Gullög Nordquist

Comments on Kristian Kristiansen and Thomas B. Larsson (2005): The Rise of Bronze Age Society. Travels, Transmissions and Transformations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

The Rise of Bronze Age Society. Travels, Transmissions and Transformations by Kristian Kristiansen and Thomas B. Larsson sets out to provide a new picture of the European Bronze Age. The authors argue that current research has to a great extent been concerned with local and regional aspects and that there has not been enough focus on interactions between the various areas; as a result, the fact that social institutions in large parts of Bronze Age Europe have a Near Eastern and Mediterranean background has been overlooked. In the first chapter various theoretical perspectives concerning cultural interaction are discussed. The sensible point is made that a sharp dichotomy between diffusionism and autonomous development is not very useful as a point of departure. In the second chapter travel is promoted as an alternative to the old diffusionist view in order to explain how cultural interaction in the Bronze Age took place. According to the authors Bronze Age society was obsessed with travel; travel was associated not only with trade and the exchange of material goods, but was also directly linked to ideology and cosmology. The third and fourth chapters provide overviews of rulership, trade, and interaction in the Near East and Europe. Chapters five to seven, which examine the cultural relations between the Near East and Europe (which the authors believe existed in the Bronze Age) as well as the organising role of religion, constitute the core of the book. The last chapter discusses the historical role of the Bronze Age. Fundamental to this book is a vision of Bronze Age Europe as a cultural unity. The Near East and Scandinavia are linked through a chain of contacts and shared a similar ideology. This is a wide-ranging book which deals with a long period of time and a large geographical area. It is also a very ambitious book; according to the publisher’s presentation ‘the book integrates the hitherto separate research fields of European and Mediterranean (classical) archaeology ...’. Unfortunately, while the authors’ views and interpretations are clear, they are hard to evaluate as the argumentation is woolly and imprecise. Loose statements, often