River networks and funerary metal in the Bronze Age of the Carpathian Basin.

ABSTRACT: Archaeologists use differences in metals from burial contexts to identify variation in social inequalities during the European Bronze Age. Many have argued that these social inequalities depended on access to, and control of, trade routes. In this paper, I model critical gateways in the Tisza river-a river system in the Carpathian Basin that might have enabled privileged access to metal in some areas but not others. I then evaluate the concentration of metal on different topological nodes of the river network in an attempt to understand what best explains the distribution of metals across this landscape. I do this by describing Bronze Age metal consumption and display in cemeteries from four micro-regions of the Tisza, and compare them with network 'betweenness centrality' values for locat

SUBMITTER: Duffy PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7485878 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature