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Communication Within and in-Spite Theoretical Boundaries
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Organized By:
Andre Gonciar (University at Buffalo / ArchaeoTek)
Eastern European archaeology, following the continental tradition, has developed as an auxiliary of history and it is deeply rooted in a Culture History and Classical tradition, with Marxist materialism theoretical nuances. The schism generated by two fundamentally different theoretical approaches on each side on the Iron Curtain – i.e. Anglo-American anthropological vs. Continental historical archaeology – persisted in the aftermath of the fall of the Eastern bloc in 1989. A meaningful dialog was severely hindered by the difficulty to communicate due to language/theoretical barriers and project perspectives/goals, compounded by historically bred mistrust, highly differential access to resources and colonial attitudes, either real or imaginary.
Finding a middle ground between continental European traditions of Culture History and the new anthropological research vectors prevalent in the Anglo-American anthropological community is essential in accessing a realistic perception of European Pre/History. In this context, for the past 10 years, a series of projects have been set forth in Transylvania (Romania) under the banner of ArchaeoTek, with the scope of generating a platform where a complementary integration of ideas could develop through cooperation and respect of the other’s knowledge and expertise, independent of respective theoretical boundaries. Successful collaborative archaeological enterprises are then evaluated not in terms of actual results and project completion, but in long term collaboration within internationally and theoretically diverse teams, striving to achieve common negotiated scientific goals. Within this framework, generated knowledge is thus required to meet scientific anthropological standards and be relevant to local communities while at the same time creates the necessary platforms where those views can be openly presented and discussed.
BUFFLAO 2012
Balos, A., P. Cheptea, M. Barbu, and A. Mihai (Poster Presentation)
The Uses of Experimental Archaeology in Cultural Education.
Brown, Alexander, and Andre Gonciar
Dacians and the Sense of Place: Settlement Abandonment,
Settlement Hierarchy and Tribal Identity.
Costea, Florea, Angelica Balos, and Andre Gonciar
The Interactions Between the Dacians and the Classical World
From Burebista to the Dacian Conquest: From History to (arti)Fact
Dimancescu, Dan, and Nicholas Dimancescu (Video Presentation)
From Cave Bear to Dacian Fortresses: A Visual Essay.
Filipek-Ogden, Kori Lea, Sabrina Gloux, and Andre Gonciar
Ain’t No Sunshine: Pathological Links to the Potential Adaptive
Strategies of the Noua Population of the Transylvanian Bronze Age.
Gloux, Sabrina, Sally McGrath, Ellen Green, and Andre Gonciar
Demystifying a Wrongful Assumption: Horseback Riding
in the Late Bronze Aage Noua Populations in Transylvania
Gonciar, Andre
Introductory Remarks: The Colonizing Power of Theory.
Gonciar, Andre
When the East meets the West: Negotiating Culture History
Gonciar, Andre, and Adrian Georgescu
Gold Trajectories in Transylvania during the Late Neolithic:
Illsley, William
Axeheads and Elites: The Role of Metallurgy in the Development
of Elite Society in Bronze Age Transylvania
Latham, Ernest H., Jr.
A Usable History. Tailor Made.
Oltean, Radu (Poster Exhibit)
Living the Past: An Artist’s Journey through Transylvanian History.
Piso, Ioan, and Ovidiu Tentea
From the Desert to the Carpathians: Palmyrenes in Roman
Sarmizegetusa, the First Roman Town North of the Danube
Poltorak, Darren, and Stelian Cosulet
Relics of Memory: The Archaeology of Mementoes.
Rotea, Mihai
Palatca-Togul lui Mândruşcă. A Special Site.
Whitlow, Raymond
The Structure of Space: Meshing Culture History and Landscape Approaches. Built Environment during the Neolithic in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains.
