Session: #171

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
5. (Extreme) Environments – Islands, Coasts, Margins, Centres
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
CANCELLED Iron Age Settlements of the Plains and Steppes in Eurasia
Content:
The Iron Age land use on the steppes and plains of Eurasia is primarily associated with nomads. Classical authors name people such as "Scythians" and "Cimmerians", who are geographically assigned to specific regions, related to various migrations or raids, and generally appear as "mobile". Kurgans, burial remains visible in the flat landscape have attracted most archaeological attention, although several settlements of the period have also been archaeologically investigated.
Compared to the elaborate written descriptions and rich burials of local or regional elites, settlement archaeology in the plains and steppes is less clearly outlined or known. Limited comparative study has been carried out to better contextualise information from burials and written sources, despite the increasing amount of data available from contemporary settlements. Little is yet known about the local networks into which the settlements of the Eurasian plains and steppes are integrated, i.e. within which regions local pottery is comparable, whether they are seasonally or permanently used, and how craft production developed.
For this reason, this session will focus on the everyday life of the Iron Age population by focussing on their settlements and evidence for the interaction of these communities with their environment. It will explore the extent to which rural settlements are known and researched, what population sizes can be determined in correlation with the unearthed cemeteries of these regions and, above all, what did the material culture of the Iron Age population look like?
Keywords:
plains, steppes, Iron Age, settlement archaeology, land use, transhumance
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:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Simone Arnhold (Germany) 1
Co-organisers:
Malvinka Urák (Romania) 2
Gvantsa Vachadze (Georgia) 3,4
Affiliations:
1. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
2. The National Museum of Transylvanian History, Cluj Napoca
3. Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
4. Georgian National Museum