Archaeology across Frontiers and Borderlands. Fragmentation and Connectivity in the North Aegean and the Central Balkans from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age

Stefanos Gimatzidis, Magda Pieniążek & Sıla Mangaloğlu-Votruba (επιμέλεια)

City: Wien

Year: 2018

Publisher: Austrian Academy of Sciences, OREA Institute

Series: OREA 9

Description: Paperback, 455 p., 114 b/w and colour figures, 21 x 29.7 cm

Abstract

The objective of this volume is a theoretical debate on the archaeology at the crossroads of the Balkans, the Aegean and Anatolia and its interrelation with social and political life in this historically turbulent region. Modern political borders still divide European archaeology and intercept research. This is particularly evident in southeastern Europe, where archaeological interaction among neighbouring countries such as Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, the FYR of Macedonia and Albania is practically inactive. Reception of the past within the local perspectives of modern nation states and changing identities are some of our focal points: Can breaks or continuities in the material culture be perceived as evidence for ethnic (dis-)continuities, migrations, ethnogeneses, etc. and what is the socio-political background of such approaches? What is the potential of material culture towards the definition of modern and past identities? Interaction among different societies and cultures as well as the exchange of goods and ideas are another topic of this book. The area encompassing the north Aegean and the Balkans was, during the later prehistoric and early historic periods, the showplace of fascinating cultural entanglements. Domestic, cultic and public architecture, artefact groups and burial rites have always been employed in the archaeological process of defining identities. However, these identities were not static but rather underwent constant transformations. The question addressed is: How did people and objects interact and how did objects and ideas change their function and meaning in time and space? Colleagues representing different scholarly traditions and cultural backgrounds, working in Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, FYR of Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia, took part in this debate, and a total of 19 papers are now presented in this book.

Contents

Preface by the Series Editor [7]

Archaeology Across Frontiers and Borderlands: An Introduction [9-25]
Stefanos Gimatzidis & Magda Pieniążek

Claiming the Past, Conquering the Future: Archaeological Narratives in Northern Greece and the Central Balkans [27-54]
Stefanos Gimatzidis

Conquering the Past, Claiming the Future: Historical and Archaeological Narratives in Western Anatolia [55-69]
Sıla Mangaloğlu-Votruba

Working in the Margins: Some Reflections on Past, Present and Future Research in Western Anatolia [71-92]
Rik Vaessen

Conceptualising Contact Zones and Contact Spaces: An Archaeological Perspective [93-112]
Philipp W. Stockhammer & Bogdan Athanassov

Foreign Influences and Indigenous Transformations: The Case of Seals and Jewellery from the Late Bronze Age North Aegean [113-137]
Magda Pieniążek

Maydos-Kilisetepe: A Bronze Age Settlement on the Border Between Asia and Europe [139-157]
Göksel Sazcı & Meral Başaran Mutlu

Transformations and Formations Around the Thermaic Gulf in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age: The Evidence of Burial Practices [159-186]
Konstantoula Chavela

Protocorinthian and Corinthian Ceramic Imports in Macedonia: Different People, Different Tastes [187-202]
Eleni Manakidou
READ THE ARTICLE

Strangers in a Strange Land: Two Soldiers’ Graffiti from Ancient Thermi [203-218]
Eurydice Kefalidou & Ioannis Xydopoulos

Thracians and Greeks in the North Aegean [219-241]
Despoina Tsiafaki

First Encounters and Further Developments: Greeks Meeting Thracians on the Western Pontic Coast [243-268]
Margarit Damyanov

Iron Age Cultural Interactions, Plant Subsistence and Land Use in Southeastern Europe Inferred from Archaeobotanical Evidence of Greece and Bulgaria [269-290]
Soultana Maria Valamoti, Evgenia Gkatzogia, Ivanka Hristova & Elena Marinova Wolff
READ THE ARTICLE

The Edge of an Era: Changing Aspects in the Southeast Balkans Towards the End of the 2nd Millennium BC [291-306]
Denitsa Nenova

The Making of Late Bronze Age Archaeological Cultures in Bulgaria [307-332]
Tanya Dzhanfezova

Settlements or Sanctuaries? Interpretational Dilemma Concerning 2nd–1st Millennium BC Sites in Bulgaria [333-357]
Elena Bozhinova

‘Ada Tepe Late Bronze Age Gold Mine’ Project: Between Borders [359-389]
Hristo Popov &  Krasimir Nikov

Bronze Age and the Embedded Macedonian Question [391-410]
Maja Gori

The Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age Transition in the Korçë Basin (SE-Albania) and the Modern Perception of the Emergence of Illyrian Culture [411-425]
Tobias Krapf

No Group, no People? Archaeological Record and Creation of Groups in the Western Balkans [427-445]
Mario Gavranović

Index [447-455]