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The Stina and the Katun: Foundations of a Research Design in European Highland Zone

Ethnoarchaeology
Author(s): J. G. Nandris
Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 17, No. 2, Ethnoarchaeology (Oct., 1985), pp. 256-268
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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lhe Stina and the Katun:foundations of a
Zone
researchdesign in EuropeanHigghland
ethnoarchaeology
J G. NIandris

Introduction.

This paper aim to outline som of the assumptions and researchdesign underlyingwork in
progress on the Highland Zone Ethnoarchaeology Project, which is supported by the British
Academy and the. Society of Antiquaries,and by the CentralResearchFund and the Hayter
Funds of London University.It also describesvery briefly a spectrumof traditionalsettlement
types in south-eastEuropewhich should be of some interest, since they lie outside what usually
seem. to be the accepted norms among archaeologistsfor prehistoric village or homestead
settlement.
The Project itself deals with the landscapearchaeology,recordingand ethnoarchaeologyof
small sites and the history of exploitation of the highlandzone of south-eastEurope. It aimsto
promote the excavation of upland sites of many periods;and the expernmentalexcavation of
recently abandoned sites setting their interpretationagainstoral testimony and ethnographic
data.
The objectivein this paperis to clarify some of the aims and methods, and to drawattention
to the potential of the subject in the limited space available;it is not primarilyto describe
results,which would take up a greatdeal more space.
One important distinction which has arisen in the course of the work will however be
mentioned; namely that between the settlement types of the Katun and the Stina. For the
ethcnoarchaeologist this is not an ethnic but a generalisedworkingdistinctionbetween pattemns
of highland zone settlement, albeit characteristicallywell representedamong certain'human
grotups.
It is necessary first to outline the research design; then to define the Stina and Katun,
a.d to say something about human groups in the areaof south-eastEurope. It can be assumed
that some aspects of behaviour are described in the historic present. Ethnoarchaeologyis
not simply the projection into the past of minute ethnographicparticulars(Nandris 1984;
Nandris forthcoming (a)). To do ethnoarchaeologyis not to renounce the methods available
to scntific archaeology, but rather to use them to capture an abundant body of anthro-
pological data which has notably failed to evolve for itself an adequateexplanatoryframework.
It also provides a reciprocalcritique of archaeologicalmethodology. The exploration of the
highland zone in the course of the Project revealsnew sites and neglected aspects of its pre-
historic exploitation.
WorldArchaeology Volume 1 7No. 2 Ethnoarchaeology
?R.K.P. 1985 0043-8243/85/1702-256 $1.50/1
EuropeanHighlandZone ethnoarchaeology 25 7

Researchdesign

The aim of the HighlandZone EthnoarchaeologyProject is to plan and record in detail small-
scale sites of variousperiods with special attention to the materialoutcome of behaviour,and
to comparethese regionallyso as to offer explanationsat a level which may compensatefor the
imperfections of the individual records. Small ethnoarchaeologicalsites can be studied and
even excavated economically and flexibly; what they show is that even the simplest of these
sites is extremely complex. A higher level of interpretationcan often be achievedby treating
regionsand sites comparatively.
As a samplingprocedure this is or should be analogous with archaeologicalresearch;but
without the great investment of time, money and effort in individualexcavations, in order to
justify which the archaeologistis too often anxious to offer explanations at a far higher level
than the actual data from his particularsite will warrant.The aim is alwaysto relate to archae-
ological problems, and to increase knowledge of highland zone exploitation by detecting
new sites. Their environmental and economic histories must be studied according to the
resources available,and the Project brings together unusual combinations of techniiquesand
problems.
The study of highlandzone sites has its own difficulties, and these are not merely logistical.
One of the characteristicsof highlandzone exploitation is the ephemeral,often seasonal,nature
of the site, with a technology based on organics, such as bone, wood, bark, furs and hides,
cheese and milk products. Wooden vessels are traditionallypreferredat the RomanianStina,
being far better suited to the rough conditions of life and travel to and fro than is pottery.
Mountainsites tend to be in areassusceptibleto hill wash and rapidgeomorphologicaldestabil-
isation; sheepfolds are located on slopes for preference,to give the animalsbetter drainageand
protection from foot infections. An appreciationof the many factorswhich condition this form
of settlement is one of the immediateresultsof the project, togetherwith an idea of the impor-
tance of the relationshipto the lowland economic and social context. The complementarityof
highlandand lowlandexploitation is a constant featurethroughoutthe Neothermalin Europe.
In this sort of work, where it would be rashto rely solely on one researchobjective, a highly
flexible seriesof aimshas been evolved, centringon:
1 Katun and Stina sites in occupation;behaviouraland materialstudies.
2 Experimentalexcavationof recently abandonedsites; using oral testimony.
3 Location of Mediaevaland Prehistorichighlandsites; their conformity to or departurefrom
criteriaestablishedby ethnoarchaeologicalwork.
4 Environmentaland interdisciplinarystudies.
Some of the associatedmethods are self-evident:
1 Recording of the site location and total situation in the context of landscapearchaeology,
in-site plan, in-structureplan, on-site and regional(inter-site) activities, seasonalbehaviour,
place in seasonal cycle, material objects, location and uses of materials. Measuredergo-
nomics of the site and its structures, e.g., assessmentsof numbers of occupants against
dimensions and features. Loss exercises on organic materials (proportions of surviving
evidence). What happens when the sites decay? How do material remains correlate with
behaviour?How do artefactsget deposited?(Examplesof such plans,recordingevery feature
and artefact,are givenin Figs. 3, 4 and 5.)
258 J. G. Nandris

