Current State of Research and Approach

The Research Group sets up the methodological and theoretical framework for the examination of asymmetrical dependencies in archaeology. The key of this holistic approach lies in the concept of resource dependency, comprising resources and humans, and in consulting several lines of archaeological evidence, which are combined and serve as control values to each other. Resource dependencies imply two significant sorts of strong structural dependency within a larger ecological and sociopolitical setting.

The first sort concerns the dependency between resources and people, which is the basis for the second sort, the dependency between people. In contrast to associated concepts, such as inequality, status differentiation, and social stratification, which describe rather conditions, resource dependency is a more dynamic idea, stressing the structural relations of distinct actors in these asymmetrical conditions. Furthermore, the concept reveals that also asymmetrical modes of dependency are mutual.

In order to obtain a reliable picture of resource dependencies in the past, various lines of archaeological evidence must be followed and associated with each other. For the determination of resources, social stratification, and strong asymmetrical dependency in the archaeological record, this Research Group explores material culture principally along three lines of evidence.