Archaeology of ethnicity

Call for Papers: "In, out and in between: dynamics of cultural borders"

by Arvi Haak

Call for papers for a conference in Tallinn, Estonia, 17 - 19 October 2012

We are especially looking for contributions for Panel II: (Re-)materialising Ideologies in Landscape and in Practice,... more We are especially looking for contributions for Panel II: (Re-)materialising Ideologies in Landscape and in Practice, with subtopic "Ethnic boundaries in material culture".  The aim of the session is to discuss how and for what purpose elements of past material culture are used in addressing questions of ethnicity. How has ethnicity been constructed on that basis? Special focus will be placed on theoretically informed approaches to ethnicity and its borders: we are interested in the perspectives of past actors and ways of reaching these in the present.

Bunimovitz, S., and Faust, A., 2001, Chronological Separation, Geographical Segregation or Ethnic Demarcation? Ethnography and the Iron Age Low Chronology, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 322: 1-10.

by Avraham Faust

BASOR articles are available on JSTOR and the JSTOR Current Scholarship Program (JSTOR CSP).

The traditional Iron Age chronology has recently been challenged by I. Finkelstein who proposed a wholesale lowering... more The traditional Iron Age chronology has recently been challenged by I. Finkelstein who proposed a wholesale lowering of its dates. The cornerstone of the new chronology is the seemingly absence of Philistine Monochrome pottery in 20th Dynasty sites in southern Canaan and the absence of Egyptian(ized) pottery in Philistine sites. According to Finkelstein the only viable explanation for this phenomenon is chronological. Adherents of the traditional schema, on the other hand, prefer an interpretation based on cultural segregation and reject the low chronology. Both views, however, are based on the implicit premise that there is a straightforward correlation between the extent of interaction between human groups and the amount of similarity in their material culture. Relying on ethnographic/ethnoarchaeological evidence, we intend to show that this premise is flawed, and that restricted distribution of artifacts does not contradict interaction. This observation on human behavior is enough to cast serious doubts on the foundations and methodology of the low chronology. Furthermore, since symbolic delineation of group identity and boundaries is accentuated at times of competition, items symbolizing cultural identity may be held back in spite of interaction. As competition seems to characterize Iron I Philistia, it is highly tenable that the social meaning of the Philistine Monochrome pottery as well as of its Egyptian counterpart prevented their diffusion and adoption outside the restricted zones in which they communicated group identity and cohesion.

2012 (Gil J. Stein) “Food Preparation, Social Context, and Ethnicity in a Prehistoric Mesopotamian Colony” Pp 47-63 in: The Menial Art of Cooking: Archaeological Studies of Cooking and Food Preparation, edited by Sarah R. Graff and Enrique Rodriguez-Alegria. University Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO.

by Gil Stein

This chapter uses food preparation and consumption as a way to examine ethnicity and inter-cultural power relations in... more This chapter uses food preparation and consumption as a way to examine ethnicity and inter-cultural power relations in the worlds earliest known colonial network – that established by Mesopotamia in its surrounding regions during the Uruk period (ca. 3700-3100 BC). Food preparation and consumption often occur in different social contexts, roughly corresponding to the contrast between the domestic and more public or socially inclusive spheres. For this reason, these two activities can reflect different context-dependent assertions of social identity (gender, class, ethnicity) and different degrees of consciousness in practice (habitus vs. intentional symbolic statements). As recent analyses by New World historical archaeologists have shown, these contrasts can be especially marked in multi-ethnic culture contact situations, especially those involving cross-cultural marriage in colonial encounters.

