Book Review

Review by Ulf-Dietrich Schoop
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, UK (Email: uschoop@staffmail.ed.ac.uk)

'Période de transition ..., le "Chalcolithique" constitue, dans l'évolution des sociétés, une période à la fois capitale et ambiguë.' With these words Jean Guilaine introduces the reader to this edited volume, a compilation of seminars delivered at the Collège de France. The sentence already encapsulates many of the issues and contradictions encountered in this work: the idea of the 'Chalcolithic' as a major stage within a global system of stadial historical development contrasting with its transitional nature, the significance for social development ascribed to this period, and - finally - the ambiguities surrounding its definition.

The book contains 15 single contributions in French by 19 authors. The papers are arranged in two volumes, the first of which contains nine papers dealing with European and the second six papers dealing with extra-European topics. The collection is preceded by the editor's foreword, somewhat awkwardly repeated in full in the second volume. Each paper opens with a short section where the editor introduces, summarises and comments on the topic. Two of the early papers in volume one deal with issues of definition; they take a 'global' view of the Chalcolithic that encompasses much of Europe (Lichardus-Itten) and even the Near East (Strahm). All of the other papers have a more distinctively regional focus, their scope extending from the Balkans to central and eastern Europe, France, Spain and Portugal. One paper centres on Bulgaria and on the famous site of Varna (Manolakakis). Several contributions deal with the large Corded Ware (Vander Linden) and Bell Beaker complexes (Besse, Desideri & Piguet, Salanova). Two papers concentrate on the Alpine region, one in a more comprehensive way (Gallay), the other focusing on the symbolism of the rock engravings found in this area (de Saulieu). Carozza & Mille compare the different trajectories followed by prehistoric communities in northern and southern France.

Volume two contains six papers on a selection of areas in the rest of the world. Huot addresses the transition from the Ubaid to the Uruk cultural complexes in southern Mesopotamia. A comprehensive summary covering Anatolia's development from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Middle Bronze Age (Hauptmann) is the only paper without references. Two papers cover the emergence of urbanism in the southern Levant (Nicolle, Braehmer). Moving further away, Bouchard's contribution looks at the development of metal technology in the pre-Columbian Andes. A field report on the site of Iwelen in the West Saharan Aïr region (Roset) concludes the collection.

Anyone who is expecting to find in this volume a full theoretical engagement with the concept of a 'Copper Age', possibly seen from the specific perspective of French archaeological thinking, will probably be disappointed. The volumes do, however, present a wide range of generally well-written case studies. These display great variety in their understanding of what may constitute a chalcolithic cultural stage, even if there are major differences - due, in part, to differences in regional discourse - in the extent of such reflexion. On the individual level there is also little agreement and most of the models employed appear mutually incompatible.

Lichardus-Itten calls for a socio-economic definition of the 'Chalcolithic' analogous to the traditional definition of the 'Neolithic'. It is evident, however, that the model, combined with theories of migration from the North Pontic steppes, is meant to apply exclusively to a 'pan-European' context. This narrowing down of the concept appears to violate the 'global' claim of a terminology derived from the Three Age System. Strahm, on the other hand, paints a much broader picture which relates the changes seen at the end of the Neolithic period to developments in technology ultimately deriving from the Near East. The driving force at work here is 'non-linear stimulus diffusion'. This model appears almost 'Childean' in its approach although Strahm rather refers to Leroi-Gourhan for its theoretical inspiration. Several other of the European papers centre on social development rather than technology. Here, the focus of discussion, affirmative or otherwise, is on the emergence of elites - often in the shape of chiefdom societies, thus referring to the anthropological model formulated by Service and introduced into archaeology by Renfrew and others. Sherratt's 'secondary products revolution' appears to establish itself as part of a 'Chalcolithic package'. In contrast, the Near Eastern papers are mainly concerned with the emergence of urbanism; they therefore refer to a different intellectual tradition of Childean origin. The question of how far general developments in this area are structurally comparable with the situation further to the west is not addressed. The comparative aspect is fully lost with the American and African papers that are left to speak for themselves and serve mainly as an illustration of alternative paths. Some cross-regional or cross-cultural treatment of recurring themes may have been enlightening here, especially since economic and social aspects like secondary products exploitation, the social function of incipient metal use and - especially - the emergence of formal hierarchies play such important roles in most of the articles.

The overall aims of the book thus remain somewhat unclear despite the thought-provoking but rather short foreword by Guilaine. A summarising final chapter dealing with the theoretical underpinnings of the question would have helped to demonstrate how much heuristic value is contained in the concept of the 'Chalcolithic'. My general impression is that this discussion has not progressed significantly since the Copper Age symposium in Saarbrücken in 1988 which was meant to establish it as a major historical period in its own right (Lichardus 1991). It would still appear that a separate Chalcolithic stage shares all the weaknesses of the Three Age System without benefitting from its explanatory power as a global (if simplistic) historical framework. The question may indeed be quite significant for the study of archaeology as a discipline. Most noteworthy are the obstinate survival of the concept despite a century-old struggle over its usefulness, our inability to agree on a definition, however provisional in nature, and the question of why this is seen as a more important issue in continental archaeology than in the English-speaking world. The papers assembled in this work would certainly represent a good starting point for an investigation along these lines.

Reference

• LICHARDUS, J. with R. ECHT (ed.) 1991. Die Kupferzeit als historische Epoche: Symposium Saarbrücken und Otzenhausen 6.-13.11.1988 (Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 55). Bonn: Habelt.