Urban Networks in Early Iron Age Europe: Nucleation and Dispersal

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Urbanization is a social process, rather than a final destination. More important than debating whether one specific settlement within a system should be classified as "urban," "proto-urban," or "nonurban" is to analyze the wider processes of settlement nucleation and centralization that take place within the larger landscape, and which usually form part of a network. In Iron Age temperate Europe, we can distinguish the emergence of a number of urban networks that developed in different times and at varying scales. This paper will focus on the so-called Early Iron Age "princely seats" (Fürstensitze), which developed in Central Europe between the late seventh and the fifth century BC. The research of the last few decades has revolutionized our knowledge of these sites, which included monumental fortifications, evidence for long-distance exchange, and associated elite burials. They represent a prime example of a process of population agglomeration, followed by decentralization or "collapse" after just a few generations. It is argued that both their rapid development and subsequent decline can only be understood as part of a network, rather than at the level of individual sites.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32132