Rethinking Prehistoric Hillforts in the Eastern Adriatic from a Human Behavioral Ecology Perspective

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

On the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia and stretching for kilometers inland and along the shores of the Eastern Adriatic are massive drystone ramparts and enclosures that litter hilltops. These structures are known as hillforts, are poorly understood, and are colloquially assumed to date to the Iron Age, as there is scant settlement evidence in the area dating to the Eneolithic through the Bronze Age. Nonetheless, prehistoric populations living on the Dalmatian Coast eventually engaged in and experienced differential access to metallurgy exchange networks, which likely contributed to increased social stratification and perhaps conflict. Hillforts have factored into this process somewhat anecdotally, with explanations for their presence leaning towards elite control over the flow of commodity exchange. This paper proposes an alternative approach to shedding light on the emergence of hillforts in Dalmatia using a human behavioral ecology model to explain territoriality as just one of several possible outcomes following changes in resource distribution and predictability.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25967