Manuel Fernández-Götz
My main areas of research are the archaeology of identities, early urbanisation, migrations, and conflict archaeology, with a primary focus on Bronze and Iron Age Europe. In my work, I adopt a multi-scalar and interdisciplinary approach that combines large, pan-European syntheses with the analysis of specific case studies. I have authored over 240 publications and directed fieldwork projects in Germany, Spain, the UK, and Croatia. I am also interested in the history of archaeology, current debates in archaeological theory, colonial encounters in the ancient world, and the different pathways for integration into the Roman world. From 2021-25 I have been PI of the Leverhulme Trust-funded project “Beyond Walls: Reassessing Iron Age and Roman Encounters in Northern Britain”.
I hold a binational PhD between the Christian-Albrecht University Kiel and the Complutense University of Madrid. Prior to moving to Oxford, I worked at the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg (2011-13) and the University of Edinburgh (2013-24), where I served as Head of the Archaeology Department and most recently held the Abercromby Chair of Archaeology. I am currently Trustee of National Museums Scotland (NMS).
Address: Prof Dr Manuel Fernández-Götz
Institute of Archaeology
36 Beaumont Street
Oxford OX1 2PG
United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
I hold a binational PhD between the Christian-Albrecht University Kiel and the Complutense University of Madrid. Prior to moving to Oxford, I worked at the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg (2011-13) and the University of Edinburgh (2013-24), where I served as Head of the Archaeology Department and most recently held the Abercromby Chair of Archaeology. I am currently Trustee of National Museums Scotland (NMS).
Address: Prof Dr Manuel Fernández-Götz
Institute of Archaeology
36 Beaumont Street
Oxford OX1 2PG
United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
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Books by Manuel Fernández-Götz
REVIEWS:
"Archaeology of the Roman Conquest is an entirely convincing reevaluation of the violent actions undertaken by Roman commanders as they conquered substantial areas of Western Europe and of the variable responses of local communities to these invasions. It will become required reading for anyone interested in the assimilation of these peoples into the Roman Empire". Prof. Richard Hingley - Durham University
"The Roman conquest of Western Europe is well-studied by generations of scholars. The authors nevertheless succeed in providing new insights into a history that is still highly topical today". Dr. Stefan Burmeister - Museum und Park Kalkriese
"With this volume, the editors make a timely, sophisticated, and substantial intervention in archaeological debates of migration. This is a carefully balanced collection of papers that bring a wide range of conceptual and methodological perspectives to the table, covering the length and breadth of prehistoric Europe", Peter van Dommelen, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.
The 26 chapters included in this book provide a combination of theoretical and methodological insights into urbanisation processes, regional overviews, and up-to-date evidence from key archaeological sites. The latter comprise both well-established names such as the Heuneburg, Vix-Mont Lassois, Verucchio, Marzabotto, and Spina, as well as other sites that are less well-known but equally relevant for the understanding of centralisation processes during the Iron Age.
In particular, this volume brings together, for the first time, the rich archaeological evidence for urban and proto-urban sites in northern Italy, a region that has traditionally been neglected or underestimated in accounts on Iron Age urbanisation. Thus, the book transcends previous barriers in scholarship and helps to readdress one of the most attractive topics of current archaeological research: the multiple and nonlinear pathways towards urbanisation.
This book is a contribution to the study of rural life in Iron Age Europe, collating case studies extending from southern Spain to northern Scotland and from Denmark to the Balkans. Papers are grouped thematically to open up cross-regional comparisons, ranging across studies of buildings, farms – the basic unit of Iron Age life consisting of its inhabitants, its livestock and associated agricultural lands – to wider settlement patterns and land use strategies.
The 29 papers in this volume discuss the disposition, form and organisation of rural settlements, as well as underlying social and economic networks, illustrating both the variability between regions, and also common themes in cultural, economic and social interactions. This volume provides an up-to-date overview of current research, presenting new results for the Iron Age specialist as well as a wider audience interested in the rich tapestry of rural settlement in Europe.
Considering landscape as the spatial manifestation of the relations between humans and their environments through time, the authors in this volume examine the multi-directional power dynamics that have shaped settlement, agrarian, monumental and ritual landscapes through the long-term field projects they have pursued around the globe.
Examining both biocultural stability and change through the longue durée in different regions, these essays highlight intersectionality and counterpoised power flows to demonstrate that alongside and in spite of hierarchical ideologies, the daily life of power is heterarchical. Knowledge of transtemporal human–environmental relationships is necessary for strategizing socioecological resilience. Historical Ecology shows how the past can be useful to the future.
