An early phase Corded ware Cultural group of Central Europe, that later merged with Beaker Bell culture in late phase Bronze Age culminating into the Proto Unetice Culture.
Inventors of the Nebra Sky Disc, the world's oldest star map.
Over four thousand years ago in the early bronze age, great princes emerged to rule over central Europe. They controlled copper and tin production, creating vast amounts of bronze that made them rich. These powerful rulers also facilitated the amber trade along the so-called Amber Road, transporting the precious material from the Baltic to the civilisations of the Near East. They were so rich they could afford grand burials beneath enormous barrows, their tombs laden with gold weapons and jewellery. To protect their wealth they had standing armies of axe wielding warriors and officers bearing halberds and huge daggers. And they created the incredible Nebra Sky Disc, oldest depiction of astronomical phenomena in the world. This is the story of the Únětice Culture.
In Bronze Age Iberia there was a powerful society that dominated the region for over six hundred years. This was a strictly hierarchical society ruled by powerful chieftains, or perhaps kings and queens, supported by a wealthy aristocracy, a labouring class, and slaves. They interred their dead with standardised grave goods that marked their age, sex, and social rank. The elite men were given copper and bronze weapons while the elite women wore gold or silver jewellery and sometimes beautiful silver diadems. They had trade links that extended across the Mediterranean to North Africa, the Aegean, and the Near East, and all the way across Europe to the Baltic. This is the amazing story of the bronze age rulers of Spain – what some have called the first state society in Western Europe - the El Argar culture.
