Product Description

Who were the Iron Age peoples of Europe? Celts, Germans, Scythians and others are among the names that come to mind. But such names, and the characteristics associated with them, come to us from outside observers - Greek and Roman writers - not from the native peoples themselves. To understand how late prehistoric groups constructed and expressed their identities, we need to examine the rich archaeological evidence left by Iron Age Europeans themselves. Recent theoretical and methodological advances in anthropology, archaeology and history, together with results of archaeological research all over Europe, provide the basis for a new approach to the problem of the identities of Iron Age peoples. Peter Wells uses patterns of identity revealed in the archaeology to interpret the commentaries of Greek and Roman authors who conveyed their own perceptions of these non-literate groups. Finally, he examines ways in which Iron Age Europeans responded to the Greek and Roman representations of them. The result was an ever-changing mosaic of complex and dynamic identities among the diverse peoples of Late Iron Age Europe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #427225 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Peter S. Wells is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of several books, including Settlement, Economy, and Cultural Change at the End of the European Iron Age (1993) and The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe (1999).

Customer Reviews

This book broke the weltanschauung
It's hard for me to say Wells achieved his stated goals. Perhaps I'm too generous with my 5-star rating. I am giving the book this superlative rating because by the time I finished it, I realized the 'standard model' of proto-historic Germania has very little good foundation. There are many other revolations in the field of Eurasian archaeology which are forcing some old questions to the fore. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain Russian and Western researchers are now sharing data and ideas. At the same time significant new discoveries are emerging regularly. All these forces were beginning to put pressure on my conception of Iron Age Europe, but Wells book was the wedge in the fault-line that caused the confidence I've held regarding this subject to crumble.

It's not so much what Wells says in the book, but what his selection of topics implies. When I finished the book I was left with the sense that there may have been no great Germanic horde in Northern Europe existing separately and distinctly from the 'Celts' and 'Scythians' at the time of Caesar. I was also left with the impression that 'we' really don't know who, what, where, or when the Germani were.

Within five Centuries of Caesar's crossing the Rhine, the Germanic People had gained control of almost all of Europe. Before reading Wells's book, I had simply accepted that the vast Germanic population was in gestation for the previous several centuries, and this population was 'native' to Germania. By reading Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians, I had hoped to get a better idea of who the Germani were as they crossed the event horizon of history. Not only do I not have a better idea, I realize that my previous 'good' ideas are unfounded. This may seem like a poor endorsement of the book, but my goal was to improve my understanding of the topic, and reading this book certainly accomplished that. I now know there are some very significant unanswered questions in this field, and things may be far more exciting and complex than I previously imagined.

Read synopsis, and forget the word 'Scythians' in the title.
This book is about what the synopsis says, and nothing more - do not look at it if You are looking for general information about Western and Central European Iron Age peoples. It belongs to the 'Duckworth Debates in Archaeology' series and looks like that, too.

Concerning word 'Scythians' in the title - I do not know why it is included there. There is not much material about them - You will find more in any decent book about prehistoric Europe, not to speak about books concentrating upon Steppe cultures. In the beginning of the index it is said that the word 'Scythian' was not indexed as it is too frequent. I looked it up and found less occurrences than that of name 'Caesar' that is indexed. If You are interested in Indo-European nomads look somewhere else !

A Brilliant Book!
Wells tackles one of the most interesting questions in history and archaeology - that of ethnicity and identity. He shows the reader that much of our concept of the Iron Age and later periods is determined by our modern ideas and catergories, which may have meant nothing to the people concerned and -even worse- which may hinder a real understanding of the Iron Age in Europe.