Life on the Danubian Frontier 7000 Years Ago
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-07-03

During the second half of the sixth millennium BC, early farming communities dispersed throughout central Europe, eventually halting at frontier zones in the north and west that would persist for a millennium or more. While much thinking has been done about the farming diaspora itself, little attention has been paid to the generations that followed it, when people from different directions converged on established communities along the farming frontier. We can envision the effects of such convergence as different generational cohorts from various regions came together, especially its potential for complicating social processes. Among possible effects might be a struggle for cultural ownership with newcomers asserting a claim to a more authentic ‘Danubian’ identity while threatening the host community’s own connection with its past.

Peter Bogucki (Princeton University)

TAG Deva 2018
Session: Location, Location, Location: Constructing Frontier Identity