Bronze Age Lives

Abstract

This book is the written version of aseries of lecturesdelivered in Munich in the academic year 2015-16 to members of the MünchnerZentrumfür Antike Welten (MZAW) when Iwas Gastprofessor für Kulturgeschichte des AltertumsinLudwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The lecturesh aveb een turned into aw ritten text rather thanaspoken lecture, with bibliography, and have been significantly updated-something that was essential giventhe huge amount of publishedmaterial thath as emergedi nt he last few years and continues to emerge,i np articular the highlyn ovel and important developments in archaeogenetics. In November 2015,w hen the first lecture was given, there wereo nlyacouple of relevant papers available dealing with the genetic origin of Bronze Agep eople; since then, three or four papers ay ear have appeared, shedding light on the whole area in ways that were scarcelyi maginable ad ecade ago. The book is as eries of reflections on the liveso fd ifferent aspects of the Bronze Agearchaeology of Europe. The examples used are inevitablyapersonal choice which makes no claim to completeness or systematic coverage. They reflect personal interests, which Ih ope mayb ei nteresting for aw ider audience-such as was present at the original lectures.T here, the audience consisted mainlyofstaff and studentsofthe MZAW and more particularlyofthe Graduate School "Distant Worlds".These organisations cover aw ide rangeo fd isciplines covering multiple aspects of the ancient world, from classicalp hilologyt o New Testament studies, from prehistoric archaeology to Roman law, from Egyptology to Byzantine art and Sinology. While everyone had an interest in the ancient world in some manner, the specifics of Bronze Agea rchaeology were of course mostlyu nfamiliar to them; hence an approach which sought to provide interesting elements thatc ould find ar esonancef or scholars from these widely differing disciplines. It is apleasure to be able to offer my deep thanks to anumber of people who invited me to Munich and make my stayprofitable and enjoyable. Prof. Dr Carola Metzner-Nebelsick was the initiator of the invitation, which was subsequentlyissued by Prof. Dr Walther Sallaberger. By the time of my arrival, the Chairman (Sprecher)o ft he MZAW wasP rof. Dr Friedhelm Hartenstein, whose kindness and helpfulness Ia cknowledge with gratitude. In dayt od ay matters, however, Io ffer special thanks to Dr Caroline Veit and AnnaW aldschütz, MA, for their care of me during my stay. Others who helped in various ways wereE mer.