History of Archaeological Research Research Papers (original) (raw)

Dal 2014 la cattedra di Archeologia Classica dell’Università della Basilicata, Dip. di Scienze Umane, sta conducendo un progetto di ricerca ad Anzi (PZ), un importante centro antico della Basilicata interna. (direzione scientifica: Prof.ssa M. C. Monaco; responsabile archeologo: Dr. F. Donnici). Accanto alle indagini condotte sul campo (ricognizioni in superficie e scavi stratigrafici), una parte rilevante del lavoro di ricerca si è concentrato sulla ricostruzione delle vicende che videro coinvolto il piccolo comune lucano quale indiscusso protagonista sulla scena archeologica regnicola, in particolare nei primi trent’anni del XIX secolo. Durante questo periodo, infatti, le ricerche effettuate nel “fertilissimo” territorio di Anzi conobbero una stagione d’oro, in cui fu portate alla luce, a ritmi frenetici e senza un adeguato controllo, un “prodigioso” patrimonio archeologico, in larga parte poi disperso – spesso illegalmente – attraverso le vie e le modalità più disparate. Dalla lettura delle fonti bibliografiche ed archivistiche dell’epoca, emerge chiaramente come il ricco sito lucano fosse diventato non solo uno dei principali centri di approvvigionamento del vorace mercato antiquario napoletano, al pari di Nola, Paestum, Ruvo e Canosa, ma anche un ideale luogo d’incubazione per la nascita di veri e propri professionisti del settore, coinvolgendo in quest’attività specializzata un’ampia fascia della popolazione locale. Si tratta degli “esperti scavatori” e dei “rattoppatori de’ cocci” anzesi, all’epoca unanimemente riconosciuti come i più rinomati di tutto il Regno e, senza dubbio, tra i principali artefici, nel bene e nel male, delle sorti dell’archeologia lucana nel periodo in questione. Essi operarono al soldo dell’Intendenza borbonica in numerosi siti in tutta l’Italia Meridionale, ma nella stragrande maggioranza dei casi ebbero modo di esercitare la loro valente maestria senza alcuna “legittima permissione”. È questo, ad esempio, il caso degli scavi di Armento del 1814 in cui, soprattutto grazie all’abilità degli scavatori di Anzi, furono riportati alla luce celebri reperti come la corona aurea di Critonio, ora ai musei di Monaco.
In occasione del prossimo convegno di Reggio Calabria intendiamo riportare al centro del dibattito scientifico in materia il singolare caso di Anzi, un piccolo centro lucano in cui furono scritte pagine tanto significative quanto ancora poco conosciute della storia dell’archeologia borbonica. A tal fine, si cercherà, anche alla luce di una documentazione d’archivio in larga parte inedita, di ridare fisionomia storica ad alcuni protagonisti di quelle vicende e alle loro attività, spesso al confine tra archeologia ufficiale e ricerche clandestine.

Report and appreciation of the excavation

Epistemology and research history significantly shape scientific understandings, debates, and publication strategies, albeit often implicitly. In Palaeolithic archaeology in particular, these factors are rarely examined in depth. Here, we present a historiographic analysis of how research history has influenced the debate concerning the possible Neanderthal occupation in Scandinavia. We provide a qualitative discussion of this contentious research field as well as a citation network analysis that visualizes, quantifies, and hence clarifies some of the underlying conceptual, geographic, and temporal patterns in the development of the debate. Our results show significant regionalism as a structuring principle driving this debate as well as a basic rift between professional and avocational archaeologists in how they interpret and publish the available data. We also identify a troubling lack of cross-referencing, even when taking language barriers into account. We argue that the debate about Neanderthal occupation in Scandinavia has been shaped (negatively) by the following phenomena: regionalism, nationalism, lack of research and researchers, non-cumulative work, publication in Nordic languages, science by press release/sensationalism, and a lamentable trend towards arguments ad hominem. In order to take this research field forward, we propose an epistemological turn towards a cumulative, international, and hypothesis-driven agenda based on renewed research efforts and novel citizen science tools.

