Decentralized Societies and the Development of Secondary States: State Formation in Denmark's Iron Age

在国家科学基金会的支持下，蒂娜·瑟斯顿博士将在丹麦Thy地区进行三个季节的实地考察。她将以铁器时代为中心，在这一地区首次出现国家级社会，并试图通过考古调查来了解其组织结构。长期以来，独立发展的“原始”状态一直是考古学关注的焦点，因为人们相信，通过对这些个体案例的比较，有可能深入了解社会和政治复杂性出现的社会过程。然而，大多数史前国家并不是以这种方式发展的，而是事实上与其他这样的预先存在的实体接触和反应的结果。人们对这种“次级”状态过程的了解要少得多，瑟斯顿博士的研究重点是这个问题。早期的丹麦国家也不寻常，因为他们的“公司”性质，劳动力，食品生产，社会团体甚至统治可以通过广泛的综合仪式和意识形态手段来控制，领导者和追随者之间的极端差异被压制。集中式或网络式政府有很大不同，强调个人声望、财富、权力积累和高度个性化的领导。丹麦没有宫殿、城市、皇家仓库和寺庙，瑟斯顿博士开发了一种重建国家组织的方法。这取决于重建单个定居点的分布和规模，并确定将它们联系起来的组织原则。为了实现这一目标，瑟斯顿博士将主要依靠地表调查和土壤化学（磷酸盐）分析。丹麦以及世界其他地区先前的研究表明，土壤中的磷酸盐水平与人类职业之间存在密切而直接的联系。在过去NSF支持的工作的基础上，瑟斯顿博士将进行大规模的调查，收集磷酸盐数据，分析暴露在表面的诊断材料。利用这些数据，她将重建住区的形式和分布，确定村庄的社会和经济组织及其随时间的变化，并研究这些小单位与中央集权政治权威之间的关系。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Tina Thurston will conduct three seasons of fieldwork in the Thy region of Denmark. She will focus on the Iron Age period when a state level society first emerged in this area and attempt, through archaeological survey, to gain insight into its organization. `Pristine` states which developed independently have long been a focus of archaeological attention because it is believed that through comparison of such individual cases it is possible to gain insight into the social processes which underlie the emergence of social and political complexity. However most prehistoric states do not develop in this way but result, in fact from contact with and response to other such pre-existing entities. Much less is known about this `secondary` state process and Dr. Thurston's research focuses on this issue. Early Danish states are also unusual because of their `corporate` nature where labor, food production, social groups and even rulership may be controlled through broad integrative ritual and ideological means and extreme differentiation between leaders and followers is suppressed. Centralized or network style government differs dramatically, stressing personal prestige, wealth, power accumulation and highly individualized leadership. Palaces, cities, royal storehouses, temples are absent in Denmark and Dr. Thurston has developed a methodology to reconstruct state organization. This depends on reconstructing the distribution and size of individual settlements and determining the organizational principles which link them. To accomplish this goal Dr. Thurston will rely heavily on surface survey and soil chemical (phosphate) analysis. Prior research in Denmark, as well as other parts of the world indicate a close and direct tie between phosphate level in the soil and human occupation. Building on past NSF supported work, Dr. Thurston will conduct a broad scale survey, collect phosphate data, analyze diagnostic materials exposed on the surface. With these data she will reconstruct the forms and distribution of settlements, determine village social and economic organization and how they changed over time and examine the relationships between these small units and centralized political authority.