Abstracts
The Uses of Experimental Archaeology in Cultural Education
(Poster Presentation)
Angelica Balos
(The Board of Culture and National Heritage)
Paul Cheptea, Marius Barbu and Andrei Mihai
(TERRA DACICA AETERNA Association)
The Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains show an unusual fusion of military and religious architectural techniques and concepts from the classical world and the late European Iron Age. The Dacian Kingdom, conquered by the Romans at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D., is surrounded by spectacular natural landscapes and gives a dramatic picture of a vigorous and innovative civilization.
In recent years, thanks to the Internet, the number of visitors to Dacian cities is growing, but at the same time all sorts of false information or misinformation on the history of Dacia is spreading. Means need to set forth in order to provide correct information to the public (especially young people) on the Dacian fortresses in the Orastie Mountains and history of Dacia.
A workshop has been built at the school camp at Costesti (near one of the Dacian Fortresses, in the Orastie Mountains - a UNESCO site). This combines experimental archaeology, with the need for education and protection of the historical monuments. With the help of volunteers and students, a pottery kiln, a forge and a potter's wheel have been built, where replicas of various artifacts belonging to the Dacian and Roman civilizations are created. Direct participation in the process together with short lectures in the field creates an environment allowing a very effective way to teach and promote aspects of the actual distant past.
Archaeology – Iron Age
Dacians and the Sense of Place:
Settlement Abandonment, Settlement Hierarchy and Tribal Identity
Alexander Brown
(ArchaeoTek Field Research Associate)
Andre Gonciar
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Director)
The Dacians of Late Iron Age Transylvania have a mottled social history reflective of its turbulent political history. The Dacians are treated as one people by Roman historiography, and modern scholarship’s dependence on the Roman historical record concerning Romanian prehistory brings us in to that same conceit. While there is little doubt that Burebista’s massive campaign of political and social consolidation created a unified empire, it’s subsequent collapse and further fracturing, even under the re-unification of Decebal, supports the theory that the Dacians as a network of different peoples prized their independence and acted on their individual or immediate tribal concerns.
Work at two Dacian hill-fort sites, at Tilisca and Piatra Detunata, illustrates the pronounced individual character of settlement that defines Transylvania’s resistance to other European models of settlement patterns and hierarchy. The abandonment, especially, sets the two sites apart; while Tilisca was emptied before the Roman arrival, leaving behind only military personel, Piatra Detunata was not. Civilian and military life didn’t seem to be altered at the thought of the Roman impending arrival. It is easy enough to explain the dispositions of the two sites as a function of some military strategy or historical circumstances beyond modern knowledge, yet it is important to examine the motivations of the actors as they must reflect regional and social identity within these two military and residential contexts.
Archaeology – Iron Age
The Interactions Between the Dacians and the Classical World
From Burebista to the Dacian Conquest:
From History to (arti)Fact
Florea Costea
(Brasov County History Museum, Romania / ArchaeoTek Partner)
Angelica Balos
(DJCCPCN Hunedoara, Romania / ArchaeoTek Partner)
Andre Gonciar
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Director)
The critical dynamics between written sources, historical facts and archaeological realties have constantly and continuously plagued archaeologists. In a protohistorical context such as the Geto-Dacian world, this dynamic is further complicated by the scarcity of the preserved records. Since the first mention of the Getae by Herodotus, historical records, both Greek and Roman, have recorded aspects of Geto-Dacian civilization. However disperse and trivial these sources might be, they point to a highly elaborate system of exchange, and social, cultural, and political relations between the Roman Republic and Empire, the Hellenistic world and the Geto-Dacian tribes and kingdoms.
Being in close proximity to the Greek and Greco-Hellenistic civilization, having several powerful Greek colonies in their own territory, the Getae have been strongly influenced by the Greco-Mediterranean world, showing a more intense historical development that the Dacians. On the other hand, the Dacians, although they had less contact with the Greeks, had very rich and diverse relations with the Roman Republic and Empire, relatively peaceful at first, followed by several wars with victories on both sides.
