27/11/2024
📌 Conferenza | mercoledì 4 dicembre 2024 | ore 15.00-17.00
“Life and death in late Bronze age and early Iron age in Slovenia. New data and new methodological approaches”
Matija Črešnar
(Università di Ljubljana)
[ENG] Monumental hillforts and extensive burial mound cemeteries are among the most iconic prehistoric features far beyond the SE Alpine area. Their history of research dates back to the work of antiquarians when the first cornerstones of our discipline were laid. They furthermore contributed to the development of the classical toolbox of prehistoric archaeology, which still forms the foundations of our research today. In recent decades, however, a number of new/adapted techniques and methods have been introduced into prehistoric archaeology that are increasingly contributing to a better understanding of its many facets. In my talk, I will focus on the Early Iron Age in the SE Alpine area, i.e. between the fringes of the eastern Alps and the Pannonian plain and try to highlight what the most important new interdisciplinary developments have contributed and how the results have been integrated into the previously established interpretations.
The extensive use of airborne laser scanning (ASL) and geophysical methods has made our largest artefact, the landscapes, much more tangible and understandable. Hillforts and burial mounds are thus no longer discussed as independent monuments but as integral parts of their surroundings. Important progress has also been made with the help of various geoarchaeological methods that help us to understand the com plex biographies of prehistoric sites, their parts, but also of individual features and structures more precisely. We will also not forget the detailed analyses of various artefacts and materials, including animal and search strategies. To mention only the latter, it is the stable isotope and genetic studies that have opened new horizons for the understanding of not only the individuals, their familial and other social ties, but also demography on unprecedented scales
