DOI: 10.33547/PraceArch.69.04
Überlegungen zur intentionellen Beschädigung und Fragmentierung von Hortbronzen
by Dirk Brandherm 
1
1 – Queen’s University Belfast, School of Natural and Built Environment, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
In: M. S. Przybyła, K. Dzięgielewski (eds.), Chasing Bronze Age rainbows. Studies on hoards and related phenomena in prehistoric Europe in honour of Wojciech Blajer, Prace Archeologiczne 69, Kraków: Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University / Profil-Archeo, 2019, pp. 41-57.
Abstract: Considering intentional damage and fragmentation in Bronze Age metalwork depositions. The present contribution argues for the need to clearly distinguish between the damaging or breaking-up of metalwork objects and their subsequent deposition when trying to establish the respective motives behind those actions. Two broad categories of fragmentation patterns among metalwork assemblages from Bronze Age hoard contexts can be established, one stemming from the ritual decommissioning of items for eminently religious purposes, the other from the breaking-up of metal objects for recycling or for use within the context of a weight-based hackbronze currency. This dichotomy does not always map neatly onto the distinction between the religious and the mundane where the motives behind the subsequent deposition of fragmented metalwork are concerned.
Key words: Bronze Age, metalwork, hoard, deposition, fragmentation pattern