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Nationalism and the Pan-historical Perspective in Early Middle Age Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2020

Csanád Bálint*
Affiliation:
Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Archaeology, Hungary. Email: Balint.Csanad@btk.mta.hu

Abstract

To the memory of Jurij Voronov archaeologist, Vice-Premier of Abkhazia murdered on 11 September 1995

Nationalism is a most general and worldwide phenomenon, known at least since European antiquity. It is also present in archaeological research, more intensively indeed in Central and Eastern Europe than in its Western counterpart. It is mostly connected with national prehistory, and its basic questions concern ‘ancientness’, ‘previousness’ and a high(er) culture, which are always the issues put forth in a comparison with others. Its emergence becomes more direct when manipulating constructed histories. Yet a decrease of its overall influence may be expected in the long run. Panhistorism in archaeology partly stems from the overestimation of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century archaeological finds and was the view generally adopted by Soviet-type Marxism. Its aim is to render history useful for political manipulation. Its followers and advocates, however, are generally ill-informed about the methodological issues of research developed in the second half of twentieth century. We may, therefore, be somewhat more optimistic as to its impending disappearance.

Type
Focus: How can History and Archaeology be Handmaidens in Defining a National or Regional (in this Case European) Identity?
Copyright
© 2020 Academia Europaea

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Footnotes

Guest Editor: Nikita Harwich

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