EAA 2022: Abstract

The final centuries BC in north central Europe were featured with great cultural diversity, settlement instability and mobility. Intensified movement of people resulted in the emergence of new settlement clusters. The paper discusses the cases of the La Tène culture settlements north of the Carpathians and Sudetes and Przeworsk culture settlements in the Thuringian Basin. In both instances, the new settlement clusters emerged in specific, carefully selected ecological niches. They were separated from the centre (and one another) with areas of empty land or land inhabited by the communities utilising other types of ecological resources. While most of these fringe settlement zones disintegrated earlier than their core cultural areas, their disappearance significantly affected the centres, as the return migrants brought along new people and ideas. On the other hand, some of the former peripheries outlasted their fallen centres and in the turmoil around the turn of the eras became new, temporary centres of power.

Iron Age, La Tène culture, Jastorf culture, Przeworsk culture, settlement network, migration

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Joanna Markiewicz¹