Collapse, continuity, or growth? : investigating agricultural change through architectural proxies at the end of the Bronze Age in southern Britain and Denmark
At the end of the Bronze Age in Europe, new iron technologies and the waning of access to long-distance exchange routes had consequences for social organization, creating changes in social priorities. There is a recursive relationship between the political structure, exchange, and agricultural production, as each informs the other; what, then, was the impact of social reorganization on agricultural production? Through an investigation of domestic architecture, using dwellings, pits, and post-structures as proxies for production and consumption, this study explored a model focused on the changes in energy invested in domestic architecture within and between settlements from the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age to better understand the impact of socio-technical change on agricultural production in southern Britain and Denmark. Changes in productive (dwellings) and consumptive (pits and post-structures) architecture track a potential measure of agricultural production, demonstrating directly the effect of the wide sweeping social and economic changes, whether of decline, continuity, or growth, on agricultural activities. If growth or even continuity is present in agricultural production during the final
Sites, Rachel
Collapse, continuity, or growth? : investigating agricultural change through architectural proxies at the end of the Bronze Age in southern Britain and Denmark. At the end of the Bronze Age in Europe, new iron technologies and the waning of access to long-distance exchange routes had consequences for social organization, creating changes in social priorities. There is a recursive relationship between the political structure, exchange, and agricultural production, as each informs the other; what, then, was the impact of social reorganization on agricultural production? Through an investigation of domestic architecture, using dwellings, pits, and post-structures as proxies for production and consumption, this study explored a model focused on the changes in energy invested in domestic architecture within and between settlements from the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age to better understand the impact of socio-technical change on agricultural production in southern Britain and Denmark. Changes in productive (dwellings) and consumptive (pits and post-structures) architecture track a potential measure of agricultural production, demonstrating directly the effect of the wide sweeping social and economic changes, whether of decline, continuity, or growth, on agricultural activities. If growth or even continuity is present in agricultural production during the final
collapse continuity growth investigating agricultural_change architectural proxy end bronze_age southern britain denmark end bronze_age europe new iron technology wan access long_distance exchange route consequence social_organization create change social priority recursive relationship political_structure exchange agricultural_production informs impact social reorganization agricultural_production investigation domestic_architecture use dwelling pit post structures proxy production_consumption study_explore model focus change energy invest domestic_architecture within settlement middle_bronze_age early_iron_age good impact socio technical change agricultural_production southern britain denmark changes productive dwelling pit post structures architecture track potential measure agricultural_production demonstrate directly effect wide sweep social_economic_change whether decline continuity growth agricultural_activity growth even continuity present agricultural_production final