Spheres of Interaction. Contacts and Relationships between the Balkans and adjacent regions in the Late Bronze / Iron Age (13/12th - 6/5th BCE)
Abstrakt
The main objective of the conference(s) Perspectives on Balkan Archaeology is to provide a setting for the establishment of a sustainable and cross-border network of senior and young scholars from the Central and South-Eastern Europe, who deal with the prehistoric archaeology of the Balkan regions in a scientific way and thereby counteract the national and nationalistic narratives. The concept of this year's conference is the role of the Balkans as a bridge between the Mediterranean and Europe - a fact that has become painfully apparent also during the latest events.
The very same route along the rivers Vardar and Morava was one of the main communications already throughout the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. In addition to the river basin of Struma and Maritsa or the Adriatic coast it allowed inter-regional connections and relationships between various areas of the Southern Europe and adjacent regions that often affected their sociocultural development and could even shape the identity of individual groups.
The conference Spheres of Interactions focuses on the general process as well as individual features of this inter-regional connections between the Late Bronze and Iron Age communities in the Balkans and the Aegean, the Apennine Peninsula, the Black Sea region, the Southeast Alps or the Carpathian Basin. Following questions are going to be addressed:.
How are contacts and relationships expressed in material culture? How do relationships materialize in settlements, grave contexts, and sanctuaries or in certain (burial) rituals or technological choices?. If connections are visible in the archaeological record, how can they be interpreted? Are they perceivable as stable and permanent or as variable networks? Are buffer-zones, contact zones or isolated regions identifiable?.
Can spheres of interaction be shown to change over time?. How are different chronological systems affecting supra-regional studies and how can this issue be addressed?