2 Selection for experimentalexcavation and recordingof decayingor abandonedsites (ideally


with informants,but there may be other objectives). Archaeologicalinterpretation(prefer-
ably blind) and checkingagainstoral testimony.
3 and 4 Highlandzone exploitation goes back through Mediaevalinto Epi-palaeolithictimes,
and these sites demand the same range of techniques as appropriatefor lowland sites for
their understanding; e.g., flotation, palynology, dating.

The Stina and the Katun


The Stina (pl. Stine) is the entire complex of enclosuresand huts formingthe upland shepherd-
ing sites of the Carpathians.These include the living hut, and milking pens, with the milking
gate (the Strunga) and the control pens for clumping the animals before milking, as well as
other functional divisions. The control of animalsis reminiscentof the drivetactics of hunting
peoples, in which one may perhapssee some sort of pre-adaptationfor pastoralism.The dog
was another essential prerequisite(Nandris 1984); the territorialbehaviourof dogs is essential
in the protection of the flock from predatorssuch as the bear. The behaviouralrelationbetween
dogs, sheep and men is many-sided. The only other animals likely to be present are mules
or horses.
The Stina is sometimes almost Mesolithic in its provisionality, and its structures can be
readily dismantled. A fire burns all the time, and the sleeping places beside this use bark and
sheepskinfor insulation. The Stina is characterisedas much by its human and animalrelations
as by its morphology, which is quite variable.Women are not allowed on these sites; yet there
are also types of Stine to be found which are composed only of women.
By contrast at the Katun, as defined here, complete families are present as an integralpart
of the site. Wherea Stina is a functionalunit of perhapshalf a dozen men, under the leadership
of a 'Baciu', the Katun may comprise 50 families (or more or less) again usually under the
leadership of a 'Chelnik'(in Greek 'Tselingas'),who is not hereditary but chosen for alpha-
male qualitiesand wealth.
Much of this is reflected - but not literally - in the morphology of the sites. A Katun is
a substantialassemblageof huts together with animalssuch as pigs, and geese; and structures
such as ovens, and hen or pig houses. Severalkinds of beehivehuts, probablyof great antiquity,
are a basic feature;it may be that tombs such as the 'Treasuryof Atreus9are skeuomorphsof
such huts or of their stone variants,still found in some areas. They came to be supplemented
by rectangularhuts as the Katun evolvedtowardsgreatersedentism.
Many of the same activities as at the Stina, such as milking and cheese-making,with their
correlates,were also carriedout at the Katun. But the mobile Katun is in generalfound south
of the Danube, not in Romania.Many of the sites known as 'Stani'in Greecesharefeaturesof
the Stina from which they derive their name. The 'Mandra'in Greeceis more properlya sheep
pen, but may also have a hut and features which relate it to the Stani. At Katun sites the
animal pens and the huts are complementaryparts of the same unit, but may not be found at
the same location, which is againnot easy to detect and integratearchaeologically.Both Stina
and Katun are defined not by morphology or altitude but by behaviour;in other words either
may be found in mountains or lowlands, but they take their meaning from their behavioural
context.
EuropeanHighlandZone ethnoarchaeology 259

