Learning about 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 a major transition between 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 recent investigations into a Bronze Age community buried at the cemetery of Békés Jégvermi-kert (Békés 103) in Eastern Hungary. The project 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 2016 summer lab season a team of 11 students conducted independent research projects on a range of datasets from the cemetery and surrounding area, focused on understanding patterns in trade, identity, and cremation burial practice. In this session the students present their findings related to the site, the funerary customs, and how the cemetery population fit into the trade, population movement, and new identities emerging in Bronze Age Europe during the mid-second millenium.