- by Trine Kellberg Nielsen and +1
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- Scandinavia, Network Analysis, History of Archaeological Research, Neanderthals
- by Roy van Beek
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- Historical Geography, Physical Geography, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
- by Daniel Modl and +1
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- Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Habsburg Studies, History of Archaeological Research
- by Mari Tõrv (Lõhmus) and +3
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- History of Archaeological Research

Methodology and Archaeometry is an annual scientific conference organized since 2013 by the Department of Archaeology of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb and the Croatian Archaeological Society. The first digital edition includes papers from the 5th scientific conference Methodology and Archaeometry which was held at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of
the University of Zagreb, from 30th November – 1st of December 2017. Six scientific papers presented in this volume are focused on different aspects of archaeology, including case studies from Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Albania and Spain. Topics cover the range from the role of archaeological methodology in preventive archaeology; archaeological
surface survey methods; identification of the cultural landscape as a part of the procedure for the protection of cultural heritage sites; analytical techniques applied to ceramic assemblages, and the development, benefits and shortcomings of the archaeological research and its impact to the understanding of the past.

- by Ina Miloglav and +5
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- Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, Landscape Archaeology, Survey (Archaeological Method & Theory)

245 Stone Age artefacts were collected from local people in Jaakkima Parish (Ceded Karelia, now Russia) between 1874-1950. The artefacts are typical Stone Age stray finds: polished axes and adzes, with scarce information about their finding locations. Some of the artefacts had been found years, even generations, ago and been kept for their alleged magical properties. The belief of Stone Age artefacts as "thunderbolts", magical objects of supernatural origin, was still widespread in the Finnish countryside at the time. Some artefacts collected from Jaakkima show signs of magical practices: For example symbols like pentagrams are found scratched on surfaces. The impact of this kind of re-use on the accumulation of material and the context should be considered when studying older stray find material from the Stone Age.

Multidisciplinary study of the evolution of the subsistence economy and maritime hunting technology of the Thule culture, particularly as regards the interplay between shore lead umiak hunting, caribou hunting, and various forms of sealing. Lengthy introductory chapter reviews evolution of Neoeskimo/Paleoeskimo dichotomy in research history.

- by Lucia Travaini
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- History, Archaeology, Research Methodology, Numismatics
- by Andreas Schachner
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- Near Eastern Archaeology, Hittitology, Anatolian Archaeology, Hittite

Smith, J. S. 2012 “Histories of Archaeology at Polis Chrysochous,” pp. 26–44 in W. A. P. Childs, J. S. Smith, and J. M. Padgett eds., City of Gold: The Archaeology of Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus. Princeton and New Haven: Princeton... more

In this article, I have tried to discuss the Fimbulwinter theory in a research historical perspective, in order to disentangle the premises presented by both advocates and critics alike. By and large, the current debate follows the contours of previous discourses on the 6th century transition, at the risk of entrenching the arguments within two defined and established perspectives: material change as a reflection of crisis, and, secondly, material change as an expression of cultural innovation. Neither of these perspectives is satisfactory, as they both run the risk of downplaying either, in the first case, long-term socio-cultural dynamics or, in the second case, environmental factors. In other words, an environmental perspective is inadequate as an analytical framework, since it is liable to provide simplified and deterministic interpretations of past societal change. The roots of environmental disasters must be studied from a social perspective, in which societal preconditions for vulnerability to hazards are analysed. Consequently, an integrated human-environmental approach must be developed, which takes into consideration the importance of both human and natural systems, and the interaction between them. There is, indeed, no contradiction between the two interpretative frameworks of crisis and a change of practice, as both perspectives are required for an in-depth understanding of the spatial and temporal complexity associated with the transition from the Early to the Late Iron Age. Considerable scientific potential might be obtained by employing a human-environmental approach, in which the 6th century transition is analysed at the interface of human and environmental systems, rather than within an explicit social or climatic interpretative framework.

- by Aleksander Lysenko
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- Late Antiquity, History of Archaeological Research, Roman Period, Crimea
- by Elena Klenina and +1
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- Architecture, Early Christianity, Roman Pottery, Roman Baths (Archaeology)
- by matija črešnar and +2
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- Archaeology, Geology, Remote Sensing, Landscape Archaeology