Excavations at the site of Hacınebi along the Euphrates valley trade route in southeast Turkey. Excavations indicate that in the mid fourth millennium BC, the earliest state societies of the Uruk culture in southern Mesopotamia established a trading enclave in the midst of this local Anatolian settlement. The Uruk enclave at Hacnebi forms part of the broader phenomenon called the “Uruk expansion” – the world’s earliest known colonial network. The organization of economic, social, and political relations between Uruk settlements and local communities in the Uruk expansion remains a hotly debated topic. Evidence for long term peaceful co-existence of Mesopotamians and Anatolians at Hacınebi suggests that social and economic relations were based on strategies of alliance rather than colonialist domination. In this paper I compare several aspects of food preparation (food choice, butchery, cooking practices and cooking vessels) with the social context of food consumption. Artifacts from the more domestic social context of food preparation are strongly Anatolian in style, while those from more public contexts of consumption are predominantly of Uruk Mesopotamian styles. Significantly, local Anatolian cooking pot styles predominate even in archaeological contexts that are otherwise overwhelmingly Uruk Mesopotamian in character. The evidence is consistent with the interpretation of gendered ethnic differences between the social arenas of food preparation and consumption. I suggest that the Mesopotamian colonists at Hacınebi forged marriage alliances with local elites, forming multi-cultural households composed of Uruk males and Anatolian females.

Ethnic Complexity in Northern Israel During the Iron Age II, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 132 (2000): 2-27

by Avraham Faust

Copyrights: Palestine Exploration Journal (Maney Publishing);
for online versions of the journal, see: www.maney.co.uk/journals/peq and
www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/peq

Much discussion has focused on the ability of archaeology (and archaeologists) to identify, on the basis of material... more Much discussion has focused on the ability of archaeology (and archaeologists) to identify, on the basis of material culture, ethnic groups. According to Colin Renfrew ‘the most problematic of all the concepts which we have tended to use is that of ‘a people’’.  Much of the discussion of this subject in the Syro-Palestinian archaeology has concentrated around the identification of the ‘Israelites’. Most of this discussion has focused on Iron Age I (the period of Settlement), in an attempt to identify the similarities and differences between the various ethnic groups which existed in the Land of Israel at this time.
The present article will discuss the ethnicity of the inhabitants of Northern Israel during the Iron Age II. The departure point of this article is the rural sector, which did not receive much attention by the ‘Tell minded’ archaeological research, but, for reasons given below, seems to hold the key to the attempt to identify ethnic groups in ancient Israel.

פניקיה ותרבותה החומרית במאות הי' והט' לפנה"ס

by Zachi Dvira (Zweig)

2000- עבודה סמינריונית

Power, Agency, and Identity: Migration and Aftermath in the Mezquital Area of North-Central Mexico

by Christopher Beekman

Beekman, Christopher S. and Alexander F. Christensen. 2011. Power, Agency, and Identity: Migration and Aftermath in the Mezquital Area of North-Central Mexico. In Rethinking Anthropological Perspectives on Migration, edited by Graciela S. Cabana and Jeffrey J. Clark, pp. 147-171, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Herold, H. 2009, ‘Materielle Kultur – technologische Traditionen – Identität, Untersuchungen zur Archäologie des Frühmittelalters in Niederösterreich’ (Material Culture – Technological Traditions – Identity: Investigations of the Archaeology of the Early Middle Ages in Lower Austria – in German with a summary in English), Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters 37, Bonn, 111–134.

by Hajnalka Herold

2004_Theune_Romanen und Germanen in der Alamannia

by Claudia Theune

Habilitationsschrift: Rezensionen dazu in: Helvetica Archaeologica 36, 2005. - Bulletin Mission Historique en Allemagne 41, 2005, 402-405: A. Graceffa. - Germanistik 46, 2005, 576-577: K. Düwel. - Arch. Rozhledy 59, 2007, 430-432: L. Kosnar

2002_Theune_RegionaleUnterschiede FS Fingerlin red

by Claudia Theune

2006_Theune_Kontinuitaet ArchA red

by Claudia Theune

2008_Theune_ EthnDeutung Grabfunde ThuerSiedlungsgebiet RGA57 red

by Claudia Theune

Die Entstehung der Angelsachsen. In: H. Beck, D. Geuenich und H. Steuer (Hrsg.). Altertumskunde – Altertumswissenschaft – Kulturwissenschaft. Erträge und Perspektiven nach 40 Jahren Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 77). Berlin und Boston: De Gruyter 2012. 429-458.

by Heinrich Härke

Deutsche, unwesentlich abgeänderte Version des Artikels in Medieval Archaeology 55 (2011).

