The Disappearance of European Smiths' Burials

Abstract

Prestigious burials furnished with tools used in metalworking appear from the Eneolithic to the Early Middle Ages. The social status of the deceased has become a subject of a long-running discussion, one that typically ends with a statement on the prominent standing of individuals mastering the processing of metal in ancient societies. This notion is inspired by the ideas of V.G. Childe, and modern attempts to connect the Marxist–Leninist approach with the completely opposing phenomenologist approach result in a vicious circle. Obvious burials of rulers and children with forging tools document that an interpretation seeking highly respected craftsmen in ‘smiths’ burials' is flawed. The author sees the origin of the habit of equipping burials with forging tools in ritual metallurgy: the attributes of buried leaders who, through the use of forging tools, secured the prosperity of their community during rituals, became themselves symbols of elite standing. As in the case of burial furnishings, the performance of ritual metallurgy also depended on the organization of society, thus resulting in differences in the chrono-geographical distribution of burials with forging tools: in the period in which burials furnished with forging tools decline in the Mediterranean, their number peaks in central Europe; their occurrence ends in Viking Age Scandinavia.