The dynamic processes of knowledge production in archaeology and elsewhere in the humanities and social sciences are increasingly viewed within the context of negotiation, cooperation and exchange, as the collaborative effort of groups, clusters and communities of scholars. Shifting focus from the individual scholar to the wider social contexts of her work, this volume investigates the importance of informal networks and conversation in the creation of knowledge about the past, and takes a closer look at the dynamic interaction and exchange that takes place between individuals, groups and clusters of scholars in the wider social settings of scientific work. Various aspects of and mechanisms at work behind the interaction and exchange that takes place between the individual scholar and her community, and the creative processes that such encounters trigger, are critically examined in eleven chapters which draw on a wide spectrum of examples from Europe and North America: from early modern antiquarians to archaeological societies and practitioners at work during the formative years of the modern archaeological disciplines and more recent examples from the twentieth century. The individual chapters engage with theoretical approaches to scientific creativity, knowledge production and interaction such as sociology and geographies of science, and actor-network theory (ANT) in their examination of individual–collective interplay. The book caters to readers both from within and outside the archaeological disciplines; primarily intended for researchers, teachers and students in archaeology, anthropology, classics and the history of science, it will also be of interest to the general reader.

This paper deals with Georg ‚Gogo‘ Müller-Kuales (1905–1945), who was assistant professor at the newly established institute for prehistoric archaeology and Germanic archaeology at Hamburg University until his death in 1945. As research on the history of prehistoric archaeology in Germany has dealt with many different topics as well as biographies and careers of important archaeologists in the Third Reich it seems worthwhile, to investigate the scientific youth as well. This approach allows to draw a more complete picture of prehistoric archaeology in national socialist Germany and can therefor contribute to a better understanding of the history of prehistoric archaeology. Based on archival sources and publications by Georg Müller-Kuales this paper investigates his biography, his way of performing archaeology, his tasks at the institute, his research his political background, his work abroad in the context of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg and therefor tries to generate an overall picture of a young scholar in the Third Reich.

The book traces the history of research carried out in the area called Fondi Cossar within the ancient town of Aquileia since eighteen century.

- by Jacopo Bonetto and +1
- •
- History of Archaeological Research, Archaeology of Northern Italy, Roman Archaeology, Archaeology of Adriatic Area

Gaetano Chierici fu una figura di particolare spicco nel panorama dell’archeologia ottocentesca. I suoi grandi meriti
sono universalmente noti per quel che riguarda la Paletnologia e l’Archeologia preistorica, ma non altrettanto sottolineato è il fatto che alcune ricerche di questo studioso abbiano permesso di ricostruire con maggiore sicurezza anche
la topografia antica della provincia di Reggio Emilia in età romana. In queste pagine valuteremo alcuni casi particolari
sottolineando anche come in Chierici si possa individuare una metodologia di ricerca che ne fa quasi un precursore della
scuola topografica bolognese.

A direct successor of the oldest tradition of academic archaeology in Poland, the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University ranks among the leading research centres with respect to studies on the influx of Roman coins into European Barbaricum. The interest in Roman coinage at the Jagiellonian University pre-dates archaeology and can be traced back to the 16th century and the professors of the Kraków
Academy (the name of the university at that time) Maciej of Miechów (1457–1523) and Stanisław Grzebski (1524–1570). In the 19th century, Roman coins discovered in the vicinity of Kraków attracted the interest
of Jerzy Samuel Bandtke (1768–1835). However, the time when this area of research enjoyed particular development falls to the last years before WWII and the post-war period. A significant role in this respect
was played by researchers either representing the JU Institute of Archaeology, like Professors Rudolf Jamka (1906–1972), Kazimierz Godłowski (1934–1995), and Piotr Kaczanowski (1944–2015), or those cooperating with the Institute like Professor Stefan Skowronek (1928–2019). Their activity laid the foundations for today’s research on the finds of Roman coins and their inflow into the territories of the Roman Period Barbaricum. Currently, this area of studies is within the focus of two of the departments of the Institute of Archaeology: the Department of Iron Age Archaeology and the Department of Classical Archaeology. The intensification of research on the inflow of Roman coins owes much to the Finds of Roman coins in Poland and lands connected historically with PL project, carried out in 2014–2018 under the leadership of Professor Aleksander Burshe, with important contributions provided by a group of scholars from the JU Institute of
Archaeology. Despite the conclusion of the project, studies on the inflow of Roman coins will continue.12345

- by Thomas Doppler
- •
- Multivariate Statistics, Zooarchaeology, Archaeobotany, Archaeozoology

