World Systems, Cores, and Peripheries in Prehistoric Europe

Abstract

The paper reviews the rise and utility of World Systems Theory in archaeology, with particular reference to Europe and the Bronze Age. After a consideration of its origins in the 1970s and 1980s, the main aspects of the theory are discussed. The evidence that shows that the Bronze Age world was highly interconnected is presented, and the implications of a World Systems view of the period considered. In an attempt to work towards a new narrative of the European Bronze Age, a brief discussion of network methods is introduced, since these offer an alternative, ‘bottom-up’, approach to the period which, it is argued, is more appropriate to the data than the World Systems approach.

Dans cet article on examine la montée et l'utilité du concept du système-monde en archéologie, plus particulièrement en ce qui concerne l'Europe et l'Âge du Bronze. Après avoir analysé ses origines dans les années 1970 et 1980, on étudie les principaux aspects de cette théorie et on présente les éléments de preuve démontrant que l'Âge du Bronze était fortement interrelié. Enfin sont examinées les implications d'une approche de cette période qui se base sur le concept du système-monde. Afin d'établir une nouvelle vision de l'Âge du Bronze en Europe, une brève explication de la manière de fonctionnement des réseaux s'impose, car ces méthodes proposent une approche alternative ‘ascendante’ de la période qui semble plus appropriée aux données que le concept du système-monde. Translation by Isabelle Gerges.

Dieser Beitrag betrachtet die Entwicklung und Anwendung der Weltsystem-Theorie in der Archäologie unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Europas und der Bronzezeit. Nach einer Erörterung ihrer Ursprünge in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren werden die wichtigsten Aspekte dieser Theorie diskutiert. Es werden weiterhin die Indizien, dass die bronzezeitliche Welt intensiv vernetzt war, dargelegt sowie die Auswirkungen einer Weltsystem-Sicht der Zeitepoche behandelt. Um der Geschichtsschreibung der europäischen Bronzezeit neue Impulse zu vermitteln, wird eine kurze Diskussion von Netzwerkmethoden angeschlossen, da diese einen alternativen Bottom-Up-Ansatz zu dieser Periode bieten, der, wie hier ausgeführt wird, den Daten angemessener ist als die Methodik der Weltsystem-Theorie. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg.

Keywords:

• World Systems Theory
• World-Systems Analysis
• Core-Periphery Theory
• Bronze Age
• Europe
• network analysis

Mots-clés:

• concept du système-monde
• analyse du système-monde
• théorie du centre et de la périphérie
• Âge du Bronze
• Europe
• analyse des réseaux

Stichworte:

• Weltsystem-Theorie
• Weltsystem-Analyse
• Kern-Peripherie-Theorie
• Bronzezeit
• Europa
• Netzwerkanalyse

Acknowledgements

I thank Janet Levy, Kristian Kristiansen, Peter Wells, and Carl Knappett for comments on an earlier draft of this article and Nick Kardulias and three other (anonymous) reviewers, as well as Robin Skeates, for helpful suggestions (mostly incorporated in the final version) and pointers to additional items of bibliography. I also thank Kristian Kristiansen, Michael Dietler, and Joseph Maran for providing me with articles prior to publication or otherwise unavailable to me.

Notes

1 A useful survey of writings on World Systems Theory was submitted by Christoph Kümmel as a Masters dissertation for Heidelberg University in 1997 (Kümmel, 2001).

2 According to Hall and Chase-Dunn (1993: 121–22), a conference paper by R.A. Pailes and J.W. Whitecotton in 1975 was the first archaeological application (later published as Pailes & Whitecotton, 1979).

3 A review by Nick Kardulias of my 2000 book European Societies in the Bronze Age rightly criticized me for confusing the two theoretical standpoints (Kardulias, 2002).

4 This author's lack of familiarity with the European scene is evident from his mention of ‘massive importations of amber into the Mycenaean area’ (2011: 129, Fig. 10:8), and his equation of jadeite axes in the western Europe Neolithic with jade in China.

5 This insight was kindly provided by an anonymous reviewer.

6 This find is also not yet published; accounts derived from the Soprintendenza of Reggio-Emilia can be found at http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Comunicati/visualizza_asset.html_1180997707.html [accessed 30 January 2013], or in an English translation at http://www.archeobo.arti.beniculturali.it/montecchio_re/gold_cup_en.htm [accessed 30 January 2013]. The precise significance of this remarkable find has yet to be elucidated, but must surely indicate a further link in the chain of connections across Europe as early as the Early Bronze Age.

7 The new Salcombe finds are not yet published, but can be viewed at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/photogalleries/100224-shipwreck-bronze-age-treasure-salcombe-britain-pictures/, among other websites.

8 Kristiansen (2011: 245), for instance, links the disc to ‘complex astronomic and cosmological knowledge.[which] probably originated in the Near East, where the sun and moon are often displayed on seals, but in Europe it was wedded to a shared Indo-European religion, that placed the sun-cult and its practitioners in a milieu of dual gods’.

9 A conference held in Southampton in March 2012 made much progress in developing network theory in archaeology: ‘The Connected Past: people, networks and complexity in archaeology and history’ (http://connectedpast.soton.ac.uk/, accessed 30 January 2013). In addition, a book on the subject edited by Knappett is in press (Knappett, forthcoming).

10 There are 33 symbols on the map, mostly scattered thinly across this vast area. Kristiansen, however, has drawn circles round five ‘groups’ of swords, of which three contain only two swords, not found especially close together. The other two groups are those centred on the Bologna region of Italy, and on Lac Léman in west Switzerland. Of these, it is certainly true that Bologna has a special claim to be considered an important area, but the deposition of bronzes in Swiss lake sites is another matter altogether, and has been the subject of intense speculation (most recently, Fischer, 2010, 2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anthony Harding

Anthony Harding is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Exeter, UK (and previously at the University of Durham). His special field of study is the European Bronze Age; he has worked on interconnections between the different parts of the Bronze Age world, on settlement studies, and on warfare in the Bronze Age. He has conducted fieldwork in Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania. His current research centres on the exploitation of salt in prehistory.

Address: Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK. [email: [email protected]]