Bronze Age Settlement in the Benta Valley, Hungary

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，蒂莫西·厄尔博士和一个国际团队将在匈牙利的本塔山谷进行两个考古研究季节。该团队汇集了美国，英国，匈牙利和瑞典的考古学，史前经济和古环境专家，以研究定居点的增长，经济发展和长期环境变化。研究区域围绕着重要的青铜时代城镇遗址Szazhalombarta-Foldvar，该城镇在公元前2300年至公元前800年之间被占领。当时的青铜时代匈牙利文化表现出早期的复杂性，包括广泛的贸易体系，新的冶金技术和强大的战士阶级。随着广泛的挖掘，人们对Szazhalombarta-Foldvar和其他中心定居点有了相当多的了解，但对较小的村庄和设防遗址几乎没有进行过任何工作。本项目将通过研究主要中心周围地区的定居点来帮助纠正这种偏见。初步调查结果预计，地方政治变化与商业化有关，涉及遍布农村的专门生产活动。调查中的研究问题寻求对区域经济的理解。其目的是建立定居点的年表，这些定居点由这个设防的城镇主导，并描述相关的冶金，陶瓷和农业经济专业化。具体任务是：1）通过系统的小型挖掘，确定本塔山谷青铜时代定居点的日期并绘制地图，2）通过河流沉积物的核心花粉采样来描述人类引起的环境变化，3）分析该地区定居点陶瓷和金属工艺品碎片的分布，以及4）追踪交易对象的分布。该项目将提供急需的理论和实质性知识。本塔项目的智力价值将是测试经济发展、战略控制和社会等级制度出现之间联系的模型。该项目将有助于理解欧洲史前史中相当不寻常的轨迹，在这种情况下，小规模的酋长出现，而没有进一步的国家发展。随着金属贸易的广泛进行，欧洲可能已经变得相当商业化，但这种贸易可能已经创造了一个难以集中控制的广泛的经济关系网络。该项目将是美国对欧盟资助的四个考古项目合作的贡献，这些项目分别在意大利、瑞典、西班牙和匈牙利进行，研究罗马统治之前欧洲社区的相互交织的出现。它将培训年轻的匈牙利考古学家快速评估区域定居点的新技术，并将为美国学生提供独立研究的基本培训和机会。所有学生将生活和工作在一起，建立一个国际合作的环境。本塔山谷位于快速发展的布达佩斯的边缘，很快就会被城市的扩张所吞没，这项工作将有助于在推土机前进行保护和挖掘。该项目还为当地的Matrica博物馆提供了考古证据，以帮助建立一个露天博物馆，重建该地区的青铜时代生活。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Timothy Earle and an international team of colleagues will conduct two field seasons of archaeological research in the Benta Valley of Hungary. The team brings together American, British, Hungarian, and Swedish specialists in archaeology, prehistoric economies, and paleo-environments to examine settlement growth, economic development, and long-term environmental change. The region of study surrounds the important Bronze Age town-site of Szazhalombatta-Foldvar that was occupied between 2300 and 800 BC. The Bronze Age Hungarian cultures of that time showed early complexity with an extensive trading system, new metallurgical technology, and a powerful warrior class. With extensive excavations, a fair amount is known about Szazhalombatta-Foldvar and other central settlements, but almost no work has been done on the smaller villages and fortified sites. The present project will help correct this bias by studying settlements in the region that surrounded the major center. Preliminary findings anticipate that local political changes were linked to commercialization involving specialized production activities spread across the countryside. The research questions under investigation seek an understanding of the regional economy. The goal is to establish the chronology of settlements, which became dominated by this fortified town, and to describe the associated economic specialization in metallurgy, ceramics, and agriculture. Specific tasks are 1) to date and map the size of Bronze Age settlements in the Benta Valley by systematic small excavations, 2) to describe human induced environmental change by core pollen sampling of the river's sediments, 3) to analyze the distribution across the region's settlements of debris from ceramic and metal crafting, and 4) to trace the distribution of traded objects. The project will provide much needed theoretical and substantive knowledge. The intellectual merit of the Benta Project will be to test models of linkages between economic development, strategic control, and the emergence of social hierarchies. The project will help understand the rather unusual trajectory of European prehistory, in which small-scale chiefdoms emerged without further state development. With extensive trade in metal, Europe may have become quite commercialized, yet that trade may have created a widespread network of economic relationships that was difficult to control centrally. The project will be an American contribution to a major European Union funded collaboration of four archaeological projects in Italy, Sweden, Spain and Hungary studying the intertwined emergence of European communities prior to Roman ascendancy.The broader impacts of the Benta Project are several. It will train young Hungarian archaeologists in new techniques for the rapid assessment of regional settlements, and it will provide basic training and opportunities for independent research for American students. All students will live and work together, establishing an international collaborative environment. Lying at the edge of rapidly growing Budapest, the Benta Valley will soon be engulfed by urban sprawl, and the work will help plan for preservation and excavations in front of the bulldozers. The project also provides the local Matrica Museum with archaeological evidence to help build an open-air museum reconstructing Bronze Age life of the region.