In der vorliegenden Studie wird ein Musterfall von wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher und
forschungsgeschichtlicher Bedeutung untersucht. Im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit steht die Hypothese,
dass die erste solche archäologische Siedlungsausgrabung über eg Jahre der Institutionalisierung
des Denkmalschutzwesens, d. h. in der ersten Hälfte der Vafger Jahre erfolgt sein konnte, und
daher eher das Zusammensammeln archäologischer Denkmäler, als wegen im Zeitalter üblichen
Bau- und Bodenarbeiten (z.B. Bautätigkeit, dem Ausbau der städtischen Infrastruktur, der
landwirtschaftliche Arbeiten, oder der Brunnengraben) zusammenhing.
Die Ausgrabung leitende „Experte”, Anton Horváth hat vorangehend jahrelang mit
einem heutigen Fachbegriff – eine derartige „archäologische Geländebegehung” am Fundort
durchgeführt, deren Fundstücke durch die dank seiner Großzügigkeit für das Ungarische
Nationalmuseum verschenkten Fundstücke gekennzeichnet sind. Die Ausgrabung ist im
Auftrag und teils auf Kosten des Ungarischen Nationalmuseum, bzw. der Archäologischen
Kommission der Ungarischen Akademie durchgeführt worden. Das Fundmaterial wurde
auf dem VIII. Internationalen Kongress für prähistorische Anthropologie und Archäologie
im Jahre VafZ ausgestellt, anschließend ist es beim Ungarischen Nationalmuseum inventiert
und untergebracht. Ein bislang unbehobener Mangel entstand dennoch dadurch, dass der
Leiter der archäologischen Ausgrabung seine Ausgrabungsergebnisse nicht veröff entlicht hat,
obwohl er damals einschlägige Schriften in Fachzeitschriften platziert hatte. Aufgrund des
von Anton Horváth freigelegten, aus verschiedenen Zeitaltern stammenden Fundmaterials
hat Josef Hampel bereits VaaZ festgestellt, dass die Siedlung auf dem Makárberg durch längere
Zeit bewohnt sein konnte. Seine Feststellung konnte auch durch die spätere Forschung belegt
werden, und blieb bis heute gültig. Das von Anton Horváth ausgegrabene Fundmaterial –
obwohl die Fundumstände nicht genau bekannt sind – diente jahrzehntelang als Grundlage
für weitere Forschungen, und hat viel zum Verfeinern des wissenschaftlichen Bildes über
die tausendjährigen Siedlungsverhältnisse des Makárbergs beigetragen, und viele der von
ihm freigelegten Funde bilden bis heute Basis für weiteren wissenschaftlichen Diskurs.
Die prähistorischen Siedlungsfunde aus dem Makárberg befanden sich jahrzehntelang
in der archäologischen Ausstellung des Ungarischen Nationalmuseums, und trugen zur
Repräsentation der aus dem Komitat Baranya hergekommenen Funde auf nationaler Ebene bei.
Aufgrund der aus dem Fundmaterial ausgewählten zwei Fundtypen können die folgenden
Bemerkungen gemacht werden, die die derzeitige Feststellungen der Forschung über das
spätbronzezeitlichen Beziehungssystem und die Wirkung der Gegend bestätigen: Nach
gründlichem Studieren der Geweihtrensen und des vermuteten spätbronzezeitlichen Hortfunds
kann festgestellt werden, dass das Fundmaterial aus dem Makárberg in der Periode der jüngeren Urnenfelderkultur mit der Fundorte Tiszafüred, Kiskőszeg (Batina) und Celldömölk-Sághegy
vergleichbar ist, bzw. mit jenen Fundorten können überlappende Wechselwirkungen erfasst
werden. Beide Fundtypen sind unikal: keine genaue Parallele wurde für die Geweihtrensen
gefunden, während die einzigartige Bedeutung des Hortfunds (wenn dieser nicht auf der Kurd,
oder der Gyermely horizont datiert sein kann), darin besteht, dass solche Funde aus der Hallstatt
B Periode, d. h. aus der IV. und V. Phase der Urnenfelderkultur aus der Gegend nicht bekannt
wurden. Die hier erörterten spezifi schen Funde – die Geweihtrensen durch die Parallelen aus
Tiszafüred, der Bronze-Hortfund wegen der kettenartigen Ringe, die für Schalanke auch dienen
konnte, der Gussform des auf dieser Schalanke gehängte dreieckige Anhängers, und ein anderer
Gussform einer das „trako-kimmerische“ Styl folgenden Trense mit tropfenförmigen Ösen –
zeigen ebenso orientalische Einfl üsse, die ebenfalls bestätigen die derzeitige Feststellungen der
Forschung über dem spezifi schen, präskytischen Einfl üsse zeigenden Charakteristikum der
Umgebung von Pécs in der letzten Phase der Urnenfelderkultur.

