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ISBN: 978-1-950446-24-7
Publication Date: November 1, 2023
Price: Hb $75.00
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Over several millennia, early agricultural villages in southeastern Europe gave rise to tribal kingdoms and monarchies, replacing smaller, more egalitarian social structures with complex state organizations led by royal individuals invested in power. In this book, which accompanies an international exhibition, scholars analyze and interpret data and artifacts from the most important museum collections from the region to illustrate the evolution of political hierarchy, power, and status in this region from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Echoing from antiquity are hints of how we got to the social and economic disparities of today.
From the rich burials of the famous Copper Age necropolis at Varna to the lavish tombs of Thracian kings and the Illyrian elite, troves of gold and silver ornaments, bronze and iron weaponry, rich metal hoards and magnificent ceremonial vessels reveal the roles of technology, trade, ritual, and warfare in developments toward marked sociopolitical inequalities. Many of the objects in the associated exhibition have never been displayed outside their countries of origin, and in this volume, they come together in a wonderfully illustrated co-publication with Chicago’s Field Museum.
First Kings of Europe Exhibition Venues
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, New York, NY, USA — September 21, 2022 through February 19, 2023
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA — March 31, 2023 through January 28, 2024
Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada — April 4, 2024 through January 19, 2025
First Kings of Europe was featured in a CIoA Press Author Spotlight series – watch the recording here.
Table of Contents
Section I: The Evolution of Leadership and Inequality in Southeast European Prehistory
Chapter 1: Introduction: From Farmers to Rulers in Prehistoric Southeastern Europe. Attila Gyucha and William A. Parkinson
Chapter 2: Social Change and Elites in the Prehistoric Central and Southern Balkans. Goce Naumov and Eleonora Petrova Mitevska
Section II: Neolithic and Copper Age: First Farmers, Herders, and Leaders
Chapter 3: Communities and Monuments in the Making: Neolithic Tells on the Great Hungarian Plain. Attila Gyucha, William A. Parkinson, András Füzesi, and Pál Raczky
Chapter 4: The Emergence of a New Elite in Southeast Europe: People and Ideas from the Steppe Region at the Turn of the Copper and Bronze Ages. János Dani, Bianca Preda-Bălănică, and János Angi
Section III: The Age of Bronze: Warriors and Chiefs
Chapter 5: Treasures of the Warlords, Bronze Smiths, and Farmers of the Late Bronze Age: Hoard Deposition in Hungary and Transylvania. Gábor V. Szabó and Botond Rezi
Chapter 6: Peace and War in the Bronze Age on the Eastern Frontier of the Carpathian Basin: The Evolution and Manifestation of Social Stratification. Florin Gogâltan and Corina Borș
Chapter 7: Weapons and Warriors in the Late Bronze Age of the Northern and Central Balkans. János Gábor Tarbay and Jovan D. Mitrović
Section IV: The Age of Iron: Traders and Aristocrats
Chapter 8: Tribal States or Stately Tribes? The Origins of the ‘Barbarian’ Kingdoms of the Southern Balkans. Michael L. Galaty and Rudenc Ruka
Chapter 9: Kings of Crossroads: Warriors and Traders of the Hallstatt World of Central Europe and the Iron Age Balkans. Hrvoje Potrebica and Adrijana Pravidur
Chapter 10: Arrayed in Gold and Silver: The Lavish Kings of Ancient Thrace. Peter Delev