Did they leave or not? A critical perspective on the beginnings of the La Tène period in Bohemia

0572104 - ARÚ 2024 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Dreslerová, Dagmar - Venclová, Natalie - Demján, Peter - Kyselý, René - Matoušek, V.
Did they leave or not? A critical perspective on the beginnings of the La Tène period in Bohemia.
Archeologické rozhledy. Roč. 74, č. 4 (2022), s. 505-537. ISSN 0323-1267
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT EF16_019/0000728
Research Infrastructure: AIS CR II - 90134
Institutional support: RVO:67985912
Keywords : Hallstatt–La Tène transition * archaeological visibility * migration * climate change * social revolution * EDE interpolation
OECD category: Archaeology
Impact factor: 0.6, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.35686/AR.2022.24

One of the key unresolved questions regarding the archaeology of La Tène Europe concerns the continuity of settlement around 400 BC. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the countries north of the Alps, including the Czech Republic, declines during this period – a decline which for decades has generally been attributed to population migration. Demographic growth, climate deterioration, land depletion, disease, and social crisis have all been put forward as reasons for this migration. Our contribution critically reflects on all these alternatives and asks whether there was indeed any significant migration out of Bohemia. We suggest that a reduction in archaeological visibility – the possibility of detecting archaeological traces of human activity – is behind most of the decrease in the number of recorded settlement sites during the transition from LT A to LT B. Some form of social ‘revolution’ is considered the main cause of the changes recorded in this period.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0342951