Some 100 years ago tell sites located along the Lower Danube River began to be investigated and pottery sequences were elaborated. The various relative chronologies that emerged thereby were provided with calendar dates only later through the method of comparative stratigraphy and assigned to the 3rd millennium BC. Fifty years ago the first radiocarbon dates deriving from this region were published: they changed the picture dramatically, pushing the cultural sequence back to the 4th millennium. Finally, with the establishment of high-precision calibration curves after 1983, the 5th millennium could be determined as the time for the duration of the Chalcolithic period in the Balkans. Single radiocarbon datings roughly indicated the centuries to which the different Eneolithic cultures belonged. Today, 50 years after the values – at that time not yet calibrated – were published from Vărăşti in 1963, whole sequences of dates obtained from short-lived materials have become available, the first such sequence from Pietrele, Măgura Gorgana.
The structure of the article is envisaged to reflect methodological progress both in archaeology with improved excavation methods and in archaeometry with the availability of AMS-equipment. More short-lived samples can be obtained through systematic soil flotation for botanical remains, and more precise information is supplied concerning their context. Thus, the length of an archaeological culture or a period can be more precisely contoured and additionally, with statistical modelling, even the duration of single house phases can be estimated.

- by Carla Corti
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- Archaeology, History of Archaeological Research, Roman Archaeology

Im Zuge seiner zunehmenden politischen und gesellschaftlichen
Relevanz bietet sich das Thema «Grenzen» auch aus der Sicht der
römischen Archäologie für eine (Neu-)Bewertung an. Dies gilt
besonders für den sog. Limes. Häufig als materialisierte
«Aussengrenze» des Imperium Romanum konzeptualisiert, vermittelt und
in jüngerer Zeit auch vermarktet, wird der Limes in aktuellen
Studien zu Grenzen und Grenzlandschaften oft als ‹case study›
herangezogen. Bei der Analogiebildung ist aber Vorsicht geboten:
Einerseits wird die Limesforschung immer noch von Konzepten
aus ihrer Anfangszeit im späten 19. Jahrhundert geprägt, andererseits
ist eine nuancierte Auseinandersetzung mit römischen Raum und
Grenzkonzepten notwendig, um die Funktion dieser Befestigungsanlagen
im Kontext des römischen Imperialismus
einzuordnen, ehe von einer «Aussengrenze» gesprochen werden
kann. Der Aufsatz hat zum Ziel, diese zwei Punkte zu diskutieren.
Zum einen wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie eine ‹Grenze› oder
Grenzbefestigung als Weltkulturerbe präsentiert werden kann,
und zum anderen wird erörtert, wie im Imperium Romanum die
Peripherie konzeptualisiert wurde, und ob die in der Archäologie
angewandte Modelle und Begriffe diese adäquat beschreiben.

The article presents the activity of Josef Szombathy (1853−1943), Viennese prehistorian and anthropologist, in the regions of Notranjska (Inner Carniola) and Primorska (Slovenian Littoral). Between 1879 and 1911 he organized and participated in extensive archaeological excavations in the Križna jama cave near Lož, in the village of Šmihel pod Nanosom, in the village of Most na Soči (called Sveta Lucija at the time), in the village of Idrija pri Bači, and in the caves Mušja jama and Okostna jama near Škocjan; these excavations have greatly broadened our knowledge of the oldest periods in this part of Slovenia. He regularly presented his findings at the meetings of the Anthropological Society and wrote two compelling papers on the necropolis in Idrija pri Bači and on the transregional cult sites in Škocjan, which have preserved their scientifi c value to this day.

- by Jes Martens
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- History, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Iron Age

In: R. Karl & J. Leskovar (Hrsg.), Interpretierte Eisenzeiten. Fallstudien, Methoden, Theorie. Tagungsbeiträge der 8. Linzer Gespräche zur interpretativen Eisenzeitarchäologie. Studien zur Kulturgeschichte von Oberösterreich, Folge 49... more

- by Melanie Augstein
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- History of Archaeological Research, Chronology, Discontinuity, Continuity