Secondary State Formation in the Danish 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的Thy地区进行一个季节的实地考察。她将专注于铁器时代，当时一个国家级的社会首次出现在这一地区，并试图通过考古调查，以了解其组织。独立发展的“原始”国家长期以来一直是考古学关注的焦点，因为人们认为，通过对这些个案的比较，可以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起来的，事实上，它们是与其他这样的预先存在的实体接触和反应的结果。对这种“次级”状态过程的了解要少得多，瑟斯顿博士的研究集中在这个问题上。早期的丹麦国家也是不寻常的，因为它们的“公司”性质，劳动，食品生产，社会团体，甚至统治权可能通过广泛的综合仪式和意识形态手段进行控制，领导人和追随者之间的极端分化受到抑制。中央集权或网络型政府截然不同，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。这取决于重建各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，瑟斯顿博士将在很大程度上依赖于地表调查和土壤化学（磷酸盐）分析。先前在丹麦以及世界其他地区的研究表明，土壤中的磷酸盐水平与人类活动之间存在密切而直接的联系。在这个长期项目的第一季，Thurston博士将进行分层抽样调查，收集磷酸盐数据，分析暴露在地表的诊断材料，并进行有限的文本挖掘。如果这种方法取得成功，将为全面覆盖地理区域奠定基础，从而能够重建社会组织模式及其如何随时间变化。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Tina Thurston will conduct one season 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. In this first season of a projected long term project, Dr. Thurston will conduct a stratified sample survey and collect phosphate data, analyze diagnostic materials exposed on the surface and carry out limited text excavations. If the methodology is successful, this will set the stage for complete geographical coverage with will allow reconstruction of patterns of social organization and how they change over time.