A recurring theme considers how Iron Age enclosures created, curated, formed or deconstructed memory and identity, and how by enclosing space, these communities opened links to an earlier past in order to understand or express their Iron Age presence. In this way, the contributions examine perspectives that are of wider relevance for related themes in different periods.
This book is presented as a Festschrift to Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, in celebration of his work. Its scope reflects the geographical and chronological range of Ian Ralston’s research and wider personal and professional networks. The contributions in this volume – offered by some of his many friends, colleagues and former students and in many cases developed from collaborative work with him – introduce new ideas and discoveries that open new ground for future studies on Europe’s age of enclosure.
Professor Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg.
"Manuel Fernández-Götz’s detailed study offers a wide-ranging, markedly new overview of the development of later Iron Age societies of northeastern Gaul, more particularly the Moselle-Middle Rhine sector; this is focused on the key themes of power and identity. His anthropologically-informed approach sets the developments of the period into wider perspectives, extending back to the late Hallstatt world and on to the transformations accompanying ‘Romanisation’. This overview is destined to become both a key source for the comprehension of the regional record and, perhaps more importantly, a vade mecum for further consideration, both theoretical and practical, of his central topics within temperate European Iron Age studies".
Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Edinburgh.
Dr. Andrew Fitzpatrick, University of Leicester, Antiquity, Vol. 89 Issue 344 (2015)
Manuel Fernández-Götz’s book unifies in an exemplary way written and archaeological sources, and adds new explanatory depth to the emergence of ethnicity and migration. The book shows the strength of a theoretically informed interdisciplinary approach in archaeology. As such it is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the Hallstatt and La Tène periods in Europe.
Professor Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg
Manuel Fernández-Götz’s detailed study offers a wide-ranging, markedly new overview of the development of later Iron Age societies of northeastern Gaul, more particularly the Moselle-Middle Rhine sector; this is focused on the key themes of power and identity. His anthropologically-informed approach sets the developments of the period into wider perspectives, extending back to the late Hallstatt world and on to the transformations accompanying ‘Romanisation’. This overview is destined to become both a key source for the comprehension of the regional record and, perhaps more importantly, a vade mecum for further consideration, both theoretical and practical, of his central topics within temperate European Iron Age studies.
Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
REVIEWS:
"Archaeology of the Roman Conquest is an entirely convincing reevaluation of the violent actions undertaken by Roman commanders as they conquered substantial areas of Western Europe and of the variable responses of local communities to these invasions. It will become required reading for anyone interested in the assimilation of these peoples into the Roman Empire". Prof. Richard Hingley - Durham University
"The Roman conquest of Western Europe is well-studied by generations of scholars. The authors nevertheless succeed in providing new insights into a history that is still highly topical today". Dr. Stefan Burmeister - Museum und Park Kalkriese
"With this volume, the editors make a timely, sophisticated, and substantial intervention in archaeological debates of migration. This is a carefully balanced collection of papers that bring a wide range of conceptual and methodological perspectives to the table, covering the length and breadth of prehistoric Europe", Peter van Dommelen, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.
The 26 chapters included in this book provide a combination of theoretical and methodological insights into urbanisation processes, regional overviews, and up-to-date evidence from key archaeological sites. The latter comprise both well-established names such as the Heuneburg, Vix-Mont Lassois, Verucchio, Marzabotto, and Spina, as well as other sites that are less well-known but equally relevant for the understanding of centralisation processes during the Iron Age.
In particular, this volume brings together, for the first time, the rich archaeological evidence for urban and proto-urban sites in northern Italy, a region that has traditionally been neglected or underestimated in accounts on Iron Age urbanisation. Thus, the book transcends previous barriers in scholarship and helps to readdress one of the most attractive topics of current archaeological research: the multiple and nonlinear pathways towards urbanisation.
This book is a contribution to the study of rural life in Iron Age Europe, collating case studies extending from southern Spain to northern Scotland and from Denmark to the Balkans. Papers are grouped thematically to open up cross-regional comparisons, ranging across studies of buildings, farms – the basic unit of Iron Age life consisting of its inhabitants, its livestock and associated agricultural lands – to wider settlement patterns and land use strategies.
