Thesis Spotlight: Isabella McMillen (Identity and Adornment in Iron Age Balkan Fibulae)

An Analysis of Identity in the Iron Age Balkans through Anthropomorphic Fibulae in the Mecklenburg Collection

My project will investigate Slovenian and Austrian fibulae (brooches) from the Iron Age (ca. 800 BCE–1 CE). Through the use of archival research, artifact analysis, and data utilization, I aim to elucidate varying aspects of European prehistory including burial practices, trade, and adornments. The fibulae I am focusing on come from the Harvard Peabody Museum’s Mecklenburg Collection which is comprised of four sites; three of which have scholarship devoted to them (i.e., Hallstatt, Stična, and Magdalenska gora), while artifacts from the Vinica site have been comparatively overlooked. Given the potential of these materials, my research seeks to fill this gap by focusing on the fibulae from Vinica within the Mecklenburg Collection. These artifacts, especially the unique anthropomorphic fibulae, offer a promising avenue for exploring how adornment practices were used to display identity in Iron Age Slovenia, particularly in the Japodian culture that inhabited Vinica, filling a knowledge gap within the field of European Iron Age archaeology.

I plan to execute this project through a combination of archival research, artifact analysis, and data utilization. Artifact analysis will consist primarily of weighing, comparison of symbols, and examination of fasteners. I plan to weigh the fibulae with a digital scale to obtain data on the fibulae mass, adding to the objects’ physical descriptive information which currently consists mainly of dimensions. Both comparison of symbols and examination of fasters will be done through a physical “naked-eye” examination of the fibulae. While I will be creating data, I also plan to use and utilize data provided by the Peabody Museum, such as site spreadsheets that include information on artifact materials and intrasite details, to assist in gauging association patterns. Using both these intersite and intrasite comparisons of fibulae, my analysis will seek to explain the role of adornments within Vinica’s local community and the broader Balkan region.

By examining both the local and regional significance of these adornments, my research looks to fill critical gaps in the existing literature and offer fresh perspectives on the complexities of Iron Age dress and adornment. I hope to contribute to the scholarly discussion surrounding identity and adornment, deepening the understanding of how adornment (particularly fibulae) was used as a form of identity expression in prehistoric societies. Using a post-processual lens, individual agency will be at the center of my analysis, differentiating my research from the prevalent culture-history theory that has been used to study the Mecklenburg Collection in the past. Additionally, though gender is regularly at the forefront of identity studies, I plan to analyze the fibulae of Vinica from both a local and regional perspective, opening the discussion up to topics of communal identity and social status in Iron Age Slovenia.

This focus on identity, however, cannot be fully realized without considering the broader context in which these artifacts were discovered—i.e., the Mecklenburg Collection itself—an underexplored resource for understanding prehistoric cultures across the Balkan region. Through my research, I aim to not only advance the understanding of Vinica, but also elevate the scholarly attention given to the entire Mecklenburg Collection. This effort to revitalize an understudied archive has the potential to inspire renewed interest in other sites within the collection, offering fresh insights into regions and cultures that have long been overlooked. I hope this reexamination could foster further research, pushing forward new avenues of inquiry into the prehistoric past and the ways in which adornment, identity, and social structure were communicated through material culture across the Iron Age Balkans.