrow definition of religion including evidence as to transempirical powers can be applied. The Nordic Bronze Age with its rich iconographical material is such a period. To this definition is added a system of classification of the phenomenology of religion, where phenomena or I. ABHANDLUNGEN Bronze Age tripartite cosmologies by Flemming Kaul, Kopenhagen Religion der nordischen Bronzezeit; Ikonographie; Kosmologie; Sonnenschiff; Leben nach dem Tod; das alte Ägypten. Religion de l'âge du Bronze nordique; iconographie; cosmologie; barque du soleil; vie après la mort; l'ancienne Egypte. Nordic Bronze Age religion; iconography; cosmology; the Sun-ship; the afterlife, Ancient Egypt. Das reiche ikonographische Material der nordischen Bronzezeit, wie es auf Felszeichnungen und Bronzegegenständen wie z.B. Rasiermessern zu finden ist, scheint eine komplexe Mythologie zu vertreten, die sich auf die ewige Fahrt der Sonne durch die verschiedenen Sphären des Kosmos bezieht. Die Sonne und ihre göttlichen ‚Helfer' wie das Schiff, das Pferd, der Fisch und die Schlange sind nicht die einzigen, die eng mit dieser zyklischen Mythologie verbunden sind. Im folgenden Artikel wird vorgeschlagen, daß auch die Seelen der Verstorbenen eine wichtige Rolle in jenem göttlichen Spiel innehatten, nämlich als Paddler der Sonnenbarke oder Sonnenbarken, die jeden Tag und jede Nacht durch alle Sphären fuhren. In manchen strukturellen Grundlagen zeigt die Kosmologie der nordischen Bronzezeit interessante Parallelen mit der Religion der alten Ägypter. Tel qu'il figure sur les gravures rupestres et les objets en bronze, comme les rasoirs par exemple, le riche matériel iconographique de l'âge du Bronze nordique semble représenter une mythologie complexe se référant au périple éternel du soleil à travers les différentes sphères du cosmos. Le soleil et ses «aides» divins, comme la barque, le cheval, le poisson et le serpent, ne sont pas les seuls à être étroitement liés à cette mythologie cyclique. On propose dans cet article que les âmes des défunts occupaient un rôle important au sein de ce jeu céleste, notamment en tant que rameurs de la barque ou des barques célestes, qui, chaque jour et chaque nuit, traversaient toutes les sphères. Maints fondements structurels de la cosmologie de l'âge du Bronze nordique présentent des para...