The 29 papers in this volume discuss the disposition, form and organisation of rural settlements, as well as underlying social and economic networks, illustrating both the variability between regions, and also common themes in cultural, economic and social interactions. This volume provides an up-to-date overview of current research, presenting new results for the Iron Age specialist as well as a wider audience interested in the rich tapestry of rural settlement in Europe.
Considering landscape as the spatial manifestation of the relations between humans and their environments through time, the authors in this volume examine the multi-directional power dynamics that have shaped settlement, agrarian, monumental and ritual landscapes through the long-term field projects they have pursued around the globe.
Examining both biocultural stability and change through the longue durée in different regions, these essays highlight intersectionality and counterpoised power flows to demonstrate that alongside and in spite of hierarchical ideologies, the daily life of power is heterarchical. Knowledge of transtemporal human–environmental relationships is necessary for strategizing socioecological resilience. Historical Ecology shows how the past can be useful to the future.
A recurring theme considers how Iron Age enclosures created, curated, formed or deconstructed memory and identity, and how by enclosing space, these communities opened links to an earlier past in order to understand or express their Iron Age presence. In this way, the contributions examine perspectives that are of wider relevance for related themes in different periods.
This book is presented as a Festschrift to Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, in celebration of his work. Its scope reflects the geographical and chronological range of Ian Ralston’s research and wider personal and professional networks. The contributions in this volume – offered by some of his many friends, colleagues and former students and in many cases developed from collaborative work with him – introduce new ideas and discoveries that open new ground for future studies on Europe’s age of enclosure.
Professor Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg.
"Manuel Fernández-Götz’s detailed study offers a wide-ranging, markedly new overview of the development of later Iron Age societies of northeastern Gaul, more particularly the Moselle-Middle Rhine sector; this is focused on the key themes of power and identity. His anthropologically-informed approach sets the developments of the period into wider perspectives, extending back to the late Hallstatt world and on to the transformations accompanying ‘Romanisation’. This overview is destined to become both a key source for the comprehension of the regional record and, perhaps more importantly, a vade mecum for further consideration, both theoretical and practical, of his central topics within temperate European Iron Age studies".
Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Edinburgh.
Dr. Andrew Fitzpatrick, University of Leicester, Antiquity, Vol. 89 Issue 344 (2015)
Manuel Fernández-Götz’s book unifies in an exemplary way written and archaeological sources, and adds new explanatory depth to the emergence of ethnicity and migration. The book shows the strength of a theoretically informed interdisciplinary approach in archaeology. As such it is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the Hallstatt and La Tène periods in Europe.
Professor Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg
Manuel Fernández-Götz’s detailed study offers a wide-ranging, markedly new overview of the development of later Iron Age societies of northeastern Gaul, more particularly the Moselle-Middle Rhine sector; this is focused on the key themes of power and identity. His anthropologically-informed approach sets the developments of the period into wider perspectives, extending back to the late Hallstatt world and on to the transformations accompanying ‘Romanisation’. This overview is destined to become both a key source for the comprehension of the regional record and, perhaps more importantly, a vade mecum for further consideration, both theoretical and practical, of his central topics within temperate European Iron Age studies.
Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
http://wideurbanworld.blogspot.de/2013/02/heuneburg.html
Manuel A. Fernández-Götz
Binational PhD awarded in January 2012, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)/Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Germany)
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero, Prof. Dr. Dirk Krausse
The aim of this doctoral thesis is to analyze the evolution of Iron Age communities in Northeast Gaul, and in particular in the Middle Rhine-Moselle region, with special consideration of questions of social identity. From this perspective, the two key concepts around which this work is structured are identity and power, i.e. the power relationships which existed between the various identity-based categories. Methodologically, a holistic approach is adopted which combines archaeological data and anthropological, ethno-archaeological and historical references.
The doctoral thesis is organized into three focal parts, beginning from the more general to the specific, with a particular emphasis on the last:
1) The first part presents a theoretical and methodological review on the different types of social identity (ethnicity, gender, age, class…) as well as the central concept of ‘power’. Together with the explanation of definitions and key concepts, each section also includes a series of historical and anthropological examples, as well as a discussion about the limitations and possibilities of an archaeological exploration on major identity categories. Moreover, a central point is the distinction between different degrees of relational and individualized identities. In short, this first part of the thesis provides an up-to-date summary of one of the hot-topics in current research agendas: the archaeology of identities.
