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A barrel-vaulted reservoir at Kale-Krševica: hydraulic technology and Iron Age ‘Hellenisation’ in Serbia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2019

Ivan Vranić
Ivan Vranić*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Kneza Mihaila 35, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Narratives of transformation in Iron Age societies on the periphery of the Greek world have positioned colonial powers as agents of change. Archaeological sites exhibiting apparent Greek or Macedonian evidence are often taken to exemplify Hellenisation, whereby ‘barbarians’ adopted ‘more advanced’ Greek practices. Such narratives, however, are imbued with assumptions of cultural superiority, failing to elucidate the complexity of past social interactions and how these manifest in the archaeological record. The barrel-vaulted reservoir at the site of Kale-Krševica in Serbia reveals that the simplistic framework of Hellenisation is insufficient to explain the construction of this unique hydraulic installation.

Keywords

SerbiaIron Agewater managementHellenisationindigenous societies
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 367 , February 2019 , pp. 144 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

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