Studying the Past with Fragments from the Fire: Student Research on an NSF-REU Field School

Significant population increases, the intensification of craft production and new forms of agricultural output characterize the 18th and 17th century BC on the Great Hungarian Plain. Many archaeologists consider these changes hallmarks of an emerging social class. Yet research from different parts of Eastern Europe suggests that societies were organized in a variety of ways during this regional florescence. This session describes ongoing investigations by the Bronze Age Körös Off-Tell Archaeology (BAKOTA) project into a Middle Bronze Age community buried at the cemetery of Békés Jégvermi-kert (Békés 103) in Eastern Hungary. For the first time, research at this site includes an international team of undergraduate students funded by the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program and the Central European Institute at Quinnipiac University. During the 2015 summer field season a team of 15 students conducted independent research projects on a range of datasets from the cemetery and surrounding area. In this session the students present their findings on the site, reporting on how the cemetery population fit into the trade, population movement, and new identities emerging in Bronze Age Europe.