Creativity and Craft Production in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe

Creativity and craft production in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe (CinBA) brings together partners from the Universities of Southampton, Cambridge and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the National Museum of Denmark, the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Zagreb Archaeological Museum, Lejre Archaeological Park (Sagnlandet) and the Crafts Council.

CinBA offers important insights into the fundamental nature of creativity by exploring a part of European history not influenced by contemporary concepts of art - the Bronze Age - looking at developments in crafts that we take for granted today: pottery, textiles and metalwork. It investigates objects as a means to understand local and transnational creative activities, investigating the development of decorative motifs and the techniques and skill used for these. It tracks these developments over more than a millennium within regions forming a north-south axis across Europe: Scandinavia, Central Europe and the Adriatic. In addition, links between ancient and modern creativity are explored through contemporary engagements with Bronze Age objects by modern craftspeople and the public.

CinBA is funded through HERA - Humanities in the European Research Area - an EU 6th Framework Programme ERA-NET project which aims to strengthen the European voice in the humanities. HERA brings together one pan-European and 13 national research funding agencies across Europe in order to coordinate research activities and thereby transcend historical limitations to develop new Europe-wide research agendas. CinBA is one of nine HERA-funded projects on the theme of ‘Creativity’.