Papers by Tamas Polanyi
Preprint, 2024
Understanding the role human agency and interaction play in the flows of history is fundamentally... more Understanding the role human agency and interaction play in the flows of history is fundamentally important to archaeological inquiry, yet conceptualising and exposing mechanisms of historical transformations on a human-scale remain woefully distant. Archaeology is well equipped to study history as sequences of transformative events linked together loosely by the thread of time, or as a continuous process of everyday life where time serves as a function of cultural persistence. Prioritising transformative events, however, often ignores the underlying political discourses that necessitated and engendered change, as well as those that failed to do so. Similarly, focusing on continuous flows of mundane and habitual practice conceals the potentially fateful effect of human agency. In this chapter, I articulate empirical data on contemporary political discourse about gun violence and death with theoretical considerations of the mechanisms and circumstances of indigenous social change. In so doing, I offer an agent-centred and human-scale approach to examine historical transformations through mortuary analysis. In the first half of the chapter, I reflect on contemporary politics and I highlight a number of factors of political discourse critical for understanding their social and political consequences. Building on such insights, I then outline an approach centring on the politics of death and Anthony Giddens' largely overlooked combustion engine of social change, the 'circuit of reproduction'. In the remainder of the chapter, I turn towards the case of the Bronze Age community of Kajászó, Hungary (ca. 2000-1500 BCE). Archaeological investigations at the cremation cemetery of Kajászó-Keskeny dűlő recovered materialities of political discourse between community members negotiating change and persistence during the terminal phase of the community. Using the evidence from Kajászó, I present some important implications of the outlined analytical approach for mortuary archaeology foregrounding historical contingency, political discourse and agency of participating social actors.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2022
The Hungarian Bronze Age witnessed rapid sociopolitical transformation during the 16th century BC... more The Hungarian Bronze Age witnessed rapid sociopolitical transformation during the 16th century BCE as large communities scattered across the landscape, most long inhabited tell-settlements were reorganized, and centuries-old cemeteries were abandoned. Historical change on this scale is often perceived as a single, momentous episode elusive in the process, but visceral and consequential in its effect. This study develops a multiscalar approach to recover unfolding sequences of actions that led to such fundamental transformation of Bronze Age society. Examining material assemblages of five cemeteries in central Hungary, I explore the ways broadening economic activities, and increasing importance and control of bronze led to changing interpersonal relations and finally to disarticulation of communities. The study integrates a series of theoretical concepts to develop a middle-range theory of mortuary practice. This approach can recover material signatures of micro-political discourse during singular funerary occasions illuminating processes behind the transformation of Bronze Age society.
Prehistoric Newsletter / Ősrégészeti Levelek 12 (2010), Budapest, 84-93., 2012
while the study of central settlements has lost none of its importance, interest has grown in mic... more while the study of central settlements has lost none of its importance, interest has grown in micro-regional research and the investigation of settlements with differing function and layout. Only complex research projects can address broad issues of Bronze Age land use. We sought answers to the following questions: 1) Did differences exist between the regional and micro-regional settlement patterns during successive periods of the Bronze Age? 2) Were there genuine centres and specialised settlements during the Bronze Age in Central Europe? 3) How did a communityʼs cultural background influence landscape use in a particular region? 4) How is social and political organisation reflected in cemeteries? The Bronze Age settlement history of the Százhalombatta area was investigated as part of an international research project.
while the study of central settlements has lost none of its importance, interest has grown in mic... more while the study of central settlements has lost none of its importance, interest has grown in micro-regional research and the investigation of settlements with differing function and layout. Only complex research projects can address broad issues of Bronze Age land use. We sought answers to the following questions: 1) Did differences exist between the regional and micro-regional settlement patterns during successive periods of the Bronze Age? 2) Were there genuine centres and specialised settlements during the Bronze Age in Central Europe? 3) How did a communityʼs cultural background influence landscape use in a particular region? 4) How is social and political organisation reflected in cemeteries? The Bronze Age settlement history of the Százhalombatta area was investigated as part of an international research project.
