Fingerprinting the Iron Age: Approaches to identity in the European Iron Age: Integrating South-Eastern Europe into the debateCătălin Nicolae Popa, Simon Stoddart Archaeology has long dealt with issues of identity, and especially with ethnicity, with modern approaches emphasising dynamic and fluid social construction. The archaeology of the Iron Age in particular has engendered much debate on the topic of ethnicity, fuelled by the first availability of written sources alongside the archaeological evidence which has led many researchers to associate the features they excavate with populations named by Greek or Latin writers. Some archaeological traditions have had their entire structure built around notions of ethnicity, around the relationships existing between large groups of people conceived together as forming unitary ethnic units. On the other hand, partly influenced by anthropological studies, other scholars have written forcefully against Iron Age ethnic constructions, such as the Celts. The 24 contributions to this volume focus on the south east Europe, where the Iron Age has, until recently, been populated with numerous ethnic groups with which specific material culture forms have been associated. The first section is devoted to the core geographical area of south east Europe: Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia, as well as Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The following three sections allow comparison with regions further to the west and the south west with contributions on central and western Europe, the British Isles and the Italian peninsula. The volume concludes with four papers which provide more synthetic statements that cut across geographical boundaries, the final contributions bringing together some of the key themes of the volume. The wide array of approaches to identity presented here reflects the continuing debate on how to integrate material culture, protohistoric evidence (largely classical authors looking in on first millennium BC societies) and the impact of recent nationalistic agendas. |
Contents
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3 | |
9 | |
11 | |
18 | |
33 | |
Mediterranean Wine and Dacian Conviviality Ancient and Modern Myths and Archaeological Evidence | 48 |
Sarmizegetusa Regia the Identity of a Royal Site? | 63 |
Fingerprinting Iron Age Communities in SouthWest Germany and an Integrative Theory of Culture | 187 |
Iron Age Identities in Central Europe Some Initial Approaches | 200 |
Perspectives from the Far West | 209 |
Negotiating Identity on the Edge of Empire | 211 |
Personal Adornment in Iron Age Britain The Case of the Missing Glass Beads | 223 |
Perspectives from the South West | 239 |
Spoiling for a Fight Using Spear Typologies to Identify Aspects of Warrior Identity and Fighting Style in Iron Age South Italy | 241 |
Communal vs Individual the Role of Identity in the Burials of Peucetia | 254 |
The Ethnic Construction of Early Iron Age Burials in Transylvania Scythians Agathyrsi or Thracians? | 76 |
Negotiating Identities at the Edge of the Roman Empire | 89 |
Tracing Ethnicity Backwards the Case of the Central Balkan Tribes | 97 |
The Quest for Group Identity in Late Iron Age Romania Statistical Reconstruction of Groups based on Funerary Evidence | 108 |
Changing Identities of the Iron Age Communities of Southern Pannonia | 123 |
Indigenous and Colonist Communities in the Eastern Carpathian Basin at the Beginning of the Late Iron Age The Genesis of an Eastern Celtic World | 142 |
Ancient Thrace Between the East and the West | 157 |
Hellenisation and Ethnicity in the Continental Balkan Iron Age | 161 |
Perspectives from the West | 173 |
Central Places and the Construction of Collective Identities in the Middle RhineMoselle Region | 175 |
A View from the South West Identity in Tyrrhenian Central Italy | 266 |
Synthesis | 281 |
Identity Integration Power Relations and the Study of the European Iron Age Implications from Serbia | 283 |
The Celts More Myths and Inventions | 291 |
Material Culture and Identity The Problem of Identifying Celts Germans and Romans in Late Iron Age Europe | 306 |
Fingerprinting the European Iron Age Historical Cultural and Intellectual Perspectives on Identity and Ethnicity | 323 |
Bibliography | 332 |
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Common terms and phrases
Agathyrsi analysis ancient approach archaeological culture artefacts Babić Balkans barrows Britain bronze burials Carpathian Basin Celtic Celts cemetery central centres ceramic colonial colour communities complex concept construction context cremation Crişan Dacian Danube Dardanians decorative defined descent group Dietler Dizdar Early Iron Age east eastern elite ethnic Etruscan Europe European example excavated fibulae fourth century BC funerary gender glass beads graves Greek Hellenisation Herodotos hillfort historical identified important indigenous individual inhumation interaction interpretation La Tène Culture Late Iron Age Late La Tène located material culture Mediterranean modern motifs Muntenia northern objects Oltenia oppidum organisation Papazoglu period Peucetia political populations Poštela pottery practices prehistory present region ritual role Roman Romanian Rustoiu Sarmizegetusa Scordisci Scythian settlement similar social society southern spear spearheads specific status suggest territory Teržan Thrace Thracian tion tombs traditional Transylvania tumulus types vessels warrior weapons western written sources