Making and Meaning in the Bronze and Iron Ages

Selected papers from METALAGES2024 explore chronology, material culture and society in Bronze and Iron Age Europe and the Mediterranean. Combining scientific dating methods with studies of settlement, craft, identity and exchange, it highlights how chronology and archaeological interpretation together illuminate prehistoric social change.

Making and Meaning in the Bronze and Iron Ages brings together a wide-ranging selection of papers from the METALAGES2024 colloquium, offering new perspectives on chronology, material culture, and social life across prehistoric Europe and the Mediterranean. While grounded in the technical challenges of chronological research, this volume moves beyond dating frameworks to explore how time, production, and meaning intersect in archaeological interpretation.

Contributors engage with cutting-edge methods – including radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, Bayesian modelling, and isotopic analysis – while critically examining their integration with typological sequences and regional cultural schemes. These studies demonstrate that chronology is not merely a technical tool, but a dynamic field that shapes our understanding of human agency, cultural interaction, and historical change.

At the same time, the volume reflects the diversity of current research in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Case studies span settlement networks in Ireland and northern Britain, dendrochronological sequences in Italy, and fortified landscapes in Central and Western Europe. Other contributions address gender, personhood, craft production, and long-distance connections in Mediterranean societies, highlighting the interplay between material practices and social meanings.

By bringing together methodological innovation and interpretative insight, this collection captures the collaborative and interdisciplinary spirit of the METALAGES series of international colloquia, organized by the UISPP Scientific Commission Metal Ages in Europe and the Mediterranean. It offers an essential resource for scholars interested in the evolving relationships between chronology, landscape, and society in later European prehistory.

Editors’ Foreword – Lucía Ruano Posada, Dirk Brandherm and Luis Berrocal-Rangel

Thematic Session: Chronological Methods and their Correlation in the Metal Ages

La cronologia dell’antica età del Bronzo tra Lombardia orientale e Veneto occidentale: dalle datazioni assolute dendrocronologiche e radiocarboniche alla tipocronologia dei materiali – Marco Baioni, Federica Gonzato, Cristina Longhi, Claudia Mangani and Nicoletta Martinelli

Bronze Age dates from the archaeological site of Sa Osa – Cabras – Anna Depalmas, Carmine Lubritto, Rita T. Melis, Mark Pearce and Alessandro Usai

The Early Bronze Age settlement of Asparn-Schletz/Lower Austria. A site in the light of quantitative methods – Elisabeth Rammer

Dynamics of Bronze Age upland settlement in Ireland and Northern Britain in a comparative perspective: Irish results to date – Cherie Edwards

General Session: Current Research in the Metal Ages

On ne naît pas femme : on meurt comme telle. Sex, gender and personhood in the Early Bronze Age – Sabrina N. Autenrieth

New research on prehistoric fortifications in Austria – Results of the Dietenberg excavations in Styria – Florian Mauthner and Klaus Schindl

Underwater hillforts: Assessing the opportunities and challenges of flood-prone archaeological sites – Pablo Paniego Díaz, Lucía Ruano Posada, Iratxe Boneta Jiménez and Timoteo Rivera Jiménez

Tanners and leatherworkers in ancient Iberian society (6th–2nd centuries BC). A social approach to production – Pablo S. Harding-Vera

Exploring domestic economies through network analysis: The case of El Castrejón de Capote – Lucía Ruano Posada, Luis Berrocal-Rangel, Pablo Paniego Díaz, Pablo Sánchez de Oro and Nerea Dacosta Menéndez

The ancient horizon in the Iberian world of the region of Murcia. The formation and emergence of a new culture through the reception of Greek pottery – José Fenoll Cascales, Jesús Robles Moreno and José Miguel García Cano

Le dinamiche preistoriche dell’entroterra della Sicilia occidentale legate al Mediterraneo – Angelo Vintaloro

Lucía Ruano Posada is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon (UNIARQ), specialising in Iron Age and later prehistoric archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula. Her research focuses particularly on domestic architecture, household organisation, earthen building technologies, and the socio-technical dynamics of settlement spaces, drawing on geoarchaeology, ethnoarchaeology, archaeometry, and spatial analysis. She has contributed actively to international scholarly networks and UISPP activities, including the organisation of conference sessions and edited publications.

Dirk Brandherm is Reader in Prehistoric Archaeology at Queen’s University Belfast, specialising in the Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages of Atlantic Europe and the Mediterranean. His research addresses later prehistoric social change, chronology and scientific dating, metallurgy, and the archaeometric study of material culture, with a particular interest in exchange and connectivity. He has led and contributed to numerous international collaborative projects and currently serves as President of the UISPP Metal Ages Commission.

Luis Berrocal-Rangel is Professor of Prehistory at the Autonomous University of Madrid, where he also serves as Head of the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology. A leading specialist in Iberian Iron Age and Hispano-Celtic archaeology, his research encompasses settlement archaeology, protohistoric architecture, fortified landscapes, identity, and cultural interaction across Iberia. He combines extensive fieldwork with broader theoretical perspectives on social complexity and has long been involved in international research collaborations and UISPP initiatives.

• Edited by Lucía Ruano Posada
• Edited by Dirk Brandherm
• Edited by Luis Berrocal-Rangel