Furthermore, the Dacians inside the Carpathian Arc have played a significant role in the context of these relations/events. In the present paper, we are going to critically discuss historical sources in terms of degree of separation from the actual information, factual and material reality, and accuracy in light of recent archaeological excavation and discoveries in south-east Transylvania, with emphasis on the powerful pandacic center in the Olt River Canyons of the Persani Moutains, with its center on the Tipia Ormenisului Mountain. This analysis will allow us to evaluate to what extent historical archaeology theoretical approaches can be implemented in this type of protohistorical textual and contextual environment.
From Cave Bear to Dacian Fortresses:
A Visual Essay
(Video Presentation)
Dan Dimancescu, and Nicholas Dimancescu
(Kogainon Films)
For the past to be relevant to the present, especially in an "immediate delivery" focused world, it has to be both seen and experienced. In a short visual essay by Dan and Nicholas Dimancescu, two unique aspects of the Romania physical and cultural landscape are featured, expressing the inevitable dynamic interaction between the power of nature and the power of the human drive.
The first one features the enormous inventory of caves, 12,000 or more at last count and most in Transylvania. These sheltered the now extinct Cave Bear species and ice-age man as well as many subsequent human groups. In 2003, Professor Trinkaus of the University of Washington, St. Louis, dated a discovery of homo-sapien bones in a cave as 48,000 years-old. These are now considered the oldest of their kind found to-date in Europe. These caves became the subject of an informal study by Nicholas Dimancescu, entitled "Caves of Consciousness", completed in collaboration with photographer Dragos Lumpan.
A second aspect is the legacy of the Dacian Kingdoms that existed for several hundred years until conquered and destroyed by Emperor Trajan in 106AD. These Kingdoms covered a region equivalent in size to at least present-day Romania. A unique feature of these Kingdoms was a center-of-power and spiritual sanctuary located in a mountainous Transylvanian region, protected by a sophisticated network of fortresses guarding key access valleys to the core site. This is the subject of a documentary produced and co-directed by Dan Dimancescu, in production for release in the Fall of 2012 and from which clips have been extracted showing examples of Dacian sites as seen from the air.
Paleopathology
Ain’t No Sunshine:
Pathological Links to the Potential Adaptive Strategies of the
Noua Population of the Transylvanian Bronze Age.
Kori Lea Filipek-Ogden
(California State University Long Beach / ArchaeoTek Laboratory Research Associate)
Sabrina Gloux
(ArchaeoTek Project Director)
Andre Gonciar
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Director)
In recent years, evaluations of pathological conditions present in archaeological skeletal assemblages have considerably advanced. The method of establishing a differential diagnosis in order to narrow a pathogen or specific condition’s skeletal involvement has helped to breed insight in to not only the disseminations of the pathologies and conditions themselves, but also cultures as a whole. This study aims at employing this method in order to possibly ascertain a diagnosis focusing on the visible bowing deformities in the lower limbs of a sample of the Noua populations in Bronze Age Transylvania. Fifty-three individuals from the Polus Floresti cemetery site of Cluj-Napoca, Romania were available; of which only twenty-two had lower limbs available or adequate for analysis. At present, the differential diagnosis indicates the bowing deformities may have been due to residual rickets; a metabolic condition developed during childhood caused by a lack of vitamin D absorption. If the Noua population indeed suffered from rickets, it stands to reason that the mobility of the group would be impaired, or at the least slightly prohibitive, rather than extensive as previously speculated. If this study shows to indicate the aforementioned, it would help to establish a direct behavioral link breeding insight into possible lifeways from extant pathological conditions of these bygone peoples.
Paleometallurgy
Gold Trajectories in Transylvania during the Late Neolithic:
The Petresti Gold
Adrian Georgescu
(Brukenthal National Museum, Romania / ArchaeoTek Associate)
Andre Gonciar
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Director)
The dynamics of the rise of the “Age of Metals” are quite complex. The development of a desire for metal objects seems to have preceded the need for metal, either from a utilitarian, economic or prestige perspective. The use of metal in the region north of the Danube, in present day Romania, seems to point towards that conclusion. Significantly preceding the exploitation of any utilitarian metal such as cooper, we find gold objects, albeit very rare, from the Neolithic onwards.