These traditionalsettlement types may now appearratherlike analoguesto some temperate


flora survivingduring glacial times in a highlandrefuge; but Katun sites were not distributed
only in remote highlands. They were formerly more widespread than now, not merely in
Greece but in Yugoslavia,Albania and elsewhere. Exampleshave been observedby the author
on the Kula Pass (1,700 metres; Albanians), Metsovo pastures (1,400 metres; Sarakatsani),
on Vermion in Macedonia (1,300 metres; Sarakatsaniat Xerolivadi), at Aleagitsa on Kitka
Mountainsouth of Skopje (Aromani);etc., Beuermann(1967) records a Katun of 47 families
still extant in 1955 at Tsukaladesnear Levadiain Boeotia, near the LakeKopais basin, at about
300 metres(Plate 1).

Plate 1 The Katun of Tsukaladesnear Levadiain Boeotia, with 47 Sarakatsanfamilies, illus-


trated by Beuermann1967 (Abb. 28), was still occupied as a winter site in 1955. At this time
rectangularhuts were beginningto accompany the beehive huts. The substantialnatureof the
settlement is not howeverreflected for the archaeologistby the structures.
The outwardly highly provisional Katun settlements lie at the fringes of archaeological
detectability, yet were actually of a considerablelevel of complexity. One of the most impor-
tant distinguishingfeatures of the Katun is the presence of women and children as an integral
part of the settlement organisation.It is this which makes them of great interest as analogues
for prehistoricvillagesettlement;unfortunatelyvery few Katuni now survive.
By contrast the Stina can be seen as an analogue for occupational specialisationssuch as
hunting sites; and as in the prehistoric situation there are overlapsbetween the two. Certain
features of the social organisationand behaviour at the Katun and the Stina are reflected in
the material remains, and are therefore archaeologicallydetectable. But whateverthe Katun
and Stina have in common morphologically,the main distinction between them is social, and
260 . GCNandris

this is a fuither indictmentof archaeologicalliteralism.

Ethnoarchaeologyin south-eastEurope
The remoter highlaid areas of south-east Europe preserve some rapidly vanishingsocial and
occupational forms, among which are some specialised in seasonal pastoralism. There are
also agriculturaland other groups which are not discussedhere. The indications are that com-
parableforms of behaviour and material culture formerly extended much more widely both
in space and time over the Europeanscene. In the geographicaldimension indications of this
can be detected even in the hearvilyindustrialisedcountries of western Europe; while as a
chronologicalexample, artefactsstill used at the RomanianStina can be found in the Cortaillod
sites of Switzerland.
By 'south-eastEurope' is meant the countriesgroupedsouth and north of the lower Danube
and adjacentBlack Sea and Mediterranean.To the south of the Danubethese comprisemodern
Greece, Bulgaria,Albania, and eastern YugoslaviaparticularlyMacedoniaand Serbia.North of
the Danube are included Romania and the adjacent parts of the Hungarianbasin together
with the YugoslavVoivodina.
The main highlands in the north are the Carpathianchain, rising to over 2,500 metres,
curving through Romania as a pastoralcontinuum through Czechoslovakiaand into southern
Poland. South of the Danube are the Balkan and Rhodope rangesof Bulgaria(2,900 metres),
the fragmentedhighlandsand basinsof Serbiaand Macedonia,and the high peaks of the Pindus
and Albania,risingto over 2,600 and 2,700 metres.
The individualityand variety of human culture in this region is proverbial.For political or
religiousreasons it is often complicatedby mimesisand disguise,with many a pitfall of nomen-
clature, definition and history for the unwary Balkanologist.It is necessaryto distinguishnot
only between but within such groups as Gypsies,Yuruks,Pomaks,Gagauzi,Sarakatsani,Turks,
Arvanites,Morlahi, Cici, Motii, Mijaci, Farsherotes,Karaguni,Gramosteni,Bunjevci,Cincari,
Karakachani,Arornani,and a numberof others.
The distinctions between these groups and the complex relationshipsobservable in them
between behaviour, identity, and material culture, should ideally give momentary pause to
archaeologistseager to press ahead with explanationsof prehistoricsocial structure.Failureto
comprehend the complex ethnoarchaeology of these groups, or the relationships of their
behaviourto their materialculture, constitutes the rejection of a livinglaboratoryof vanishing
material.
It is neither possible nor necessaryto describeall these groupshere. Only three of them wiil
be summarised:the Aromani,the Sarakatsani,and the RomanianPastoralists,becausethese are
of fundamentalimportancein the basic categorisationof the Stina and the Katun,to which we
are drawingattention.

