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The Körös Regional Archaeological Project is
a multidisciplinary, collaborative, research project directed by William
A. Parkinson, of the Department of Anthropology, Florida State University,
and Attila Gyucha of the Múnkacsy Mihály Múzeumin
Békéscsaba, Hungary. Richard
W. Yerkes of the Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University
is field director, and co-director of the KRAP Field School.
The project brings together an international team of
geophysists, geologists, geographers, botanists, and other specialists
to undertand the various social changes that occurred in the Körös
River Valley on the Great Hungarian Plain nearly 6,500 years ago, during
the time when metals first began to be extensively exploited in the nearby
Balkan and Carpathian mountains. This time period – the transition
from the Neolithic to the Copper Age – is a time marked by significant
social transformations in the organization of households and settlements
throughout the Great Hungarian Plain. Unfortunately, our current anthropological
understanding of these social changes has been clouded by a lack of research
into settlements dating to the Copper Age.
Over the last decade, the Körös Regional Archaeological Project has been conducting systematic research into the organization of Copper Age settlements near the town of Vésztő in southeastern Hungary. As a result of our research, the economic and political organization of Copper Age societies is gradually becoming better understood, allowing us to understand the nature of the changes that characterize the end of the Neolithic in the region. This, in turn, allows us to model the dynamic social processes that occur within 'tribal' societies more generally. |
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