In this presentation, we are addressing the earliest use of metal, in our case gold, in Romania, with an emphasis on Transylvania. Although Transylvania has the richest gold, copper and tin ore deposits in Eastern-Southeastern Europe, gold metallurgy didn’t appear in that region until the later Eneolithic, although it is found in the territories occupied by the Boian and the earliest Gumelnita and Cucuteni archaeological cultures, outside of the Carpathian Arc.
Our focus in this case is the earliest presence of gold in Transylvania, examined through its archaeological and socio-cultural contexts. The fact that the earliest gold pieces from this area are made from metal that originates south of the Danube, points to a possible differential evolution in regional proto-metallurgical technical development At the same time, it could indicate a significant difference in mentalities between the various areas reducing the desirability of gold objects among Neo-Eneolithic Transylvania inhabitants. An interesting question then remains: who used it, and why?
Paleopathology
Demystifying a Wrongful Assumption:
Horseback Riding in the Late Bronze Age Noua populations in Transylvania
Sabrina Gloux
(ArchaeoTek Project Director)
Sally McGrath
(University of New Brunswick)
Ellen Green
(University of Durham)
Andre Gonciar
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Director)
The relationship between humans and horses has been important throughout history; it is a relationship that revolutionized travel and warfare. The question of when the horse went from food to transport has not been resolved, but what is clear is that riding was a very important step in this process. Individuals within a horse riding culture will exhibit certain indicators in the form of biomechanical bone changes and evidence for more trauma of the type associated with horseback riding than individuals from a culture where horses were not present or not used for riding. Using skeletal remains from a known Noua cemetery, we tried to determine the degree to which, or indeed if at all, this specific population engaged in equestrian activities. Taken together the pathological indicators seem to indicate that habitual riding was not practiced by the individuals in this sample. The biomechanical indicators would on a whole agree with the former statement. Although the overall indicators for horseback riding did not correlate in this sample, there was a correlation between three biomechanical markers. These were: the formation of a third trochanter on the proximal shaft of the femur, the development of the hypotrochanteric fossa on the proximal shaft of the femur, and a coxa valga angle between the head and neck, and shaft of the femur. Though these markers were most likely not caused by equestrian activity we propose that they are interrelated and caused by another physical activity, such as mountain hiking, with a similarity in the basic muscle groups used in horseback riding.
Introduction:
When the East meets the West:
Negotiating Culture History Trajectories in Romania
Andre Gonciar
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Director)
The operating paradigm of Romanian archaeology, implemented in the 1920s by V. Parvan and I. Andriesescu, still fully present, is cultural-historical. As Parvan initially constructed the science and further enforced by the Communist regime, Romanian archaeological thought is authority driven. As a field of study, it is incorporated into history and is constructed methodologically around extensive typologies and elaborate vertical stratigraphies correlated in space and time. The strong empirical, descriptive, ideographic perspectives dictated by a Marxist approach were eventually incorporated. Evolutionary and ecological principles were (and are still used) as dogmatic lines of evidence, which result in a sustained effort of systematization of all archaeological date, manifest by the boom in archaeological repertoires since the 1980s. The teleological approaches of culture-history, often driven by political and/or nationalistic imperatives, excluded any theoretical approaches. As a result, personal experience and intellectual qualities of individual archaeologists are still considered the fundamental basis for analytical validation.
Nevertheless, changes in Romanian archaeology are inevitable and often triggered by international collaborative projects. However, these changes don’t aim at the replacement of the Culture-Historical paradigm but the creation of a new and improved Culture-History by the pragmatic integration of selected aspects of mainly Processualist and more rarely Postprocessualist theoretical approaches.
Paleometallurgy
Axeheads and Elites:
The Role of Metallurgy in the Development of Elite Society in
Bronze Age Transylvania
William Illsley
(University of Sheffield / ArchaeoTek Research Assistant)
The importance of Transylvania (Romania) as a mining region is paramount from the Early Bronze Age to the present. It hosts the largest deposits of copper, tin, iron and gold in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Since the EBA, the region was integrated locally and internationally in complex networks of socio-cultural and economic exchange, as attested by the presence of Transylvanian bronzes and artifacts in Homeric Troy, and Minoans and Mycenaean symbols cast into Transylvanian bronzes locally.
