Doctoral Dissertation Research: Colonization and Social Interaction in Early Medieval Southeastern Austria

博士论文研究：中世纪早期奥地利东南部的殖民与社会互动

• 批准号: 0907747
• 负责人: Timothy Chevral
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-03-15 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0907747&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Colonization; Social

Under the supervision of Dr. Tina L. Thurston, K. Patrick Fazioli will examine the material correlates of daily social and economic interaction in the early medieval eastern Alpine region, an area that today encompasses parts of eastern Austria, western Hungary, and northern Slovenia. Beginning in the 8th century AD, historical sources indicate that Germanic-speaking groups primarily from Bavaria migrated southeastward into Alpine river valleys under the auspices of an expanding Frankish empire. These Germanic immigrants settled amidst a local Slavic-speaking population. Although the two distinct groups would form the basis of an emergent medieval society, early written records provide almost no indication of their initial socioeconomic relationship. Did this encounter of Germanic and Slavic communities result in extensive economic integration and rapid cultural creolization, or did each group retain a degree of economic and ethnic autonomy? This project will shed light on these important processes by analyzing two critical datasets. First, pedestrian and soil chemical surveys will be employed to help reconstruct cultural landscapes along the middle Mur river valley in the Austrian province of Steiermark. By documenting the locations of early medieval farmsteads, field boundaries, pathways, and trash middens, these surveys will reveal how early medieval communities organized and conceptualized the space in which they lived. Secondly, compositional analyses of early medieval pottery collected from the surveys as well as from previous excavations in the region will help to establish local patterns of craft production and distribution. The conclusions drawn from these two datasets will provide greater clarity on the nature and scope of Germanic/Slavic interaction during this critical but enigmatic period of east-central European history. The intellectual merits of this research project are numerous. It addresses issues of colonization, state integration, and "culture contact" in a decidedly pre-modern and non-capitalist context. It emphasizes the importance of mundane, everyday activities in the construction and maintenance of individual and group identity. These daily practices are rarely mentioned in historical sources, but can often be recovered through archaeological analysis. This project seeks to synthesize the historical and material records in a way that can capitalize on the strengths yet acknowledge the limitations of each approach. This project will have broad positive impacts in both the U.S. and Europe. It will facilitate collaborative efforts between American and Austrian archaeologists and students, providing further opportunities for archaeological exploration in this fascinating but understudied region. The creation of a detailed website and implementation of a public outreach program in Buffalo, NY and Wildon, Austria will enhance the visibility of the project. Presentations at professional conferences and publication in scholarly journals will surely contribute to the scientific literature on a number of relevant issues. Finally, this project will play a major role in the doctoral training of the co-PI, specifically in the techniques of soil chemical characterization and ceramic mineralogy, as well as that of other graduate and undergraduate students who will aid in the laboratory and fieldwork.

在Tina L. Thurston博士的指导下，K. Patrick Fazioli将研究中世纪早期阿尔卑斯东部地区日常社会和经济互动的相关材料，该地区今天包括奥地利东部、匈牙利西部和斯洛文尼亚北部的部分地区。从公元8世纪开始，历史资料表明，在不断扩张的法兰克帝国的支持下，主要来自巴伐利亚的讲日耳曼语的群体向东南迁移到阿尔卑斯河谷。这些日耳曼移民在当地讲斯拉夫语的人群中定居下来。尽管这两个不同的群体构成了一个新兴的中世纪社会的基础，但早期的文字记录几乎没有提供他们最初的社会经济关系的迹象。日耳曼人与斯拉夫人的相遇是否导致了广泛的经济一体化和迅速的文化克里奥尔化，还是每个群体都保留了一定程度的经济和民族自治？该项目将通过分析两个关键数据集来阐明这些重要过程。首先，将采用行人和土壤化学调查来帮助重建奥地利施泰尔马克省穆尔河谷中部的文化景观。通过记录早期中世纪农庄、田野边界、道路和垃圾堆的位置，这些调查将揭示早期中世纪社区如何组织和概念化他们生活的空间。其次，从调查中收集到的中世纪早期陶器的成分分析，以及之前在该地区的挖掘，将有助于建立当地的工艺生产和分布模式。从这两个数据集得出的结论将更清楚地了解日耳曼/斯拉夫人在中东欧历史上这一关键但神秘的时期相互作用的性质和范围。这个研究项目的智力价值数不胜数。它在一个明确的前现代和非资本主义背景下解决了殖民、国家整合和“文化接触”等问题。它强调世俗的、日常的活动在构建和维护个人和群体认同中的重要性。这些日常做法在历史资料中很少提及，但通常可以通过考古分析恢复。该项目旨在综合历史和材料记录，以一种既能利用优势，又能承认每种方法的局限性的方式。该项目将对美国和欧洲产生广泛的积极影响。它将促进美国和奥地利考古学家和学生之间的合作努力，为在这个迷人但研究不足的地区进行考古探索提供进一步的机会。在纽约州布法罗市和奥地利威尔登市建立一个详细的网站，并实施一个公共宣传计划，将提高项目的知名度。在专业会议上的演讲和在学术期刊上的发表肯定会对一些相关问题的科学文献做出贡献。最后，该项目将在联合项目负责人的博士培训中发挥重要作用，特别是在土壤化学表征和陶瓷矿物学技术方面，以及其他研究生和本科生的培训，他们将在实验室和实地工作中提供帮助。