Life And Death In Late Bronze Age Central Europe

New study reveals how people lived in a period characterised by change

To the point

• Insights into the lives of people in the Late Bronze Age: Interdisciplinary analyses (DNA, isotopes) shed light on the ancestry, mobility, diet, health, and burial practices of people in Central Europe during this period.
• Genetic ancestry: Genetic data reveal gradual, regionally varying changes in ancestry, along with growing ties to the Danube region, without replacing local traditions.
• Experimenting with millet: The temporary shift to broomcorn millet as a staple food occurred within existing communities as a flexible adaptation. Later, its cultivation decreased in favour of wheat and barley.
• Health, disease, and death: Communities exhibit diverse burial practices. There is evidence of physically demanding yet stable living conditions, but no evidence of major epidemics.

A new interdisciplinary study published in Nature Communications provides the first detailed insights, from a biomolecular and archaeological perspective, into the lives of people living in Central Europe during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300-800 BCE), the so-called Urnfield period which was marked by cultural changes such as the widespread adoption of cremation.

Because cremation destroys biological material, this period has long remained a blind spot for genetic and isotopic research. By focusing on rare inhumation burials from Germany, Czechia and Poland, an international team of archaeogeneticists, archaeologists, and other biomolecular scientists was able to provide new insights into patterns of ancestry, mobility, diet, physiological stress and mortuary practices of LBA communities.

The study analysed ancient DNA, stable oxygen and strontium isotopes, and osteoarchaeological data from non-cremated individuals, alongside strontium isotope data from cremated individuals buried at the sites of Kuckenburg and Esperstedt in Central Germany, excavated by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt. These results were placed in a broader regional context by comparing them with contemporaneous genetic data from neighbouring regions.

Living in times of change

"This study allows us to see how people lived through change," says Eleftheria Orfanou, PhD candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and lead author of the study. "The Late Bronze Age was not experienced as a single moment of change, but as a series of choices, about food and subsistence strategies, burial, and social relationships, made within communities that were closely connected to their landscapes but also to their neighbours".

The genetic evidence in this study reveals gradual, regionally varied changes in ancestry that took place alongside established local traditions. In Central Germany, these changes became visible only in the later phases of the Late Bronze Age, highlighting how communities participated in wider networks of interaction, including increasing connections with regions to the south and southeast of the Danube.

Moreover, strontium and oxygen isotope analyses employed in this study act like a chemical record of where people grew up and lived, allowing researchers to assess whether individuals were local or had moved from elsewhere. Most individuals from Central Germany, both cremated and non-cremated, show local isotope signatures, suggesting that new ideas and practices circulated primarily through contact and exchange rather than through the movement of large numbers of people.

Introduction of millet to Europe

Dietary evidence also highlights the flexibility of Late Bronze Age societies. During the early phase of the Late Bronze Age, people began consuming broomcorn millet (a crop that had recently arrived in Europe from northeast China), likely in response to environmental or economic pressures. This dietary shift did not coincide with evidence of large-scale demographic or genetic changes, suggesting that millet adoption occurred within existing communities. However, during the later phase of the Late Bronze Age, millet consumption appears to decline, with people returning to more traditional crops such as wheat and barley. This pattern points to experimentation, adaptation, resilience, and cultural preference rather than a trajectory towards intensification in the cultivation of millet.

The researchers also looked for traces of ancient disease and combined this information with evidence from the people's skeletons. They found DNA from bacteria commonly associated with oral health issues, such as dental disease, but no signs of widespread epidemic infection. Evidence of childhood stress, degenerative joint conditions, and occasional trauma points to physically demanding lives. Nevertheless, most individuals appear to have been in generally good condition.

Diverse funerary culture

The study also provides insights into a diverse mortuary world that may seem unfamiliar from a modern Western perspective, including cremation, inhumation, skull-only depositions, and multi-stage rites, all of which coexisted within the same communities. "These practices do not appear to be marginal or atypical," Orfanou explains, "but are part of a broader repertoire that people could choose from during the Urnfield period, linked to the creation of memory, identity, and ideas about what it meant to be a person in the Late Bronze Age."

By integrating archaeological, anthropological, genetic, and isotopic evidence, the study reconstructs Late Bronze Age societies as dynamic social worlds. "Change and innovation were incorporated into existing traditions. These communities actively shaped their lifeways, and created hybrid practices that were locally meaningful within an increasingly interconnected world", concludes Wolfgang Haak, leader of the project at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.