Transformations in Bronze Age Hungary" című kutatási programunk megvalósítását 2012-2013-ban a We... more Transformations in Bronze Age Hungary" című kutatási programunk megvalósítását 2012-2013-ban a Wenner-Gren alapítvány támogatja. 5
Dissertation by Tamas Polanyi
Narratives of Death: Social Change and Funerary Practices at the Bronze Age Cemetery of Kajászó, ... more Narratives of Death: Social Change and Funerary Practices at the Bronze Age Cemetery of Kajászó, Hungary Tamas Polanyi This dissertation explores the mechanisms of social change as catalysts of history within the context of the mortuary domain. During the Koszider Period of the Middle Bronze Age in Central Europe, long-occupied settlements were reorganized, communities became dispersed, and millennium-old cemeteries ceased to be used. In light of the revolutionary transformations in social organization and political economy, locating the actions of individuals and communities, and understanding the political discourse about emerging trade, subsistence, community, and identities is crucial. Yet archaeology has remained largely blind to those shaping and enacting change. I argue mortuary ritual offers an ideal locus within which to study public discourse and political negotiation on the smallest scale. By analyzing events within the cemetery of Kajászó, and within individual funerals, I recover the micro-political contributions of mourners to the large-scale transformations at the end of the Middle Bronze Age.
Conference Sessions & Presentations by Tamas Polanyi
EAA Abstract Book, 2022
How does macro-level change come about in society? What role do individuals play in such transfor... more How does macro-level change come about in society? What role do individuals play in such transformations? What is the efficacy of human agency? These are critical questions anthropologists, historians, political scientists are grappling with. These are questions lurking behind most archaeological narratives of past societies framed in ideology and theory that rarely become clarified. Various models of change have been described and employed generally categorized as top-down or bottom-up approaches. Practice theory, habitus, theories of structuration are important avenues for constructing bottom-up narratives of how societies are organized and change over time, but the context, visibility, and mechanisms of scalar effects of the everyday are often assumed but not explored rigorously. In this paper I outline an approach centering on the politics of death and Anthony Giddens’ largely overlooked ‘combustion engine’ of social change, the circuit of reproduction. I use the example of central Hungarian Bronze Age to develop the argument linking the local, the contingent, the interpersonal with scales of the regional and supra-regional, where transformations become visible and detectable in archaeological narratives. I then conclude that as a context of interlaced structural domains populated by conscious and intentional actors engaging in public processes of materialization, funerals are indeed circuits of reproduction, where the efficiency of human agency becomes traceable and visible marking the trajectories of social change.
EAA Abstract Book, 2022
Archaeology is well equipped to study history either as sequences of transformative events, or as... more Archaeology is well equipped to study history either as sequences of transformative events, or as a continuous process of everyday life where time serves as a function of cultural persistence. On a macro-scale, sweeping reconfiguration of human-material relations marked by events and interpreted as cultural change have been at the center of archaeological practice since the first descriptions of ‘cultures’ as convenient analytical and spatio-temporal units for the analysis of past societies in the early 20th century. Wars, migrations, far-reaching effects of economic innovations have been considered the primary motors and signatures of change at the center of archaeological narratives, marked by an overwhelming focus on socio-economic and political systems. Alternatively, the archaeology of everyday life to study the material residues of cumulative and repetitive action became a central topic of archaeological practice in the 1980’s. Within narratives of everyday life, emphasis shifted to the mundane, to the multivocality and multidirectionality. Corresponding to the decreasing scale of analysis and interpretive context, the struggle became to present the ways in which people’s repetitive day-to-day practices mattered and figured into great chains of historical events. With no attention paid to their complementary character, these approaches developed to involve different interpretative strategies, necessitate different narrative modes, rely on different properties or analytical assessment of material evidence, require different methodologies, and are linked to different spatio-temporal scales.
The aim of our session is to facilitate a discussion focusing on processes of becoming, the ways in which the messiness of humanity unfolds, and leads to recognizable patterns of historical transformation. Whether using fractal replication, eventful history, theories of structuration, or iterations of the Annales School, we invite participants that seek to establish a connection between agency and structure, and bridge the scalar gap between micro- and macro-levels of observation and interpretation in their case studies.
