Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Bronze Age Economies of the Carpathian Basin: Trade, Craft Production and Agro-Pastoral Intensification

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The development of hierarchical political systems, such as chiefdoms and states, has received much attention by archaeologists in recent decades. Critical to this discussion is the emergence of political economies that finance elites and their institutions. Unfortunately, in many regions their development is poorly understood. This is true for Bronze Age temperate Europe, where the study of long-distance trade in prestige goods, especially spectacular metalwork, has largely overshadowed investigation of production strategies at the village and household level. This has often led to premature identification of complex polities when organizational variability within autonomous (or non-hierarchical) villages is not yet fully understood. Under the supervision of Dr. John O'Shea, Amy Nicodemus will address this important problem, using the Maros culture of the central Hungarian Plain as a case study (Early-Middle Bronze Age, c. 2700-1500 cal. BC). This research examines variability in economic organization both within and between Maros settlements to test whether patterns are consistent with the increasing centralization of emerging political economies, or whether differences fall within the range of expected variability for autonomous settlements in contrasting geographic and ecological settings. Production strategies and consumption patterns will be assessed for three important and inter-related spheres: agriculture, local craft manufacture, and long-distance trade. Special attention will be paid to the degree of (1) elite control over local and foreign prestige goods economies and (2) intensification and/or specialization of farming systems through time. Intra-site variability will be explored through excavations of the outer settlement at a major Maros settlement, Pecica ªanþul Mare, which will complement (and contrast against) previous work within central habitation areas, thought to correspond to non-elite and elite residences respectively. Inter-site differentiation will be assessed for neighboring settlements through museum study of excavated materials and review of published site reports. Currently, little is known about organization of craft manufacture and even less about farming systems in the Carpathian Basin. This study will also provide important information about how these economic spheres are structured and how they interact with better-understood trade networks. This project will make valuable contributions to issues of broad interest within the anthropological community and beyond as the origins of political complexity and its economic foundations are relevant to diverse social sciences. Additionally, this research will foster international collaboration and promote future generations of Romanian archeologists. It will form the basis of the author's dissertation and subsequent publications. Summary reports translated into Romanian and Hungarian will be made available to the wider community, encouraging intellectual exchange and dialogue between international researchers and the public. Further, archaeology is a rapidly shrinking field in Romania as job prospects and funding sources are increasingly limited. The author is dedicated to countering this trend by training Romanian students in modern excavation and analytical techniques and encouraging independent research projects. This will provide much needed opportunities for developing practical and theoretical skills, as well as experience with international projects, making students attractive in a competitive job market and encouraging continued collaboration.