Bronze Age Rock Art in Iberia and Scandinavia: Words, Warriors, and Long-distance Metal Trade

REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH Across Europe, during the Late Bronze Age, societies witnessed a dramatic change in economy, politics, and social behaviour. This change also had an effect on the way communities expressed themselves through burial-ritual practices and the production and consumption of rock art. Gone are the great Neolithic passage graves that once dominated Iberian and south Scandinavian landscapes; the power and prestige of ancestors is shifting, and replacing it is a warrior-based society. This is reflected in the material culture – in particular, metalwork and rock art.  It has been proposed that these changes were the result of the exchange of ideas, which were s