EAA 2021 Abstract Book, 2021
Understanding the role human agency and interaction play in the flows of history is a challenging... more Understanding the role human agency and interaction play in the flows of history is a challenging task. Archaeology is well equipped to study history as sequences of transformative events linked together loosely by the thread of time, or as a continuous process of everyday life where time serves as a function of cultural persistence. On a macro-scale the sweeping reconfiguration of human-material relations marked by events and interpreted as cultural change have been at the center of archaeological practice since the first descriptions of 'cultures' as convenient analytical and spatio-temporal units of analysis. Within narratives of everyday life, the emphasis shifted to the mundane, to the multivocality and messiness of social existence. Corresponding to the decreasing scale of analysis and interpretive context, the struggle became to present the ways in which people's repetitive day-today practices mattered and figured into broadscale historical events. In this paper I attempt to redirect focus from easily discernible events to political discourse, to the processes that lead up to change and to the ways in which agency constitutes the texture history. Through the analysis of mortuary practice I will present a case study exploring the ways in which members of the Bronze Age Kajászó community engaged in political action surrounding change and persistence in the wake of some momentous transformations.
EAA 2021 session abstract, 2021
Recent decades in archaeological theory and practice witnessed increased attention on the complex... more Recent decades in archaeological theory and practice witnessed increased attention on the complexities of mortuary practice. Breaking from characterizations of burial assemblages as normative and reflexive representations of social and biological facts, more emphasis has been given to idiosyncratic facets of the mortuary domain in an attempt to highlight human agency and the politics of death. In our perspective, idiosyncratic mortuary behaviour can materialize through a wide range of deposits from ‘mass graves’ to the minute, but significant, differences observed between the burial assemblages within a cemetery. However, such variability in mortuary practice often remains viewed through the lens of perceived cultural logic and grammar by merely introducing more nuanced, but still mostly non-negotiable biosocial categories—such as age-at-death, genetic variability, etc.—into the interpretative mix. Although it is undeniable that certain aspects of mortuary practice are governed by strict cultural rules and remain remarkably consistent over time and space, there are truly idiosyncratic, and contingent elements of funerary behaviour that can shed light on contemporary politics. Moving beyond the basic comparative and statistical assessment of mortuary assemblages, understanding idiosyncratic, ‘deviant’ or unorthodox elements and instances of funerary practice require different approaches, such as microarchaeology and archaeothanatology. We invite papers to our session that investigate such ‘non-normative’ mortuary behaviour in any region and period and seek to make sense of such rituals and political acts through their analysis.
EAA 2021 session abstract, 2021
Recent decades in archaeological theory and practice witnessed increased attention on the complex... more Recent decades in archaeological theory and practice witnessed increased attention on the complexities of mortuary practice. Breaking from characterizations of burial assemblages as normative and reflexive representations of social and biological facts, more emphasis has been given to idiosyncratic facets of the mortuary domain in an attempt to highlight human agency and the politics of death. In our perspective, idiosyncratic mortuary behaviour can materialize through a wide range of deposits from ‘mass graves’ to the minute, but significant, differences observed between the burial assemblages within a cemetery. However, such variability in mortuary practice often remains viewed through the lens of perceived cultural logic and grammar by merely introducing more nuanced, but still mostly non-negotiable biosocial categories—such as age-at-death, genetic variability, etc.—into the interpretative mix. Although it is undeniable that certain aspects of mortuary practice are governed by strict cultural rules and remain remarkably consistent over time and space, there are truly idiosyncratic, and contingent elements of funerary behaviour that can shed light on contemporary politics. Moving beyond the basic comparative and statistical assessment of mortuary assemblages, understanding idiosyncratic, ‘deviant’ or unorthodox elements and instances of funerary practice require different approaches, such as microarchaeology and archaeothanatology. We invite papers to our session that investigate such ‘non-normative’ mortuary behaviour in any region and period and seek to make sense of such rituals and political acts through their analysis.
EAA 2018 Abstract Book, 2018
The most successful approach to study the organization of early complex societies is through diac... more The most successful approach to study the organization of early complex societies is through diachronic, multidisciplinary, multiscalar projects aimed at the investigation of entire microregions. This approach enables the study of social phenomena in their wider context, with results that are inconceivable through projects focusing either on microscale archaeological patterns, or broad regions following tropes of early culture-historical narratives. The contextual variability resulting from the application of intensive comparative methods in various microregions could inform us about changing, conflicting ideas, identities and alternative articulations of social, political and economic processes. By revealing such multivocality and complexity of past societies systematic microregional studies expose social dynamics and facilitate new research questions to be addressed. Following the collapse of the Iron Curtain a diversity of microregional archaeological approaches to Central and Eastern European Bronze Age societies have been developed articulating different elements of postprocessual archaeologies with national archaeological traditions. The objective of this introduction paper is to provide a theoretical framework for our session and to discuss the virtues of varied microregional approaches applied by Bronze Age archaeologists of Central and Eastern Europe.
