Theme:
3. The Carpathian Basin: Integration, Mobility and Diversity
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Early Iron Age Landscape Transformations in the Carpathian Basin and Adjacent Areas
Content:
The period between the 8th–5th centuries BC in the Carpathian Basin is characterised by a slow, yet important transformation that changed the social structure, subsistence strategies, technological/manufacturing approaches and trading. At the same time – especially in the eastern Hallstatt zone – a monumentalized landscape transformation occurred , namely the construction of site complexes of hillforts and tumulus necropolises. The relationship between the communities and the landscape appears to have been changing, as fortifications and cemeteries became much more visible in the landscape, possibly functioning as respected places for future generations. Nonetheless, beyond the glitter of the huge earthen monuments, we know very little about the contemporary villages and farmsteads, where a significant part of the population lived. Moreover, the transregional differences in land use practices of non-Hallstatt cultural entities to the north, east and south of the Carpathian Basin have never been subject to a detailed analysis. Even though they inhabited many settlements already known to us, and the communities emerging around 650 BC in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin were far from being exclusively nomadic stockbreeders, they remain mostly unmentioned in the mainstream European discussion. The aim of this session is to bring together various scientific fields to gain insights into the settlement structure/network and landscape utilization of the Iron Age in the Carpathian Basin and the neighbouring regions. Furthermore, modern landscape research methods may shed light on the nature of the Iron Age transformation. Therefore, every aspect of multidisciplinary research is welcome, e.g. past landscape reconstruction employing non-destructive and destructive fieldwork methods; reconstruction of past land cover and environment using palynological and other ecological data; reconstruction of production/consumption approaches at rural and central sites, employing archaeobiological methods; hydrological/geographical reconstruction at a regional level; exploitation of natural resources at local, regional and transregional levels.
Keywords:
Early Iron Age, landscape changes and land cover reconstruction, exploitation of natural resources, human impact, settlement and necropolis hierarchy, 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:
Zoltán Czajlik (Hungary) 1
Co-organisers:
Matija Črešnar (Slovenia) 2
Lucia Benediková (Slovakia) 3
Marko Mele (Austria) 4
Szabolcs Czifra (Hungary) 5
Affiliations:
1. Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
2. Department of Archaeology, University of Ljubljana
3. Institute of Archaeology SAS
4. Universalmuseum Joanneum
5. Hungarian National Museum
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