State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Wuerttemberg

Post-Doc, Archaeology

Research Assistant, Project Heuneburg

Thesis Title: Identity and Power: Northeast Gaul from the Early Iron Age until Romanization (600 BC – AD 70)

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Summary of the Phd-Thesis "Identity and Power: Northeast Gaul from the Early Iron Age until Romanization (600 BC – AD 70)"

Manuel A. Fernández-Götz
PhD awarded in January 2012, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)/Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Germany)


The aim of this doctoral thesis is to analyze the evolution of Iron Age communities in Northeast Gaul, and in particular in the Middle Rhine-Moselle region, with special consideration of questions of social identity. From this perspective, the two key concepts around which this work is structured are identity and power, i.e. the power relationships which existed between the various identity-based categories. Methodologically, a holistic approach is adopted which combines archaeological data and anthropological, ethno-archaeological and historical references.
The doctoral thesis is organized into three focal parts, beginning from the more general to the specific, with a particular emphasis on the last:
1) The first part presents a theoretical and methodological review on the different types of social identity (ethnicity, gender, age, class…) as well as the central concept of ‘power’. Together with the explanation of definitions and key concepts, each section also includes a series of historical and anthropological examples, as well as a discussion about the limitations and possibilities of an archaeological exploration on major identity categories. Moreover, a central point is the distinction between different degrees of relational and individualized identities. In short, this first part of the thesis provides an up-to-date summary of one of the hot-topics in current research agendas: the archaeology of identities.
2) The second part offers a detailed study of the different levels of ethnic identity and socio-political organization which appear superimposed and co-integrated in non-Mediterranean Gaul at the end of the Iron Age. According to written and archaeological sources, the three main socio-political levels than can be distinguished in ascending order are: 1) local groups comprising several households, 2) pagi (sub-ethnic communities) and 3) civitates (ethnic communities). The complex relationships between these different groupings, the features of real and fictive kinship ties, the dual nature of pre-Roman pagi and civitates as both political and ethnic entities, the evolution of political institutions, the all-embracing character of clientship networks or the changing border dynamics are some of the topics discussed.
3) Finally, the third and main part of the thesis comprises the diachronic analysis of the cultural change experienced by the societies of Northeastern Gaul from approximately 600 BC until AD 70. That means, from the beginnings of the demographic growth reflected by both archaeological and palynological data to the consequences of the Batavian revolt. Although the Middle Rhine-Moselle region represents the core study area, other neighboring regions are also taken into account, e.g. the Champagne, the Belgian Ardennes and the Lower Rhine. Some of the main issues addressed here through concrete case-studies are:
- Cycles of centralization and decentralization
- Origins of the La Tène culture
- Question of migrations in the Late Iron Age 
- Application of ideas from scholars such as Foucault, Bourdieu, Giddens or De Certeau
- Emergence of the oppida
- Key role of sanctuaries in the construction of collective identities
- Distinction between different types of societies within the area under study
- Critical reappraisal of macro-ethnic categories like ‘Celts’ and ‘Germans’
- Impact of ‘Romanization’ on identity transformation
The result is a renewed view of Iron Age societies in temperate Europe and, at a more general level, a step forward in the complicated but fascinating task of constructing an archaeology of identities.

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