Die insularen Angelsachsen waren unzweifelhaft das Ergebnis eines ethnogenetischen Prozesses, in dem die Integration... more Die insularen Angelsachsen waren unzweifelhaft das Ergebnis eines ethnogenetischen Prozesses, in dem die Integration der einheimischen britonischen Mehrheitsbevölkerung in die eingewanderten ethnischen Gruppen vom europäischen Festland eine ganz wesentliche Rolle spielte. Einwandererzahlen, geographische Zersplitterung und Zeitrahmen bedeuten, dass es eine Reihe unterschiedlicher Siedlungs- und Ethnogeneseabläufe gegeben haben dürfte.

Innerhalb dieser Abläufe lassen sich zwei oder drei Phasen unterscheiden. In der Einwanderungsphase (5./6. Jahrhundert) kam es zur Bildung ethnisch gemischter Gemeinschaften, allerdings zunächst mit nur begrenzter genetischer Vermischung von eingewanderten und einheimischen Populationen. Erst in einer zweiten Phase (überwiegend im 7./8. Jahrhundert) kam es dann zunehmend zur Integration der Einheimischen in die Gesellschaft der sozial und kulturell dominanten Einwanderer durch Akkulturation und Assimilierung.

Es kann kaum ein Zufall sein, dass die Schaffung einer gemeinsamen englischen Identität aus der Verschmelzung regionaler angelsächsischer und separater britonischer Identitäten zusammenfällt mit den ersten Anzeichen für Staatsbildungen in England . Die im gleichen Zeitrahmen ablaufende Christianisierung (ab dem Ende des 6. Jahrhunderts) schaffte eine einheitliche ideologische Grundlage für beide Prozesse, die dann im 9. Jahrhundert abgeschlossen sein dürften.

אתניות בארכיאולוגיה

by Zachi Dvira (Zweig)

2001- עבודה סמינריות

Westgotische Gräberfelder auf der Iberischen Halbinsel als historische Quelle. Probleme der ethnischen Deutung

by Christoph Eger

published in: "Cum grano salis. Festschrift für Volker Bierbrauer zum 65. Geburtstag (Friedberg 2005).

The text is about the state of research of the ethnic interpretation of the so-called Visigothic cemeteries of Central... more The text is about the state of research of the ethnic interpretation of the so-called Visigothic cemeteries of Central Castilia, Spain. The traditional interpretation will be discussed as well as some alternative proposals.

Hacia una Arqueología de la Etnicidad / Towards an Archaeology of Ethnicity

by Manuel A. Fernández-Götz

FERNÁNDEZ-GÖTZ, M. A. y RUIZ ZAPATERO, G. (2011): “Hacia una Arqueología de la Etnicidad”. Trabajos de Prehistoria 68 (2): 219-236. ISSN: 0082-5638

In the last two decades the search for ethnicity through material culture has enjoyed a renewed boom in Archaeology.... more In the last two decades the search for ethnicity through material culture has enjoyed a renewed boom in Archaeology. This process, which goes hand in hand with a reformulation of the concept in the Social Sciences, has led to a reconsideration of how the phenomenon itself is conceived as well as the possibilities of exploring it in groups from the past. This article attempts to make a contribution to the task of “rethinking” ethnicity in three steps: first a historiographic approach to the subject; second, a series of theoretical-methodological conclusions that will help in the ongoing task of constructing an “archaeology of ethnicity”; and, finally, a reflection on the period where these approaches have generated most interest: Protohistory.

