Bronze Age Identities: Costume, Conflict and Contact in Northern Europe 1600-1300 BC

Stockholm: Bricoleur Press, 2007. — 232 pp. — (Stockholm Studies in Archaelogy, no 43). — ISBN 91-85411-03-05.This dissertation deals with male and female social identities during the Middle Bronze Age (1600-1300 BC) in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany. South Scandinavian Bronze Age research has traditionally focused on the male sphere, while women have seldom been seriously considered or analysed in terms of their roles, power or influences on society. This study addresses the imbalance through discussing the evidence for gender relations, social structures and identity. The topic has been approached using case studies from different areas of northern Europe and from a variety of angles (e.g. costume and appearance, age, violence, long distance contacts), always drawing on the rich material from burials.
The aim of this dissertation is to study social identities and social structure in the south Scandinavian Bronze Age from a gender perspective. The analyses are mainly based on grave material from different Northern European areas from the period between c. 1600 – c. 1300 BC. The focus will be on artefacts from burials which are associated with the body and clothing as well as objects indicative of communication between different areas.Social identity and social structure – a gender approach.
Chronology and time.
Period IB: A time of social differences and the construction of gendered identities.
Gendered burial traditions: an analysis of local and regional patterns.
Male identity: united or separated?
Ageing in the Bronze Age.
Valued as exchange? Exchange, networks and movement.
Conclusion.