The use of axe- and ring-metal as a raw material source in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in Southern Scandinavia

A continuous rise in the flow of metals to Southern Scandinavia begins around 2100–2000 BC. The first networks established guaranteed a supply of metals from the Austrian Inn<br/>Valley and Slovakia, complemented by high-tin British metal.<br/>These networks shifted during the next 700 years: They faded<br/>out and were partially replaced by new contacts supplying<br/>the north with metal from the Eastern Alpine Mitterberg and,<br/>later, from the Southern Alpine region, which became the predominate source from the established Nordic Bronze Age<br/>onwards. No traces of a raw-material trade have been visible<br/>in Southern Scandinavia’s Early Bronze Age periods, nor have<br/>deposits of ingots, as they are known from southern Germany,<br/>been discovered. On the contrary: The targeted import of<br/>artefacts with certain material properties seems to have been<br/>the basis for local material production. Axe- and ring-metal<br/>were traded to Scandinavia as a raw material source for further production. In addition to the actual use of the artefacts,<br/>large quantities had been withdrawn from use in order to be<br/>reused in a targeted manner. The high-tin bronze axes from<br/>the British Isles contributed significantly to the early production of bronze in the Late Neolithic in Southern Scandinavia.<br/>Together with the large quantities of axes made of Ni-fahlore<br/>imported from the Únětician region and the ring-metal of<br/>low-Ni-fahlore from the Central Alps, they form the material<br/>base for the local metalwork in the first 200 to 300 years of<br/>the Nordic Bronze Age. Additionally, the appearance of the<br/>spearheads in an early period of the Nordic Bronze Age (NBA<br/>IA 1750/1700–1600 BC) might also be the result of an influx<br/>of new metal in a specific axe type. The metallurgical fingerprint of Virring-type axes and the earliest spearheads can be<br/>related to the local production of several artefacts with similar South-Eastern European signatures.