Del esencialismo al posmodernismo: las interpretaciones étnicas en arqueología / From essentialism to posmodernism: ethnic interpretations in Archaeology

by Manuel A. Fernández-Götz

FERNÁNDEZ-GÖTZ, M. A. (2011): “Del esencialismo al posmodernismo: las interpretaciones étnicas en arqueología”. En Actas de las II Jornadas de Jóvenes en Investigación Arqueológica (Madrid, 6, 7 y 8 de mayo de 2009). JIA 2009, Tomo II. Libros Pórtico, Zaragoza: 721-727. ISBN: 978-84-7956-094-2

Since the beginning of archaeology as a discipline, and even before, the question “Who?” has played a core role in... more Since the beginning of archaeology as a discipline, and even before, the question “Who?” has played a core role in approximations to the past through material culture. However, the way to conceptualize this topic has changed considerably over time. Thus, while the essentialist theories of the so-called ethnic-cultural paradigm were based on a simple and simplistic equation between “people”, “language” and “archaeological culture”, in the most recent proposals using postprocessual postulates, the subjective, fluid and situational character of ethnic identity stands out. Dissecting and clarifying the different meanings is, therefore, a basic task needed to move forward in the construction of theoretical-methodological approaches.

Arqueologías de la identidad: ¿quiénes eran? / Archaeologies of Identity: who were they?

by Manuel A. Fernández-Götz

FERNÁNDEZ-GÖTZ, M. A. y LOZANO RUBIO, S. (2011): “Arqueologías de la identidad: ¿quiénes eran?”. En Actas de las II Jornadas de Jóvenes en Investigación Arqueológica (Madrid, 6, 7 y 8 de mayo de 2009). JIA 2009, Tomo II. Libros Pórtico, Zaragoza: 719-720. ISBN: 978-84-7956-094-2

Alemannen und Franken: Archäologische Überlegungen zu ethnischen Strukturen in der zweiten Hälfte des 5. Jahrhunderts

by Frank Siegmund

published in: Dieter Geuenich (ed.), Die Alemannen und Franken bis zur 'Schlacht bei Zülpich' (496/497). Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Ergänzungsband 19. Walter de Gruyter: Berlin et al. 1998, p. 558-580

Ethnicity in early middle age cemeteries.

by Carlos Tejerizo

The study of the Early Middle Age cemeteries in Europe has had a very long path since the beginning of Archaeology as... more The study of the Early Middle Age cemeteries in Europe has had a very long path since the beginning of Archaeology as science related to the XIXth nationalism. These cemeteries were used then to establish national identities and to invent traditions, in Hobsbawn´s words, for a new bourgeoisie that, for the first time in History, achieved the control of power and economy. Ethnicity played an important role in establishing these national identities, linking the present peoples to the past Volks and being the center of the interpretation of historical change from a culture-historical and diffusionist approach. Although in Spain nationalism had a different development comparing to other European countries, the so called “Visigothic” burials were important in the establishment of Archaeology and the interpretation of the Early Middle Age under the paradigm of ethnicity and diffusionism. Although this vision has been clarified after World War II in European historiography, is still hegemonic in Spanish academy.

In this paper it will be presented an interpretation of the so called “visigothic” burials in order to suggest new ways of analysis of the role of ethnicity in the conformation of this archaeological record. For this purpose, a critic of the traditional culture-historical interpretation is made, stressing its limits and problems and the links between national politics and archaeological development. The alternative interpretation is based in the review of the Early Middle Age cemeteries of the oriental part of the Duero basin, stressing the importance of contextual studies and introducing new archaeological views from the excavation of other Spanish regions, over all the area of Madrid. In conclusion, ethnicity is analyzed as one more factor of framing social relations and identities
in a historical moment were important changes in
settlement pattern and economy are occurring and
the social stratification and hierarchy are in constant
dispute and construction.

Kleidung und Bewaffnung der Männer im östlichen Frankenreich

by Frank Siegmund

published in: A. Wieczorek, P. Périn, K. v. Welck, W. Menghin (eds.), Die Franken - Wegbereiter Europas. Vor 1500 Jahren: König Chlodwig und seine Erben. Ausstellungskatalog 2. Mainz 1995. p. 691-706.