Decentralized Societies and the Development of Secondary States: State Formation in Denmark's Iron Age

Baylor University, Waco TX

Investigators

Abstract

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Tina Thurston will conduct three seasons of fieldwork in the Thy region of Denmark. She will focus on the Iron Age period when a state level society first emerged in this area and attempt, through archaeological survey, to gain insight into its organization. `Pristine` states which developed independently have long been a focus of archaeological attention because it is believed that through comparison of such individual cases it is possible to gain insight into the social processes which underlie the emergence of social and political complexity. However most prehistoric states do not develop in this way but result, in fact from contact with and response to other such pre-existing entities. Much less is known about this `secondary` state process and Dr. Thurston's research focuses on this issue. Early Danish states are also unusual because of their `corporate` nature where labor, food production, social groups and even rulership may be controlled through broad integrative ritual and ideological means and extreme differentiation between leaders and followers is suppressed. Centralized or network style government differs dramatically, stressing personal prestige, wealth, power accumulation and highly individualized leadership. Palaces, cities, royal storehouses, temples are absent in Denmark and Dr. Thurston has developed a methodology to reconstruct state organization. This depends on reconstructing the distribution and size of individual settlements and determining the organizational principles which link them. To accomplish this goal Dr. Thurston will rely heavily on surface survey and soil chemical (phosphate) analysis. Prior research in Denmark, as well as other parts of the world indicate a close and direct tie between phosphate level in the soil and human occupation. Building on past NSF supported work, Dr. Thurston will conduct a broad scale survey, collect phosphate data, analyze diagnostic materials exposed on the surface. With these data she will reconstruct the forms and distribution of settlements, determine village social and economic organization and how they changed over time and examine the relationships between these small units and centralized political authority.