Katharina Rebay-Salisbury

Thoughts in Circles: Kulturkreislehre as a Hidden Paradigm in Past and Present Archaeological Interpretations

Nineteenth century ideas and theoretical concepts have shaped past and current understandings of prehistory in Europe. Reflecting on research history can therefore illuminate why we believe to know what we believe to know about the past. The Kulturkreislehre (theory of cultural circles), a branch of the German cultural–historical school of thought in anthropology, dominated interpretations of ethnology as well as prehistory at the beginning of the twentieth century gaining particular influence in Vienna. At the time, the thorough description, classification, comparison and mapping of the spatial distribution of artefacts was introduced as the methodological framework for prehistory, and this has remained the basis of most contemporary archaeological work. After the Second World War, the concept of archaeological cultures in Central Europe was superficially stripped of some of its ideological baggage, leaving behind empty concepts and hidden paradigms rather than explicit theories. Interpretations became almost too cautious to be meaningful. This paper argues that remnants of the Kulturkreislehre still inform the way in which the archaeological record is treated and explained in Central Europe. It aims to highlight some of the characteristics of the Kulturkreislehre, such as its fundamentally Catholic basis, its explicit rejection of evolution, and its consideration of migration and contact between cultures as the primary triggers of change. This may explain why concepts of static rather than dynamic archaeological cultures continue to be dominant in Central European prehistory.

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt: images of sport in early Iron Age art of Central Europe

Abstract Physical, competitive activities played an important role in social life in early Iron Age Central Europe. In this paper, the iconography of the most common forms of sport competitions – dumb-bell fighting, chariot racing and horse racing – are followed across temperate Europe. Although these ‘barbarian’ images remain linked to Mediterranean models, differences in materials, technologies and details in the way persons are depicted reveal local variations and divergent cultural connotations of what might have been understood as ‘sport’ in the European Iron Age.