This book provides new insights into the relationship between humans and birds in Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. Joakim Goldhahn argues that birds had a central role in Bronze Age society and imagination, as reflected in legends, myths, rituals, and cosmologies. Goldhahn offers a new theoretical model for understanding the intricate relationship between humans and birds during this period. He explores traces of birds found in a range of archaeological context, including settlements and burials, and analyzes depictions of birds on bronze artefacts and figurines, rock art, and ritual paraphernalia. He demonstrates how birds were used in divinations, and provides the oldest evidence of omens taken from gastric contents of birds - extispicy - ever found in Europe.

Shows how archaeologists gain knowledge about past ontologies, and explores the role that birds played in Bronze Age economy, ritual and religion.

About the Author
Joakim Goldhahn is Professor of Archaeology at Linnaeus University, Sweden. An internationally known author on the Bronze Age in northern Europe, he has published more than twenty books and anthologies, as well as and numerous articles on topics such as Northern European rock art, Bronze Age burial rituals, bronze and stone smiths as ritual specialists, and war and memory.


Book Information
ISBN 9781108499095
Author Joakim Goldhahn
Format Hardback
Page Count 446
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 1110g
Dimensions(mm) 260mm * 185mm * 27mm