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的Thy地区进行为期三个季节的实地考察。她将关注铁器时代时期，当时这个地区首次出现国家级社会，并试图通过考古调查来洞察其组织。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，可以洞察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，而是事实上由于与其他此类预先存在的实体的接触和回应而产生的。人们对这一“二次”状态过程知之甚少，瑟斯顿博士的研究主要集中在这个问题上。早期丹麦国家的不同寻常之处还在于它们的“企业”性质，在那里，劳动力、食品生产、社会团体甚至统治权可能会通过广泛的综合仪式和意识形态手段来控制，领导人和追随者之间的极端分化受到压制。中央集权式或网络式政府截然不同，强调个人威望、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机构的方法。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测量和土壤化学(磷酸盐)分析。丹麦以及世界其他地区的先前研究表明，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，瑟斯顿博士将进行广泛的调查，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，她将重建聚落的形式和分布，确定村庄的社会和经济组织以及它们如何随着时间的推移而变化，并审查这些小单位与中央集权政治当局之间的关系。

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.