The Aomani
South of the Danubethe most importantgroup arethe Aromani.Theirname, with its character-
istic 'a' prefix,simply means 'Ronans', and they speak a form of provincialLatin. The Aromani
EuropeanHighlandZone ethnoarchaeology 261

descend from native Thracianpeoples who became Latinisedlinguisticallytwo millennia ago


at the time of the Roman occupation (Nandris 1980), and on these grounds alone warrant
more intensive study and preservation.The culture is in dangerof extinction under pressure
from both racialismand modernisation.
To outsiders they are known as 'Vlahs', a word derivedultimately from a Germanicroot
meaning 'stranger',and related throughout Europe to many names such as Welsh,Wallachian,
Valais,etc. The term 'Vlah'is also used, especiallyin Greeceas a pejorativeor highly generalised
term, in an attempt to belittle and confuse the issue, for the uninitiated,of the existence within
Greeceof an importantethnic minoritywhose nativelanguageis Latin and not Greek.
While the Aromani are now especially associatedwith the highlandzone this is partly for
historical reasons. They are found throughout the area south of the Danube, including the
Dalmatianlittoral as far as Istria, and in Albania and Bulgaria,and in the Dobrogea.In Greece
the Aromani centre on the Pindus where they have their home villagesin the mountains, of
which the 'capital' is Aminciu (Metsovo), on the important Metsovo pass between Thessaly
and the Epirus.
Aminciu was certainly in existence in the 14th century, and was destroyed, twice in one
year (1854) by both Greeks and Turks. By the 18th century the Aromani of the Epirus and
Albaniahad created a nucleus of substantialurbanisationat Moschopoljeto the south of Lake
Ohrid, but this was destroyed twice by Ali Pasha, in 1769 and 1788, and never recovered.
The highland base sites of the Aromani are highly organised, stone-built and architecturally
among the most accomplished settlements in Greece. It is important to be aware of them as
elements in a highly mobile culturalsystem which also includesKatuni and Mandrasor Stine.
The Aromani move seasonallydown into less substantialsites in the lowlandsfor the winter;
especiallyinto Thessaly,a regionknown in the MiddleAges as Megali Vlahia.Sesklo, the epony-
mous site of the fifth millenniumB.C. Sesklo culture,is such a Vlah village.Not only were the
Aromani seasonallymobile pastoralists,but also muleteersand merchants,who travelledwidely
to Odessa or Budapest and Vienna, and their intemational connections and feeling for Greek
culturemade them amongthe most effective activistsin the GreekWarof Independence.
As a result of their mobility both as pastoralistsand mercantilemuleteers the high settle-
ments such as Aminciu (Metsovo), are located with a view to connectivity, and protection,
on the cols and passes of the Pindus and other mountain systems (Fig. 1). This distribution
is an example of strategicconsiderationsin highlandzone settlement. Otherregularitiessuch as
the location of Stine on the tree line between forest and pasture, are the result of tactical
considerations.It is not easy for the literalist archaeologistto plot such a dynamic system on
distributionmaps.

The Sarakatsani
An importantgroup although less numerousthan the Aromaniare the Sarakatsani.They speak
Greek, and may owe their origins to the dispersalof villagesin the Epirus at the time of the
destruction of Moschopoljeby Ali Pasha(see e.g. Beuermann1967; 140 sqq.). Their assump-
tion of a totally new life and identity in this way is fully consistent with other examples of
such changes, of which ethnoarchaeologistsin particular need to be aware. A comparable
example is provided by the assumptionfor historical reasons, by south-eastEuropean 'Vlahs',
262 J. G. Nandris

of a wholly Bedouin culture and technocomplex, in the Sinai peninsula(Nandris1982). There


is at any rate certainly no early historical mention of the Sarakatsani,as there is for the
Aromani;while linguistic studies such as that of Hoeg (1925 and 1926) though scholarlyhave
little value for dating.

