Seminario - From outer space to domestic space: Detecting settlements of the Late Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin

Relatore: Prof. Barry Molloy - University College Dublin, School of Archaeology I Martedì 14 Maggio - ore 16.30 | Aula Arduino

14.05.2024

The later Bronze Age in southern Europe was a time of fundamental social change. Metalwork transitioned from a prestige to routine resource, weaponry indicates a transformation in warfare related violence, and the networks through which metal flowed connected up the continent in an unprecedented manner. In the mid‐second millennium BC, complex and densely spaced settlement patterns supporting comparatively large populations emerged in the Aegean, Po Valley and Carpathian Basin. These systems represent a divergence in societal complexity from what came before. The former two have been the subject of study for some decades, whereas the latter has come into sharper focus over the past decade. Through our discovery of over 100 new and exceptionally large settlements, the context of some of the largest sites of prehistoric Europe – the Bronze Age megaforts of the Carpathian Basin ‐ is becoming better understood. In this seminar I present details on the discovery and analyses of the core network of settlements, the Tisza Site Group. I present results of remote sensing, geophysical survey, pedestrian survey and general landscape characterisation work in this lecture. We discuss how elements of soil composition transformations make sites not only visible from the air, but also provide insight into their internal organisation, supported by geophysics and archaeological fieldwork.