The focus of present paper is the impact of metallurgical practices during the Transylvanian Bronze Age on dynamics of ore exploitation. I am addressing what these hoards and the production of copper and bronze in this period represents; in particular what significance they had in terms of the monopolization of the regions rich veins of natural resources and materials as well as its geographic location.
Through the XRF analysis of a group of Early and Late Bronze age axe head compositions I will examine the economy of the bronze trade in Romania, if the composition of the bronzes mirrors the rest of Europe or the bronze in circulation was produced in country. Based upon the economy I am evaluating the degree to which technological advances in metallurgy were responsible for the development of social stratification and the emergence of an elite class.
A Usable History. Tailor Made
Ernest H. Latham, Jr.
(Foreign Service Institute - Department of State)
This presentation will examine the impact of politics and political events on some aspects of Romanian archaeology and historiography. Firstly, it will look at the “Old Europe” civilization/culture and speculate on some of the reasons that may account for the tardy recognition of its fundamental unities. These reasons include preeminently the hard realities of the Cold War. Also important is the both beneficial and baleful influences of Marija Gimbutas and most especially her disciples who intertwined her scholarship with their contemporary political and social agendas and ideologies. Secondly, the presentation will contrast the Roman/Latin culture with that of the Dacians and demonstrate how these contrasts have been used and exploited by Romanian historians and politicians to further national interests and to support national policies. The way in which the Roman/Latin and the Dacian heritages have been constructed into useable history on behalf of the Romanian nation in the 20th century can be illustrated by the odyssey of the she-wolf’s statue through downtown Bucharest. Thirdly and finally to be touch on is late Roman and Byzantine archaeology and its relative neglect in the communist period. The presentation will conclude with a speculative look into the future of Romanian archaeology as practiced by Romanians.
Poster Exhibit
Living the Past:
An Artist’s Journey through Transylvanian History
Radu Oltean
(Historical Illustrator, Romania / ArchaeoTek Partner)
The public’s perception of the (distant) past is conditions by the representational quality of the data retrieved historically and archaeologically. For most people, the past is mostly accessed through visual media such as movies/documentaries and graphic images. In this context, the role of the illustrator is paramount in creating the necessary connection between the historian/archaeologist and the public. Historical illustrators are far more than simple graphic artists. Their immersion in the past involves a lot of research, data gathering, and communication. In Romania, historical illustration has been traditionally limited to nationalistic clichés and stereotypes. Through my illustrations, I endeavor to bring to the public a more accurate (and more easily accessible) perception of the past and at the same time denounce and eliminate patriotic historical myths promoted by 45 years of communist indoctrination.
The journey to the final illustration begins with thorough documentation, from academic sources, museums and monuments/sites. Although an artist is always very sensible to the esthetic quality of his work, for a historical illustrator accuracy is paramount. I use several media in order to finalize the graphic research, from aerial photography to GIS projections, 3D computer programs to manipulate view angles, site and object photography. Although not necessarily reliable, historical movies and reenactment events can provide some practical insights to how clothing, armor and various objects can and can’t be used. At the same time, experimental archaeology offers, to the artist, a very interesting perspective on the interactions between individual and material object at the physical level. My journey is then completed with a historical illustration hand painted on paper.
Archaeology - Roman
From the Desert to the Carpathians:
Palmyrenes in Roman Sarmizegetusa, the First Roman Town North of the Danube
Ioan Piso
(Roman Research Institute, University of Babes-Bolyai, Romania / ArchaeoTek Partner)
Ovidiu Tentea
(National Museum of Romanian History, Romania / ArchaeoTek Partner)
Palmyra and Sarmizegetusa, two great Roman metropolises, had a similar historical evolution within the context of the Empire. Palmyra, an oasis in the Syrian Desert became one of the great cities of the Roman Orient as a result of the intense economic and commercial activity along the Silk Road. Sarmizegetusa Ulpia Traiana is the first city founded after the Roman conquest of Dacia constituted a model for all the other urban communities in the new province.