Arizona Historic Preservation Conference 2018 Agenda Book, 2018
The presentation introduces the Multiscalar Integrated Survey Protocol (MISP), a tool for cultura... more The presentation introduces the Multiscalar Integrated Survey Protocol (MISP), a tool for cultural resource management. MISP is a multiscalar approach that integrates multiple survey methods within a single universal grid system and clarifies survey intensity with standardized data collection procedures and data targets. MISP aims to assist a faster, more reliable, and overall, more comprehensive assessment, protection, and preservation of cultural resources compared to what standard survey protocols offer. We achieve these objectives through the improvement of existing archaeological survey standards. Improvement of survey standards are understood in terms of reliability, efficiency, accuracy and precision of survey results. MISP, through systematic, standardized and unit-based collection of multiple complementary and mutually reaffirming lines of evidence facilitates more comprehensive, documentation of the archaeological record, and provides a more accurate and detailed representation of archaeological sites. Furthermore, MISP leads to a better understanding of archaeological and natural formation processes affecting archaeological sites resulting in more accurate assessment of the level of preservation and research potential. Thus, MISP contributes to a better understanding of spatial, quantitative, and qualitative correlation between surface manifestations of past human behaviors and subsurface distribution of the archaeological record.
SAA 2018 Abstract Book
The use of drone based photogrammetry is now well established in archaeology for surface modeling... more The use of drone based photogrammetry is now well established in archaeology for surface modeling and mapping of archaeological sites. The Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (AZDEMA) is sponsoring a number of long-term projects on their properties. One project will be using traditional drone photogrammetry to create high resolution maps to assess plant communities, plant health, and canopy structure as a way of exploring links between vegetation and other survey methods. A pedestrian survey, geophysical survey, and biological survey will be combined to show the interconnections between these frequently used techniques and the newer techniques of drone photography for surface modeling and vegetation modeling. With sub-centimeter accuracy, surface modeling along with canopy modeling is able to find subtle features on the landscape that are normally missed during pedestrian survey. Emergent photosynthetic populations, canopy variation, and biological dead zones can also be used to establish high probability anomaly areas that can be further investigated with traditional testing techniques. The results of the 2017–2018 field seasons will be summarized and the best practices for using these techniques will be presented. In areas with deeply buried features or in areas with few artifacts these techniques seem to be the most promising.
EAA 2016 Abstract Book, 2016
The Bronze Age hallmarks the rise of a globalized metalwork exchange. New technologies involved s... more The Bronze Age hallmarks the rise of a globalized metalwork exchange. New technologies involved such as copying, recycling even suggest that it was sustained by new, more economicrationalistic attitudes towards material. This seems in marked contrast to the deliberate deposition and giving-up of metalwork across Europe. Understanding the rationale behind these practices remains one of the major challenges of European Archaeology. Research by scholars from different countries has shown that this 'giving up' was not arbitrarily done, but shows particular patterns: specific objects seem to have been placed in specific places only. In this session, we aim to chart the general characteristics of this 'selective deposition' of metalwork during the Bronze Age, by inviting scholars from different ends of Europe to present overviews and interpretations of this remarkable practice. Questions to focus on will include: Are there general, widely-shared aspects to this practice across Europe, or is the 'phenomenon' no more than an array of local practices that differ substantially from region to region? Was it a cultural phenomenon that is 'unique' for Europe, and if so, what exactly its distribution? Was deposition of metalwork in metalliferous regions essentially different than in non-metalliferous regions? We invite archaeologists to present the patterns of their region, and aim to cover Europe from the far West (Ireland) to the Far East (Ukraine, Russia). The focus will be on different periods of the Bronze Age, starting from the Early Bronze Age until to the Late Bronze Age with the aim, to recognize variable tendencies of metalwork depositions across time and space.
