ETNICITATE ȘI IDENTITĂȚI CULTURALE ÎN INTERPRETAREA ARHEOLOGICĂ

Abstract

The ethnic interpretations in archaeology have always been the subject of controversial discussions, considering the nature of archaeological sources and the risk of tendentious approaches. However, the actuality of the issue of ethnic reconstructions from the past returns every time the political and historiographical discourse imposes it. Thus, the critical analysis of the possibilities of the interpreting identities in archeology is important for combating tendentious discourses, preventing the risks of unilateral manipulations of the past. Obviously, the poorer the written sources, the more speculative the tendency to supplement them with archaeological ones. In this view, according to Iron Age or early medieval identities must be made with great caution when we establish a correlation between the archaeological remains and the few historical sources.