New Perspectives on the Romanian Bronze Age
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)
The Bronze Age was a period of dynamic social, economic, and political transitions in Europe. However, the archaeology of Romania has been significantly understudied and is often unaccounted for by Western scholars. With its varied physiographic and cultural zones, and situated at the crossroads of European-Eurasian interactions, Romania is growing in its importance to larger models of social change in the Carpathian Zone and Central and Eastern Europe. In this session, we bring together scholars working in the region on projects that explore different facets of social, economic, political organization at multiple scales across Romania.
Other Keywords
Bronze Age •
Social Complexity •
Zooarchaeology •
Ceramic Decoration •
archaeobotany •
Radiocarbon Dating •
Europe •
Transylvania •
Agropastoralism •
zooarcharchaeology
Geographic Keywords
Europe
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)
- Documents (5)
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Agropastoralism in Bronze Age Transylvania: An analysis of faunal assemblages from the Geoagiu and Mureş Valleys (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Bronze Age was a period of dynamic social transformations in Transylvania. Unfortunately, there have been no systematic archaeological studies of the subsistence economy that funded, and was affected by, the social transformations of emergent inequality. In this poster, I present the first analysis of faunal assemblages from Bronze Age contexts in Transylvania. The faunal assemblages, collected during the 2012-2014 surveys of the Geoagiu and Mureş Valleys, provide the first opportunity to...
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Analysis of Plant Remains from the Bronze Age Site of Pecica Şanţul Mare (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The site of Pecica Şanţul Mare, Romania is among the most important settlements of the European Bronze Age to understand the origins and control of metalwork networks that redistributed the metal resources of the western Carpathian Mountains throughout prehistoric Europe. The study of the ways vegetal resources were used by the inhabitants of Pecica will provide crucial information about the level of social, political, and economic complexity achieved during the Bronze Age. In particular...
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Decoupling Decoration and Dates: A New Absolute Chronology for the Transylvanian Middle Bronze Age (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Metal from southwest Transylvania fueled the development of inequality and regional polities across Eastern Europe during the Bronze Age. However, little is known about the communities in the resource-rich region. Through regional survey, test excavation, and digitization of existing collections, the Bronze Age Transylvania Survey (BATS) Project seeks to understand the long-term dynamics of social organization throughout the Middle Bronze Age in southwest Transylvania (2000-1400 BC). A robust...
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Investigating Wood Acquisition Strategies from Archaeological Charcoal: Implications for the Bronze Age Site of Pecica Şanţul Mare (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Bronze Age site Pecica Şanţul Mare is an important fortified tell settlement in Arad County, Romania. Situated along the river Mureş, Pecica lies within a unique resource zone between the ore rich region of the Western Carpathian Mountains and Carpathian Basin. While metal production and regional connectivity are associated with the site, it is poorly known how wood fuel for metal work was acquired. Archaeological charcoal remains are often used to reconstruct local woodland compositions of...
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Middle Bronze Age Animal Economies: Transitions at Pecica Santul Mare (Romania) (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The Bronze Age is a period of fundamental social and technological changes in Europe, including the emergence of more complex political and economic systems. Pecica "Şanțul Mare," a large tell located in the Carpathian Basin (Romania), provides an ideal case study of economic reorganization throughout the course of the Middle Bronze Age (MBA), when it came to rise as a regional center. The Middle Bronze Age was an era of more centralized control over animal production and specialized horse...