Architecture, Style and Structure in the Early Iron Age in Central Europe

Description

Translated by Tomasz Borkowski. This work concerns questions occasionally raised in archaeological publications. Analysis of construction is a commonly applied procedure, while metrological analysis is undertaken extremely rarely. The methodology is to search for repeatable distances perceptible in the arrangement of postholes or other archaeological features. The outcome does not result from arithmetic calculation, but from the analyses of a geometric nature. There were analysed mainly the remains of dwelling or economic structures. Graves constructions usually did not allow to carry out such a research. That is why they were done only in the case of one archaeological culture. Hence, a search for the length of prehistoric units of measurement will constitute a large part of this book. However, it will be only a starting point for further work. Metrological analysis allows researchers to determine the arrangements of buildings relatively accurately and, due to this, their structure can be identified. This allows us to ask why the spatial arrangement of buildings and settlements was organised in one way and not in another. This applies to physical spaces and ritual and social ones. The aim of this work is to study the means of thinking about the world – and more specifically how and why they were used in a certain way. To answer such questions the constructions techniques of building were compared with other products of material culture. A thorough stylistic analysis was undertaken and an attempt was made to determine the paradigms of individual artistic styles. All these phenomena will be analysed against the background of the contemporary transformations of social structure. These issues are part of so-called cognitive archaeology. In territorial terms this work will focus broadly on areas of Central Europe – between the Rhine and the Vistula Rivers as well as the Baltic Sea and the Danube. However, as the author is most familiar with the territory of Poland and especially that of Lower Silesia, the archaeological sites from this region will be most frequently analysed.