Theme:
6. Embedded in European archaeology: the Carpathian Basin
Session format:
Discussion session (with formal abstracts)
Title:
Breaking the Spell: Re-Evaluation of Memory Devices in the Carpathian Basin
Content:
“Vreau să cred - I want to believe” was the name of an exhibition that has recently been displayed in the National Museum for Transylvanian History in Cluj-Napoca. It sums up the research history of the tablets from Tărtăria and further finds of round clay tablets with notches and impressed lines. Despite a reasonable bias concerning the credibility, whether or whether not some depictions might be fraud, several researchers treated especially the objects from Tărtăria rather apodictically as proof for the earliest writing in Europe – without further contextualization such objects indeed rather resemble a question of believe.
What was claimed here, between the lines, is an alternative track of evolution of complex societies in the Carpathian Basin, which unfortunately, lacks a critical examination of further circumstances that come with or before early developments in writing. In the course of changing modes of production and further technological advances with new materials and expanding communication networks, a clustering of social complexity comes with the demand for regulative mechanisms within the societies and beyond. One out of several aspects of these regulative objections finds its material manifestation in memory devices such as tokens, clay discs, tally sticks or possible stamps. Even miniatures of objects or animals may be linked to that sphere. By storing information, these objects open up a wide field for counting, registering and keeping track of transactions.
We would like to re-evaluate and re-contextualize the range of these enigmatic objects from Chalcolithic and Neolithic sites. The main geographic focus shall be the Carpathian Basin; as well, comparative studies with neighboring regions and from a wide range of disciplines are very welcome to join the workshop and to break the spell of the “Tărtăria-Paradigma”.
Keywords:
Memory devices, Tokens, Tally sticks, Chalcolithic, Carpathian Basin
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Regina Anna Uhl (Germany) 1
Co-organisers:
Malvinka Urák (Romania) 2
Affiliations:
1. Leipzig University
2. National Museum for Transylvanian History
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