The Nordic Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC): Craft Mobility and Contact Networks in Metal Craft.

Different craftspeople and their area of influence can be identified from a craftsperson's perspective, and, as such, so too can workshops and contact networks. With knowledge of distinct techniques, the different skill levels of craftspeople, and their affiliation to each other, the organisation of metal craft within the Nordic Bronze Age can be better understood. Complex craft organisation is very likely to have existed within the Nordic Bronze Age, in which the production of prestige goods occurred in differently-structured workshops. Through taking into account signs of apprenticeship and cross-craft techniques, as well as the different categories of flaws in crafting, a viable image of craft organisation within the Nordic Bronze Age can be developed. This paper investigates the intensive exchange of technological knowledge between workshops within and during the Nordic Bronze Age, and reconstructs inferred contact networks. Distinct traces on bronze ornaments that show the development of specific technologies, technological innovation, and the specific use of stylistic elements, clearly separate single workshops from each other. However, they can also be used to show contact networks and provide a basis as to how and why we can talk about one social unit during the Bronze Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]