Figure 1 Strategic location of sites in the Pindus, on cols and passes. Aminciu (Metsovo), a
central place of the Aromanisystem, is at 1,156 metresin the Pindus,at the junction of all the
majorriversystems of Greece.
Sarakatsaniwere almost truly 'nomadic', which is a much misused term, and something
ratherrare. They rangedover much of the northern Greek mainland,Albania, Macedoniaand
Bulgaria,and like the Aromaniused beehive huts of thatch on a saplingframework,organised
in Katun sites. Both cultures formed in their time an extension into Europeof the neareastem
European Highland Zone ethnoarchaeology 263
I.:: I. _ -I -- o- - - w _l??-~? _ a

I
n/-
II
POLYVALENT
r.
SEASONALITY
- - _r r
s

Metres I

ALPINE PASTURAGE
15000 r

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I
I MAKING
_ |~~~
i VILLAGES
500 n
'

LOWLAND
MAIZE

J 'F 'M'A'M' J I J 'A S'O'N'D Ia

-- - LOCATIONOF LIVESTOCKAND SHEPHERDS


- LOCATION
OF MAJORITY
OF VILLAGE

i
SEASONALALTITUDE/LOCATION
IN THEVRANCEAREGION
OF ROUMANIA
r

I?
i

ALPINE PASTURES I

IE"~-1
-
1 HAY-
, -|
HAY MEADOWS J I 1 MAKING
I i ; II I
II mI
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_I
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_
I I
s
S George S. MariaMare Christmas i

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- --- OF PROFESSIONALPASTORALISTSSUCH AS THE MAiRGINENI
LOCATION
I - OF VILLAGERS
LOCATION

IN THEHATEG
OF POPULATION
SEASONALZONE/ LOCATION
REGIONOF ROUMANIA
.1111r_
?--.-- - =
r',' I I I - X ? I - .- - - - 8sl()
-7 ?~ 1I

Figure 2 Polyvalent seasonality at two Romanian villages, after Simionescu 1940.

technocomplex of pastoralism (not to be confused with the Yumk expansion under the Otto-
man Empire).

Romanian pastoralists

A third important group found north of the Danube is that of the Romanian shepherds based
264 J. G. Nandris

on Stina sites (see e.g., Butura 1978, Vuia 1980) who exploit the pasturesof the Carpathian
chain. These mountains are favoured with peneplanationsurfaces at high altitude (Boresco
surfaces),ideal for pasture.Even where these featuresare absentin the north the characteristic
features perfected in Romanian pastoralismcan be traced through Czechoslovakiaand into
southern Poland, where they are reflected in the culture of the Gorale mountaineersof the
Tatra. High-altitude settlement (e.g., 1,400 metres) exploiting these capabilities is known
archaeologicallyin Romaniafrom at least the Iron Age (Nandris1981).
There is a whole rangeof adaptationswithin Romanianpastoralism,too complex to trace
here. They range from the isolated wholly male society of professionalshepherdsin the high
Stine, engaged in long-distance transhumance;to cooperative arrangementsinvolving both
hired shepherdsand the families of the villages on the lower slopes; to womens' Stine with
sheep, pigs and perhaps cattle or hens; or to the purely local grazing practised from quite
low-lying villages.The functions of the village are often complementedby the existence of the
Stina, as the Mandracomplementsthe Katun.

0 10 20m
Figure 3 Plan of KK 4.

Seasonality
That there are pitfalls in the interpretationof seasonality is clear from the ethnoarchaeology;
for example the Strunga (milking gate) will usually, but by no means universally,indicate
summer occupation, and the wooden feeding trough winter foddering. Howeverthe troughs
may be used to give salt in the summer;and sites with Strungimay be occupied in the winter.
EuropeanHighlandZone ethnoarchaeology 265

1..

t 19 2
-* '.~:-,
F:":'? Figure 4 Plan of KK 7. KK 7 and KK 4 are
\'"'fs':, VI~
~sites in the Kurucay-Kompsatos valley of the
..___
...._____..._...w_ Rhodope mountains, showing the features
0 10 2?m of the Mandrasof the region.