EAA 2016 Abstract Book, 2016
Archaeological imaginings of 'community' are central to both our theoretical foundations as well ... more Archaeological imaginings of 'community' are central to both our theoretical foundations as well as our methodologies. Whether explicit or implied, community acts as a meshwork for how people, materials, discourses, and ideas are brought together to form meaningful enterprises, in addition to how archaeologists investigate communities. Recent additions to the increasingly rich body of literature on community focus on the relational ontologies of community, addressing the fluid and dynamic nature of humanbased communities to be more inclusive of plants, and animals, geological formations. In Tim Ingold's (2011) terms, we must undo the inversion that seeks to turn communities into immovable and immutable points and dots. Instead, we should focus on meshworks that highlight the life, growth, and movement. Such meshworks are immersed in the ebbs and flows of life. Building upon Ingold's idea of meshworks, we include in this the eventual breakdown or disintegration of community as an interesting and important topic of exploration. Despite the important and theoretically vibrant research being done on community, the epistemologies involved in the identification of community remain relatively uninterrogated and/or avoided. This may be because considerations of ontology and epistemology in archaeological research of community are treated as separate 'knowable' conditions and are thus studied individually. We suggest that community ontology and epistemology are inseparable and should be treated as such. To better understand how communities were made in the past, and how best to identify them, we further suggest that archaeologists explore the life history of community, rather than just their emergence or other specific temporal and spatial points of interest. We invite scholars of European prehistory (broadly considered) to explore these meshworks and to critically interrogate their epistemologies for identifying communities in prehistory.
EAA 2016 Abstract Book, 2016
Social change often comes as a thunderbolt shattering structured and institutionalized landscapes... more Social change often comes as a thunderbolt shattering structured and institutionalized landscapes of human-material relations. Social change generally becomes recognized and experienced as an event. It is perceived as a single, synchronous episode affecting multiple intersecting spheres of life. Most of social progress, however, remains invisible, hidden from the broader public and from the outside observer with no durable and visible material traces. Nevertheless, it is critical to recognize that individual occurrences of negotiation of stasis and change contribute to the particular shape events take. Additionally, such occurrences construct the social, political and economic circumstances that enable events to have a sweeping material effect on society. TH1 Interpreting the Archaeological Record TH1 Interpreting the Archaeological Record 134 135 The rise and development of brick production in Vilnius, the capital of the former Grand Dutchy of Lithuania, was inspired as strategically important craft. The production of bricks has been changing and improving during more than seven centuries. Therefore brick is an important source providing the knowledge about the technical development, production potential and cultural influence during different periods. The evaluation of physical and chemical properties of bricks would enable us to judge about the technological standards of Vilnius bricks, deviations from them and their reasons. The promising investigation methods of the old bricks are related to applied methods of exact sciences. One of them is geochemical method. The geochemical data statistically grouped using Ward's hierarchical clustering (Sarcevičius, Taraškevičius, 2015, Archaeologia Lituana, v.16, p.45-62) enables to hypothesize that: a) in certain chronological periods the material for construction of buildings and production of bricks could be extracted from the same or adjacent clay deposits similar in mineral composition; b) there existed brick production technologies specific for that period. So, it is possible to try to create peculiar "multivariate recalibration matrices" with as many as possible dated or characterised by other parameters samples. According to them it would be possible to determine at least approximate date of the newly found interesting brick of unknown chronology or to compare other features. Geochemical investigations are understood as a complex of methods which includes: a) purposeful selection of brick fragment samples, b) multi-elemental method of determination of real total contents of elements, c) multivariate statistical analysis (cluster, factor analysis), d) analysis of the ratios of geochemical indices, e) graphical representation of data. Energydispersive X-ray fluorescence is usually used for investigation of chemical composition. Its advantage is that great number of chemical elements which can be determined including those related to clay minerals and their additives (Al,
SAA 2016 Abstract Book, 2016
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Papers by Tamas Polanyi
Dissertation by Tamas Polanyi
Conference Sessions & Presentations by Tamas Polanyi
The aim of our session is to facilitate a discussion focusing on processes of becoming, the ways in which the messiness of humanity unfolds, and leads to recognizable patterns of historical transformation. Whether using fractal replication, eventful history, theories of structuration, or iterations of the Annales School, we invite participants that seek to establish a connection between agency and structure, and bridge the scalar gap between micro- and macro-levels of observation and interpretation in their case studies.
The aim of our session is to facilitate a discussion focusing on processes of becoming, the ways in which the messiness of humanity unfolds, and leads to recognizable patterns of historical transformation. Whether using fractal replication, eventful history, theories of structuration, or iterations of the Annales School, we invite participants that seek to establish a connection between agency and structure, and bridge the scalar gap between micro- and macro-levels of observation and interpretation in their case studies.