Balkan Dialogues
Subtitle: Negotiating Identity Between Prehistory and the Present
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9781138941137
Subjects: Antiquities, prehistoric; Prehistoric peoples, europe; Group identity; Ethnicity; Spatial analysis (statistics); Social archaeology; Ethnoarchaeology; Balkan peninsula, antiquities; Europe, social life and customs
Description: "Spatial variation and patterning in the distribution of artefacts are topics of fundamental significance in Balkan archaeology. For decades, archaeologists have classified spatial clusters of artefacts into discrete 'cultures,' which have been conventionally treated as bound entities and equated with past social or ethnic groups. This timely volume fulfils the need for an up-to-date and theoretically informed dialogue on group identity in Balkan prehistory. Thirteen case studies covering the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age and written by archaeologists conducting fieldwork in the region, as well as by ethnologists with a research focus on material culture and identity, provide a robust foundation for exploring these issues. Bringing together the latest research, with a particular intentional focus on the central and western Balkans, this collection offers original perspectives on Balkan prehistory with relevance to the neighbouring regions of Eastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and Anatolia. Balkan Dialogues challenges long-established interpretations in the field and provides a new, contextualised reading of the archaeological record of this region"--Provided by publisher.