Paths to Complexity: Centralisation and Urbanisation in Iron Age Europe

Description

Exploring the origins of urbanism - the emergence and development of the first cities, has long constituted one of the main challenges of archaeological and ancient historical research. Studying cities in a long-term and cross-cultural perspective links the past with the present, allowing a better understanding of one of the most important developments in human history. Moreover, archaeological research on ancient cities can contribute to a better understanding of contemporary processes of urbanisation. The 21 papers in this volume aim bring together the latest continental and English-speaking research with contributions by well-established researchers and younger colleagues providing innovative perspectives. The whole Iron Age - ca. 800 BC to the beginning of the Common Era - is considered on an international basis to consider such topics as the similarities and differences observed between centralisation and urbanisation processes of the Early and Late Iron Age; new approaches to the internal organisation of settlements and their formation processes; the supply management of central places and economic support from their environment; and the crucial role of sanctuaries in the formation of urban settlements. Contributions cover an area stretching from central Spain to Moravia and from southern France to Britain. The aim has been to produce a work of reference for readers interested in Iron Age archaeology in particular, and in urbanisation processes in general. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Foreword List of Contributors Grand Narratives: The Rise of Urbanism in Temperate Europe Chapter 1: Introduction: New Perspectives on Iron Age Urbanisation Chapter 2: Urbanisation in Temperate Europe in the Iron Age: Mediterranean Influence or Indigenous? Towns Before the Oppida: Centralisation Processes in the Early Iron Age Chapter 3: Understanding the Heuneburg: A Biographical Approach Chapter 4: Hallstatt Urban Experience before the Celtic Oppida in Central and Eastern Gaul. Two Cases-Studies Chapter 5: Places of Memory, Hero Cults and Urbanisation during the First Iron Age in Southeast Gaul Modelling Complexity: Villages and Cities in Late Iron Age Europe Chapter 6: Oppida and Urbanisation Processes in Central Europe Chapter 7: Oppida, Production and Social Status – Complexity of the Late La Tène Period in Central Europe Chapter 8: A Historical-Semantic Approach to the Concept of ‘Oppidum’. The Example of Bibracte Chapter 9: Space, Architecture and Identity in Gaulin the 2nd/1st centuries BC Chapter 10: Symbolic Meanings of Iron Age Hillfort Defences in Continental Europe Open Agglomerations and Fortified Centres: From Sites to Landscapes Chapter 11: Roseldorf – An Enclosed Central Settlement of the Early and Middle La Tène Period in Lower Austria Chapter 12: Aspects of Iron Age Urbanity and Urbanism at Manching Chapter 13: What’s in a Wall? Considerations on the Role of Open Settlements in Late La Tène Gaul Chapter 14: Enlarging Oppida: Multipolar Town Patterns in Late Iron Age Gaul Chapter 15: Exploring Urbanisation in the Southern French Iron Age through Integrated Geophysical and Topographic Prospection Chapter 16: Interdisciplinary and Trinational Research into the Late La Tène Settlement Landscape of the Upper Rhine Chapter 17: Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul – A Factor of Crisis or Consolidation? The Otzenhausen Oppidum and its Environment At the Edge of the World? Iberia and Britain Chapter 18: The Emergence of Urbanism in Early Iron Age Central Iberia Chapter 19: The Celtiberian Oppidum of Segeda Chapter 20: Are the Developed Hillforts of Southern England Urban?