This project focused on Central and South-East Europe during the Late Iron Age, a time considered the dawn of large group identity in the region. It represents a pilot study that aims to build into a wider project with a larger data sample.
Research
The research examined how people constructed such large group identities through their interaction with the environment, placing themselves in the landscape as they established large settlements. Using a personalised statistical algorithm and modelling techniques, structures within five settlements are compared according to environment-related features, resulting in patterns of group identification through human-environment interaction. The interpretation of these patterns reveals how distinct groups referred to specific environmental elements as an expression of their identity. This forwards our understanding of the impact that the environment had on people’s perception of themselves and of the world around them.
This project was part of the COFUND Fellowship Program of the Dahlem Research School (DRS).