2) The second part offers a detailed study of the different levels of ethnic identity and socio-political organization which appear superimposed and co-integrated in non-Mediterranean Gaul at the end of the Iron Age. According to written and archaeological sources, the three main socio-political levels than can be distinguished in ascending order are: 1) local groups comprising several households, 2) pagi (sub-ethnic communities) and 3) civitates (ethnic communities). The complex relationships between these different groupings, the features of real and fictive kinship ties, the dual nature of pre-Roman pagi and civitates as both political and ethnic entities, the evolution of political institutions, the all-embracing character of clientship networks or the changing border dynamics are some of the topics discussed.
3) Finally, the third and main part of the thesis comprises the diachronic analysis of the cultural change experienced by the societies of Northeastern Gaul from approximately 600 BC until AD 70. That means, from the beginnings of the demographic growth reflected by both archaeological and palynological data to the consequences of the Batavian revolt. Although the Middle Rhine-Moselle region represents the core study area, other neighboring regions are also taken into account, e.g. the Champagne, the Belgian Ardennes and the Lower Rhine. Some of the main issues addressed here through concrete case-studies are:
- Cycles of centralization and decentralization
- Origins of the La Tène culture
- Question of migrations in the Late Iron Age
- Application of ideas from scholars such as Foucault, Bourdieu, Giddens or De Certeau
- Emergence of the oppida
- Key role of sanctuaries in the construction of collective identities
- Distinction between different types of societies within the area under study
- Critical reappraisal of macro-ethnic categories like ‘Celts’ and ‘Germans’
- Impact of ‘Romanization’ on identity transformation
The result is a renewed view of Iron Age societies in temperate Europe and, at a more general level, a step forward in the complicated but fascinating task of constructing an archaeology of identities.
Architecture has often been used for asserting influence and authority, and in recent decades we’ve seen a greater emphasis on the importance of the spaces filled by these statements of power; a ‘spatial turn’, in which historians, archaeologists and classicists are increasingly thinking about the roles of space and place in our approach to the past. This conference seeks to explore how spaces were filled and how power and authority were asserted through the materiality of the built environment, from the prehistoric world to the advent of the modern age. These places and spaces are the very canvas of the past, and as such, they were negotiated and manipulated by societies which often lacked consensus as to how space was to be used.
We would like to invite short abstracts of 250 words for twenty-minute papers relating to the projection of power through the built environment. Please email abstracts to the conference organisers Dr Juan Lewis, Dr Manuel Fernandez-Gotz, and Dr Aaron Allen by 24th April 2015.
Email: [email protected]
University of Edinburgh, 3–4 June 2016
A conference celebrating the achievements of Professor Peter Wells, University of Minnesota, in the field of European prehistory.
Antiquities as the 'hottest invest' (TIME-Magazine, 12/2007) are one of the biggest problems of archaeology. Finds deriving from unauthorised excavations, metal detectoring, robberies of museums/public collections, appear on the market with faked provenience, and are legally sold. The majority of illegal/illicit finds that enter the market, seemingly entirely legally, go unacknowledged by archaeologists. Only rarely do such finds later surface and only few, like the spectacular find of the Bronze Age Nebra-disc, are acknowledged by the wide public. In the case of more mundane finds this rarely ever occurs.
APPLY TO PARTICIPATE WITH A PRESENTATION UNTIL MARCH 1st, 2016 here: eaavilnius2016.lt
Manuel Gago Mariño – Prof. Associado da Universidade Santiago de Compostela
José Manuel Costa-García – Investigador Pós-Doutoral da Xunta de Galicia. Grupo de Investigación Síncrisis, USC.
Manuel Fernández-Gotz – Leitor da School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Universidade de Edimburgo
Jesús García Sánchez – Investigador Pós-Doutoral da Universidade de Leiden
Manuel Gago Mariño – Prof. Associado da Universidade Santiago de Compostela
José Manuel Costa-García – Investigador Pós-Doutoral da Xunta de Galicia. Grupo de Investigación Síncrisis, USC.
Manuel Fernández-Gotz – Leitor da School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Universidade de Edimburgo
Five sessions revolve around new insights from landscape archaeological projects, developments in the economy, the process of military expansion, processes of centralization and urbanization, and the ritual and religious sphere. A key goal of the conference is to discuss how the Portuguese panorama compares to other areas in the Iberian peninsula, and to foreground its contribution to current debates about Roman expansion and incorporation in the Central and Western Mediterranean.
