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Kristian Kristiansen
Life cycles, rituals and tradition ritual capital, materialised in monuments of various
kinds and transmitted to the next generation.
During the Bronze Age time was upheld and per- Heroic deeds and their ritual materialisation were
sonified by the story of the journey of the sun (Kaul thus combined in individual ‘carrier strategies’ as it
2004: Figure 67; Kristiansen, Larsson 2005: Figure were, to achieve power and fame not only for one
139), social and heroic time by the external origin self but also for ones lineage. In this way power was
of chiefly lineages linked to travels and alliance net- constantly negotiated. It is some of these mecha-
works, cosmological time by the myths of the origin nisms of agency and the transformation of time and
of gods and the creation and termination of the uni- prestige I wish to describe in this chapter, in order
verse. Thus there existed a cosmological calendar to illuminate how small scale changes and frictions
of ritual events that served as a blueprint for action. during the lifetime of individuals, households and
Several researchers have pointed to the complex lineages had the potential to create changes in long
mathematical and astronomic knowledge needed term traditions, apparently without changing these
to create the elaborate sun discs and other ritual very same traditions fundamentally. It is an inherent
objects such as shields with their regular patterns ingredient in the consistency of long-term or ‘great
displaying the calendar year (May, Zumpe 20003; traditions’ that they are able to accumulate and
Guillemin et al. 2003; Randsborg 2006: chapter X). ‘digest’ change within their institutional and cos-
It testifies to the importance of knowing the correct mological framework (Kristiansen, Larsson 2005:
dates of important solar events, such as midsum- chapter 6.8; Odner 2000; Rowlands 2003). I will also
mer and midwinter. Therefore we must envisage explore and discuss the nature and the range of this
that such knowledge was maintained and trans- adaptive capacity of long-term traditions. In this way
mitted by priests (in later texts named Druids and I hope to illuminate how different time scales are
Brahmins), and that it was constantly reproduced historically constructed during a period of more
through ritual performance and social actions of than 1000 years, and how they balance each other
individuals, whether priests, warriors, craftspeople until a critical threshold is finally being reached
or travellers. around 500 BC.
In this way individuals could inscribe them-
selves into heroic and later cosmological time or Biographies of people and things:
history by earning fame in their own lifetime through the warrior life cycle
accepted mechanisms of social action (Miller 2000).
Such symbolic capital of heroic action could – if During the Bronze Age individuals constructed
successful – be transformed into more permanent social identity through material objects, which were
LEHOËRFF (A.) dir. — Construire le temps. Histoire et méthodes des chronologies et calendriers des derniers millénaires avant notre ère en Europe occidentale.
Actes du XXXe colloque international de Halma-Ipel, UMR 8164 (CNRS, Lille 3, MCC), 7-9 décembre 2006, Lille. Glux-en-Glenne : Bibracte, 2008, p. 41-50
(Bibracte ; 16).
Kristian Kristiansen
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From memory to monument: the construction of time in the Bronze Age
chiefly lineage. This is the Bronze Age way of ‘giving I shall now proceed to describe the dynamics of
while keeping’, and ultimately the objects and their heroic and ritual actions in Bronze Age society, the
power could be retrieved, whether by an enemy to way they balanced and at times challenged each
destroy it, or in bad times when needed to defend other (ill. 2; ill. 3).
the lineage.
Observations on the sword blades recurrently Chiefly warriors and ritual chiefs:
testify that swords in hoards are deposited without tensions and competition
repairs of scars from combat, whereas swords in
graves are normally repaired and re-sharpened. Having studied several hundred swords from
Thus, they refer back to different situations – one northern and central Europe it is now clear that
of combat and one of death. However, they entered there existed a universal divide throughout the
the same divine realm and thus were part of an Bronze Age between full-hilted decorated swords
ongoing dialogue and exchange of powers between and more plain often flange hilted swords. While
gods and mortals, living and dead (ancestors). In full-hilted swords show regional distributions,
this way gods and ancestors were active agents especially in the Nordic realm, warrior swords are
in the landscape and in the lives of their lineages. international with a European wide distribution.The
They were linked by heroic tales of ancestors, of latter display razor sharp edges and most swords
the social genealogies in the barrows and ritual demonstrate resharpening of scars and damages
sanctuaries, just as ritual performance by chiefly from combat. On around one third this has changed
priests disguised as gods upheld time and cosmos. the original shape of the blade and levelled out pro-
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Kristian Kristiansen
4a. Two distribution patter of different swords types during Period 2. Nordic full-hilted swords of ritual chiefs.
liferation, these are swords with a long and bloody during period 3. Despite such variations we can still
biography. In contrast most full-hilted swords, always quite easily distinguish ritual chiefs from warriors.