Ethnoarchaeologicalfieldwork on a variety of forms of seasonality and settlement in the


course of the project is showing how very polyvalent are the mechanismsaroundwhich both
Stina and Katun sites revolve (Nandrisforthcoming(a)). Polyvalenceimplies both the sort of
rangeof variation,or ambiguity,of form and functionjust described;and also the combination
of this with the phenomenon of occupational sub-groupsexploiting different niches simul-
taneously (Fig. 2).
One can distinguishbetween tactical and strategic,or between Empiricaland Imperialseason-
ality. There is something in this, but neither of these aphorismsadequatelyexplains what is
taking place within a context of r- or K- behaviouralstrategies(Nandrisforthcoming(b)) which
are themselvesrelativistic.Nor is the concept of tactics and strategyexplanatorilyself-sufficient;
it has to be relatedmore widely to surroundingeconomic and social conditions. In archaeology
moreoversynchroneity is not given, so that in the light of all this it is difficult to see how the
archaeologistcan possibly have the knowledgeto offer some of the explanationswhich he does.
Nevertheless, local mobility around settlements to exploit seasonally availableresources
has been an empiricalstrategysince the Palaeolithic.Thereis a whole spectrumof such arrange-
266 J. G. Nandris

ments attested by the ethnoarchaeologyof the Stina in Romania,where the exploitation of the
mountains is graded from the immediate vicinity of the villages,through Stine further away
served on a weekly rota basis from the village, up to highlandStine which have little or no
relation with villages. There are important social distinctions, especially between male and
female roles.

0 to 20 30 .

Figure 5 Petrota is a goat 'Mandra'from coastal hills of Greek Thrace near Maronia:the
internalareawithin the penannularroofing is an acre, andthe sub-divisionsarehighly functional,
for milking, young kids etc. It is worth comparing the size of most archaeological excavations
with this site.

By contrast, under empires such as that of Rome, or under the Ottoman occupation of
eastern Europe, conditions were favourablein several ways for transhumananceon a larger
scale: profitable markets were made availableand the problem of frontiers as obstacles to
pastoralmovement was minimised,though like taxation it was not abolished.Underthe Soviet
empire in eastern Europe and in general under Marxist regimes the obstacle presented to
seasonalmovement by closed frontiershas been intensified. The profitabity of pastoralsm as
European Highland Zone ethnoarchaeology 267

a method of exploiting highlandzone resourceshas been discountedby Marxiststates despite a


desperateneed for effective production, perhapsprecisely because it involvesan independence
which they would not effectively control.

Conclusion
This paperis predicatedon a numberof simplepropositions,even if the south-easternEuropean
materialto which it refers is unfamiliar.It recognisesthat ethnoarchaeology,with the aims of
clarifyingthe materialoutcome of behaviour,and of enlargingthe rangeof archaeologicalinter-
pretations,is a legitimate but not a novel concept. It seeks to show that the ethnoarchaeology
and archaeologyof the highlandzone urgently demand the special attention being given them
by the HighlandZone EthnoarchaeologyProject.
Just as archaeology itself is not entirely about the past, so ethnoarchaeologyis primarily
archaeologyand not anthropologyor ethnography.The practiceof ethnoarchaeologydoes not
entail the abandonmentof scientific archaeologicalmethods, but on the contrary the capture
of more data, primarilyfrom ethnography,on which to test such methods.
It ought to be more widely recognised that Europe itself has an ethnography,the ethno-
archaeologicalpotential of which, particularlyin application to its own prehistory,has been
sadly neglected. The currentproject tries to draw attention to what is a fast vanishingsource
of evidence. One of its results is the recognitionboth of the complexity of quite simple sites,
and of the fact that the mechanismsof seasonality and of social and regional variation are
more complex and polyvalent(in the sense defined above) than is usually allowed for in archae-
ological interpretations. Traditional and prehistoric European societies evolved their special
features without the benefit of doctrinalhelp from social theorists, and this paperhas tried to
do the same.

References

Beuermann, A. 1967. Ferneweidewirtschaft in Sudosteuropa. Braunschweig: Westermann Verlag.


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Nandris,J. G. 1980. The Thracianinheritance.IllustratedLondon News. ArchaeologySection
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Abstract

Nandris, John G.
The Stina and the Katun: foundations of a research design in European ethnoarchaeology

The article says something about the methods and assumptions involved in the Highland Zone
Ethnoarchaeology Project in south-east Europe, and about the implications of the fact that
Europe still has an ethnography. It goes on to distinguish two important types of primarily
pastoral site, whose definition is effectively social rather than narrowly morphological. Stina
sites are specialised pastoral complexes, often of small all-male occupational sub-groups, and
potentially analogous with hunting sites. Katun sites include perhaps 50 family units with
women and children; and both have a range of structures and behaviour which are of interest
to archaeologists.

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