archaeological rescue team found a much humbler cemetery at Dermsdorf, not
far from Leubingen, and also a long and large (ca. 440 square meters) building
that quite clearly was much more than a house.^14 Alongside the building were the
remains of a large clay pot in which more than 100 bronze axe-heads had been
placed, probably as a sacrifice or votive offering. These axe-heads were flanged
rather than shaft-holed, each weighing approximately 250 g and meant for insertion
into a haft for a hatchet. The Dermsdorf structure and cemetery apparently date
toward the middle of the Bz A2 period.^15
Enthusiasm for bronze also brought great changes along the southern slopes of
the Alps. The Early Bronze Age in northern Italy began quite abruptly with the
Polada culture, which seems to have extended through the Lombardia, Trentino
and Veneto regions.^16 Although the area had been inhabited all through the Neo -
lithic period, its population seems to have increased significantly during the early
stages of the Early Bronze Age. For the beginning of the Polada sites of Lavagnone
and Luccone, near Lago di Garda, dendrochronology provides dates from 2077
to 1992 BC.^17 The Polada culture continued to flourish throughout the first half of
the second millennium BC, and it must have contributed greatly to the rise of
the Terremare culture in the Po valley. The Terremare communities, like those
of the Polada culture, were very much involved in bronze metallurgy. Many stone
molds were found in excavations of the Terremare settlements, the molds having
been used for the casting of weapons, tools and ornaments.^18
Although many bronze artifacts have been found at Polada and Terremare sites,
mines of the period in the central and eastern Alps have not yet been identified.
On the southern slopes of the western Alps we have the opposite picture.^19 It is
now clear that the intensive mining of copper began there not long after it began
in the Erzgebirge, but it is not at all clear where the copper was going. In the Saint-
Véran area, on the French side of the French-Italian border, an ancient mine and
three smelting sites have been found at high altitudes.^20 Carbon dates from both
the mine and the smelting sites (all of which lie more than 2200 m asl) show that
the mine began to be worked shortly before 2000 BC.^21 David Bourgarit and his
colleagues, who excavated the sites, estimate that the ancient miners and smelters
at Saint-Véran produced approximately 7 tons of copper per year, which if correct
would justify the investigators’ conclusion that “mass production” of copper
began here late in the third millennium BC. Bourgarit and his colleagues, however,
noting that few artifacts of copper or bronze dating to this period have been found
in the region, call attention to “the mis-match between the huge estimated Early
Bronze Age ore extraction and the small scale of the subsequent metallurgy-related
activities and products. In other words, the destination of the Early Bronze Age
production is unknown.”^22
Beginnings of a vigorous bronze metallurgy also brought a measure of pros -
perity to the western fringe of the Beaker culture not long after 2000 BC. The areas
most affected at this time were southwestern Britain, Brittany (on the European
continent opposite Cornwall) and northern Portugal. These three lands had large
and accessible tin deposits, surpassing those of Bohemia. In Britain the new
prosperity expressed itself in the Wessex culture, just to the east of Cornwall, while
136 Militarism in temperate Europe