Multiple identities in the southwestern Balkans Iron Age
»Multiple identities in the southwestern Balkans Iron Age: funerary costumes and modes of dress in Iron Age Albania«
Rovena Kurti | Prehistory Department, Institute of Archaeology, Tirana, Albania
Our knowledge on the late prehistory of Albania is based extensively on the burial evidence that has been gathered from the large number of excavated tumuli, most of which were undertaken during the years of the Communist regime (1945-1990). In this lecture we will discuss the Iron Age funerary costumes in Albania, which has been the dissertation subject of the author. With a specific focus on female assemblages, we will present a diachronic outline of the main phases of burial costume/s from the 11th to the 6th cent. BCE, and the different influences and contacts with other regions of the Balkans, the Adriatic and the Aegean. This phasing has been based on first time systematic typo-chronological analysis of the main categories of dress and body ornaments and an analysis of association patterns between costume components. This essential basic work, allows a better framing of the assemblages in time and space, as well as a comprehensive understanding of regional costumes, the dynamics of regional and intra-regional contacts and their impact in the development of the various regional costumes. By considering appearance and modes of dress as important markers of various overlapping identities, from individual, to group and regional identities, this study shows the complexity of meanings embedded in specific objects or assemblages. It further shows that the main moments of costume change correspond to wider scale socio-economical changes, shifting dynamics of intra-regional contacts and are this way a reflection of the different regional historical dynamics.