With a view to assess the potential of integrating best practices in archaeological approaches and methodology, different national and disciplinary research traditions and historical frameworks will be explicitly discussed. As such, the conference aims to explore ways to collaborate more closely between various Mediterranean areas and research projects, and to develop a shared research agenda.
Notre volonté est de motiver les chercheurs à présenter leur idées novatrices allant au-delà de la simple identification d'individus comme étant locaux ou non-locaux (sur la base de matériels culturels ou d'analyses scientifiques) et d'avoir une meilleure compréhension des mouvements de populations en prenant le recul nécessaire sur les preuves accumulées et en intégrant diverses sources de données. Des communications se concentrant davantage sur les aspects théoriques seraient également appréciées, tout comme des articles ayant pour objectif d'intégrer l'archéologie des sens ou d'incorporer des approches anthropologiques sur les mouvements des populations du passé.
Pour soumettre une proposition de communication orale ou par poster, merci d'envoyer un résumé de 150-200 mots accompagné de vos coordonnées et de votre affiliation avant le 31 Janvier 2019 à l'adresse mail suivante: [email protected]
We want to motivate researchers to present innovative ideas on the topic that go beyond identifying single individuals as non-local (on the basis of material culture or scientific analysis) and aim for a more comprehensive understanding by zooming in and out of the evidence and by integrating all possible kinds of sources. We also appreciate papers which focus on more theoretical aspects, and papers which try to integrate archaeologies of the senses or anthropological approaches to human mobility in the past.
To submit a proposal for either a paper or poster, please send a c. 150-200 word abstract by 31st January 2019 with your name and affiliation to: [email protected]
29-30 March 2019
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Piazza Duomo 14 (third floor)
GARCÍA SÁNCHEZ, J.; GAGO MARIÑO, M.; COSTA-GARCÍA, J. M. & FERNÁNDEZ-GÖTZ, M. (2019): "El modelo Romanarmy.eu: patrimonio, comunicación e investigación en el pasado romano de Sasamón (Burgos)". M. Rolo (Ed.), Arqueología 3.0 II. Comunicaçao, divulgaçao e socialização da arqueologia. Vila Viçosa: Fundação Casa de Bragança: 101-119.
Please send abstracts (max. 200 words), to [email protected]. Abstracts should be submitted by Wednesday 15 th January 2020 at the latest. Successful proposals will be notified before the end of February 2020. We also ask authors to submit a short biographical profile (max. 50 words) with their proposed paper or poster.
In many ways the past decade has been characterized by (the lack of) breath. Countless lives consumed by the fumes of war in the so-called "Middle East" and elsewhere, migrants and refugees drowning beneath Mediterranean waters, the choking knee of white supremacy, millions gasping from Covid-19, singing fires, choking anxiety, and innumerable atrocities and tragedies that cannot be expressed in 250 words. And what has archaeology done as these events unfolded? Appropriated when convenient and choosing to give breath to objects. The growing popularity of so-called 'relational' or 'symmetrical' archaeologies, which purports to breathe life into archaeological materials. This so-called 'material turn' in archaeology builds upon the emergence of Object-Oriented-Ontology (OOO) in western philosophy which premises a revolutionary reordering of subject-object separation and emphasize non-hierarchical relations between human, living and non-living constituents in the world. This premise holds potentially radical connotations for reimagining the contexts through which environmental crises have emerged. While acknowledging this potential, the performance of OOO with regards to contemporary social and environmental crises and atrocities has been at best ambivalent, and at worst, harmful, often de-centering the human and blurring lines of accountability.
Despite its popularity, many scholars within and outside archaeology have questioned: where are ethics in posthumanist thought? Is it just a by-product of networks involving humans and non-humans? Are ethics something you can just add onto posthumanist approaches and stir? The aim of this session is to conduct a further examination of ethics and posthumanist thought and whether the study of ethics in archaeology is not better served by replacing ontology with deontology, that is, the study of humans as agents with ethical responsibilities. This opens the door to discussions about our past informants, and what rules and laws meant to them, what it means to break those rules, and ultimately what it means to be a good or bad member of a social community in the past (and present).
• To what extent are historical and ethnographic analogies still useful for the archaeological study of personhood?
• How can new approaches, such as New Materialism and the Ontological Turn, contribute to the study of non-human personhood?
• Is the single-spectrum model still relevant to the study of prehistoric personhood?
• How can archaeological approaches contribute to the study of personhood in contemporary societies?