Our paper analyses the context in which Palmyrene communities evolved in the first and most important town of the Roman province. During the first years of the Dacian province, for strategic reasons, a few contingents of Palmyrene archers have been relocated on the Western frontier. Through a special military diploma they were granted exceptional citizen rights. The soldiers of these contingents, together with merchants and priests served as the nucleus for the implantation of a Palmyrene community in Dacia.
We explore the various processes of acculturation and adaptation of this community through a thorough synthesis of all epigraphic and archaeological evidence available, focusing in particular on the newly discovered temple of the Palmyrene gods in Sarmizegetusa. In this context, we re-evaluate the worship, religious and public practices of the Palmyrene community.
Archaeology - Roman
Relics of Memory:
The Archaeology of Mementoes
Darren Poltorak
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Project Director),
Stelian Cosulet
(Brasov County History Museum, Romania / ArchaeoTek Partner)
Remembrance is part of the human experience. Moments, events, occasions all form memories. Some of these memories are given physical form as monuments, on the public level, or as souvenirs and mementos, on the individual level. It is in these relics that we can access what was remembered. Looking at practices of trophy keeping by soldiers from historical contexts, these ideas of how men remember will be used to explore new findings from Castrum Cumidava, a Roman frontier fort from present day Romania.
Archaeology – Bronze Age:
Palatca-Togul lui Mândruşcă
A Special Site
Mihai Rotea
(National Museum of History of Transylvania, Romania / ArchaeoTek Partner)
The site from Pălatca-Togul lui Mândruşcă/Land of Mânduşcă is one of the most interesting archaeological discoveries belonging to late Transylvanian Bronze Age and not only, excavated during eight field seasons (the last one took place in 2001) with limited funding. Site has four different sectors. The first and oldest sector (MBA) is represented by a Wietenberg III dwelling, on the eastern part of the terrace whose traces can be seen, albeit very poorly, in the central area (but not the western part), right underneath the Late Bronze Age habitation. The second sector, found in the central and western area, is represented by a late Bronze Age habitation (Br. D-Ha. A). Since no traces of a permanent occupation were found, it is reasonable to assume that it was a seasonal habitation, most likely an annual camp for production and sale of goods. The third one belongs to the bronze workshop, where several artifacts of immense archaeological value were found: an anvil, an ox hide type bronze ingot, a meteorite. Finally, the fourth sector is the religious area (the altar and a large sacred complex, most likely for metallurgical ritual activity). The last three prehistoric structures are contemporaneous. Also, the author presents the main characteristics of this ritual metallurgical universe, from a large, interdisciplinary perspective, mostly based on the directions set by the work of M. Eliade, exemplified by archaeological research on this site, but also from other sites in Transylvania.
Landscape GIS
The Structure of Space:
Meshing Culture History and Landscape Approaches
Built Environment during the Neolihic in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains
Raymond Whitlow
(S.U.N.Y. Buffalo - Anthropology / ArchaeoTek Project Director)
Archaeologists have fruitfully “socialized” space at scales ranging from the house to the site and its region by linking patterns in the built environment to the decisions and dispositions of the agents who built it. I explore the potential common ground between Anglo-American notions of social space and the extensive Romanian culture history resources published on the Neolithic over the last century. In emphasizing overlap, I found the focus of my study shifting from the singular and exceptional, exemplified by the power of place studies addressing monumentality, to the ever-present and mundane details in the structure of space within buildings and buildings within sites. Approached at the spatio-temporal scale of Culture History, the decisions and dispositions behind the built environment become a vernacular which may cross-cut traditional ‘cultural’ groupings.
Support for the Romanian attendees is provided by the Dimancescu Family
in memory of their son Nicholas Dimancescu (1985-2011)
who died during the filming of his third documentary on 'Dacian' Romania.