Copper in Eneolithic Bohemia

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Filozofická fakulta Ústav pro pravěk a ranou dobu dějinnou Miroslav Dobeš Měď v eneolitických Čechách Copper in Eneolithic Bohemia Disertační práce Abstract vedoucí práce - Doc. PhDr. Luboš Jiráň, CSc. 2012 Abstract Miroslav Dobeš: Copper in Eneolithic Bohemia. Copper artifacts are an important source of understanding for European prehistory, not only in terms of the development of new technologies, but also importantly as a means of social communication. The gradual perception of the copper objects from their initial importing to simple cold forging to pyrotechnological processes and culminating in the Early Bronze Age tin bronze alloys, can be observed already in the Near East at the end of the 9th Millenium B.C., in other words the Aceramic Neolithic (Çayönü Tepesi). Within Europe, there has been a rapid initial development of metalurgy in the Balkans, aproximatelly in the middle of the 5th Millenium B.C., in Central Europe this innovation has arrived sometime around 4000 B.C., or shortly afterwards. The present work is the first thorough analysis of the Czech Eneolithic copper industry, which is based largely on original documentation of findings and attempts to complete the synthesis of sources. From a chronological point of view, this work covers the entire period of the...