decorated, do not display much resharpening of The symbolism of the sun is represented by the
edge damage, and a good deal have not sharp edges exclusive use of spiral decoration, which belonged
at all (Kristiansen 1984). However, their hilt is often only to the ritual chiefs and their lineage, which
worn, sometimes so heavily that most decoration is also included aspiring junior ranks. Its derivation
gone. They possessed a long biography as well, but from Mycenaean culture signalled a claim to
one of a different kind than the warrior swords. We distant origins of high culture. But other symbolism
can thus demonstrate that different sword types are speaks of their role and links to the divine realm.
meaningfully linked to different institutions of lead- Most important is the ship and the horse, both
ership in Bronze Age Europe, which was dominated attributes of the heavenly or ‘Divine Twins of early
by dual leadership between ritual chiefs and war- Indo-European mythology, in later Greek mythology
rior chiefs, in Mycenaean Greece termed ‘Wanax’ named the Dioscuri (West 2007: 186ff.). Ship formed,
and ‘Lavagetas’. horse headed razors speak of this divine link just
These differences are most clearly played out as belt hooks are also shaped like a horse head. In
during the Nordic period 2 from 1500-1300 BC. Here Vedic text the Divine Twins are named the ‘Asvins,’
we find many ‘model burials’ in terms of full equip- which means the horse-born sons of the sky god;
ment. More often burials would contain only some they occupied an important intermediate position
part of the full range of objects, and such variations between gods and humans, and their role could
could both be personal and situational, when the thus be transferred to ritual chiefs. They assisted
family or lineage decided to withhold a sword per- their sister the sun goddess in her journey drawing
haps in periods of bronze scarcity, as it happened the sun chariot over the sky in the shape of two
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From memory to monument: the construction of time in the Bronze Age
4b. Two distribution patters of different swords types during Period 2. Interregional flange hilted and
octogonally hilted sword of chiefly warriors and traders.
white horses, and at dawn they rescued her from from the Divine Twins, carrying their symbols,
the underworld and escorted her during the ocean whereas the warriors normally did not display such
on their twin ships with horse headed stems, until divine links in their burial equipment.
morning when they again changed from sea to sky In this way we are able to demonstrate the
(Kristiansen, Larsson: Figure 139). Thus ritual chiefs existence of an institution of ritual chiefs or chiefly
of the Nordic Bronze Age were seen as descendants priests and of warrior chiefs or chiefly warriors, with
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Kristian Kristiansen
6. The ritual cycle of the cattle raid, and the eternal journey of the
sun, serving as cosmological blueprints of action and legitimacy for
warriors and ritual chiefs (after Lincoln 1981, fig. 10).
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From memory to monument: the construction of time in the Bronze Age
7. Examples of worn down Period 3 full-hilted swords (Ksp. Harring, Harring: 4960 C [G.F.] – Hasting:
4965).
completely worn down, and the bronze was worn alliances with the Carpathian region. On ill. 7 I show
away in several places laying bare the inner clay examples of these completely worn down swords
core of the casting. They were finally deposited in that testify to their shared biographies, the result of a
burials towards the end of Period 3,when supplies temporary breakdown of the political alliances that
were again becoming stable, now through political had secured the flow of metal to northern Europe.
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Kristian Kristiansen
48
From memory to monument: the construction of time in the Bronze Age
ised monumentality of potential eternity. Individual tradition. They were thus mythological agents in a
agency and deeds were inscribed into a ritual blue- unified cosmos of semi-human gods, semi-divine
print for action that defined rules of etiquette and ancestors and ritual chiefs who derived their
behaviour, and as the earthly representatives of the powers from this cosmological exchange.Therefore
Divine Twins, political/ritual chiefs were in control the ancestral burials were plundered in periods of
of their divine functions: the seasonal festivals of internal competition and warfare between chiefly
the sun, the protection of travels and sea-journeys, polities (Randsborg 1998). Religious and political
the initiation and protection of young warriors, the powers were thus unified in a theocratic exchange
ritual dances and music that accompanied these that allowed mortal chiefs to become semi-divine as
ritual festivals. they controlled and performed the rituals and their
In this way annual and generational time was corpus of hymns and songs in the name of the gods,
inscribed into the long-term cycle of heroic and while the gods in the same process became semi-
religious texts, and lifted up into eternal memory human. In this way every day life, the annual seasons
that was materialised in ancestral barrows, rock of rituals and warfare, the long-distance travels
art and natural sanctuaries. The barrows with their and the exchange of metal were all inscribed into
ancestors were an active power and agent that could cosmological time, adding new stories and names,
be mobilised in social strategies, while at the same while retaining the overall structure of Bronze Age
time they symbolised an unbroken cosmological religion.
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