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This book examines transcultural processes between the Eurasian and Inner-Carpathian worlds in the Aeneolithic and Early Bronze Age from the perspectives of archaeology, history, anthropology, ethnology, art and philosophy. Based on archaeological sources, the authors reconstruct the character, extent, time and space of possible migration-invasive movements of communities from the East to central Europe. Archaeology of migration focuses primarily on the growing base of cultural attributes and identifiers that cannot be attributed to local prehistoric communities. They also can help analyse the multiple layers of prehistoric processes and complex prehistoric social phenomena. The book presents the authors'reflections on the subject, based on artefacts of foreign origin that appear in the communities of the Inner North-Western Carpathians at the turn of the early Metal periods.

The question of how to conceptualize the role of technological innovations is of crucial importance for understanding the mechanisms and rhythms of long-term cultural change in prehistoric and early historic societies. The changes that have come about have often been modelled as gradual and linear, innovations have been considered positively as a progress in the development of humankind and the focus has been on the localisation of the origin of innovations and the routes of their spread. Appropriating Innovations goes beyond the current discussion by shedding light on condition that may facilitate the rapid spread of technological innovation and on processes involved in the integration of new technologies into the life world of the appropriating societies. In particular, papers concentrate on two key innovations, namely the transmission of the various components of the so-called “Secondary Products Revolution” in parts of the Near East and Europe during the 4th millennium BCE and the appropriation of early bronze casting technology, which spread from the Near East to Europe and China in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BCE. Of particular interest is non-technological knowledge that is transmitted together with the technological, the latter being always deeply interconnected with the communication of social practices, ideas and myths. The acceptance of new technologies, therefore, requires the willingness to change existing world views and modify them due to the potentials and problems which are connected with the new technology. Contributions, therefore, concentrate on the conditions facilitating or hindering the spread of innovations and the transformative power of these innovations in the appropriating society. They analyse how the introduction of novel technologies and the associated non-technological knowledge led to a transformation of existing economic systems and the underlying social orders in Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Eurasia by integrating innovative methodological approaches and contextual studies.Appropriating innovations seeks to turn its head the familiar idea that the spread of innovations is a gradual and linear process bringing progress in the development of societies, especially during the late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in the Near East and Europe. Instead, the papers presented here concentrate on exploring pre-conditions for, mechanisms and processes by which societies choose to adopt and accept innovation, be they technological or otherwise.

Copper is the first metal to play a large part in human history. This work is devoted to the history of metallurgical production in Northern Eurasia during the Bronze Age, based on experiments carried out by the author and analyses of ancient slag, ore and metal. It should be noted that archaeometallurgical studies include a huge range of works reflecting different fields of activity of ancient metallurgists. Often, all that unites these is the term'metallurgy'. This work considers the problems of proper metallurgy, i.e. extracting metal from ore. A number of accompanying operations are closely connected with it, such as charcoal-burning, ore dressing, furnace constructing, and preparation of crucibles. In some instances the author touches upon these operations; however the main topic of the work is the smelting process. The closing stage of the metallurgical production is metalworking including various casting and forging operations, and also auxiliary operations: making of crucibles, casting molds, stone tools for metal forging. These problems are, as a rule, out of frameworks of this research.

Offering a fresh archaeological interpretation, this work reconceptualizes the Bronze Age prehistory of the vast Eurasian steppe during one of the most formative and innovative periods of human history. Michael D. Frachetti combines an analysis of newly documented archaeological sites in the Koksu River valley of eastern Kazakhstan with detailed paleoecological and ethnohistorical data to illustrate patterns in land use, settlement, burial, and rock art. His investigation illuminates the practical effect of nomadic strategies on the broader geography of social interaction and suggests a new model of local and regional interconnection in the third and second millennia B.C.E. Frachetti further argues that these early nomadic communities played a pivotal role in shaping enduring networks of exchange across Eurasia.

Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.

This book provides an overview of Bronze Age societies of Western Eurasia through an investigation of the archaeological record. The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia outlines the long-term processes and patterns of interaction that link these groups together in a shared historical trajectory of development. Interactions took the form of the exchange of raw materials and finished goods, the spread and sharing of technologies, and the movements of peoples from one region to another. Kohl reconstructs economic activities from subsistence practices to the production and exchange of metals and other materials. Kohl also argues forcefully that the main task of the archaeologist should be to write culture-history on a spatially and temporally grand scale in an effort to detect large, macrohistorical processes of interaction and shared development.