Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, Jul 12, 2001 - History - 160 pages

Who were the Iron Age peoples of Europe? Celts, Germans, Scythians: these are among the names that come to mind. But such names, and the characteristics associated with them, come to us from outside observers – Greek and Roman writers – rather than from their own words. To understand how late prehistoric groups constructed and expressed their identities, the author examines the rich archaeological evidence left by the Iron Age Europeans themselves.

Recent theoretical and methodological advances in anthropology, archaeology and history, together with results of archaeological research all over Europe, provide the basis for a new approach to the problem of the identities of Iron Age peoples. Peter Wells uses patterns of identity revealed in the archaeology to interpret the commentaries of Greek and Roman authors who conveyed their own perceptions of these non-literate groups. Finally, he examines ways in which Iron Age Europeans responded to the Greek and Roman representations of them. The result was an ever-changing mosaic of complex and dynamic identities among the diverse peoples of Late Iron Age Europe.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Preface
7
Identity and the Archaeology of the Iron Age
13
Changing Identities in Early Iron Age Europe
35
Copyright

8 other sections not shown

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Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe
Peter S. Wells,Professor of Anthropology Peter S Wells
No preview available - 2001

Common terms and phrases

Alps archaeology Bronze Age bronze vessels burial practice Caesar campaigns in Gaul Celtic Celts cemetery Chamalières changes Chapter coins communities complex context created deposits ditch Duchcov Early Iron Age early La Tène east elite enclosures ethnic excavations expression fibulae fifth century BC Figure figurines fourth century BC funerary ritual Gaul Germans Glauberg gold Greek Greek and Roman groups Gussage All Saints Herodotus Heuneburg Hochdorf identity important indigenous individual inhumation interaction Iron Age Europe Iron Age Europeans Italy J.D. Hill jewellery La Tène Late Iron Age Llyn Cerrig Bach Mainz-Weisenau material culture Mediterranean migrations modern Mont Lassois mound name Celt neck rings northern objects oppida ornate patterns personal ornaments pottery regions representations Rhine rich burials role Roman texts Roman writers Rome Scythians second century BC settlements societies southern status structures Stuttgart swords temperate Europe Tène style tion traditions tribal tumulus understand warriors weapons

References to this book

About the author (2001)

Peter S. Wells is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, USA. His recent works include The Battle that Stopped Rome (2003), Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians (2001), Settlement, Economy, and Cultural Change at the End of the European Iron Age (1993), and The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe (1999).

Bibliographic information

TitleBeyond Celts, Germans and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe
Debates in Archaeology
Duckworth debates in archaeology
AuthorPeter S. Wells
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 2001
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedOct 8, 2008
ISBN0715630369, 9780715630365
Length160 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Europe / General
History / Europe / Western
Social Science / Archaeology
  
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