Forging Identities: The Mobility of Culture in Bronze Age Europe

Description of training

Training elements

In total, intersectional synergies and activities comprise:

secondments to network partners and to associated partners
training module in January with courses in scientific/archaeological skills
summer field school module
scientific & complementary skills training module
collaborative research design with interlinked themes
necessity of using the resources of network and associated partners
sharing of data, debates and results & common IT platform

Network partners will function as the fellows’ home bases. High-quality supervision will be provided at each institution with the network leaders functioning as primary supervisors while other members of the archaeological and scientific staff will be variously engaged in the local research training, supporting the key aspects of data recording, scientific and archaeological analyses and their interpretation. Trainees will participate in the staff seminars of their home institution, presenting their projects to the junior and senior scholars there. Thus, at the home institution the fellows will receive basic training to be supplemented by the variety of training activities at network level. Each network partner will be responsible for providing the best possible local support and environment for their trainees, including establishment of an individual development plan for every fellow.

Associated partners will supplement the training in various significant ways. Associated partners possess specific skills and resources, which are not at all, or inadequately, available among the network partners. A well-chosen body of associated partners at the universities of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Moldavia, Bratislava, Poznan and Umeå and at the museums of Alba Iulia, Bochum, Moesgård, Vienna and Matrica will provide additional facilities for the research training in front-line sciences and archaeology, notably including key complementary skills in public dissemination and heritage economics. These eleven associated partners will contribute to the research training in four different ways, providing:

Secondments, short-term visits & specific supervision– skills in scientific front-line technologies and lab facilities: Partners 8, 9, 10, 11, and 16.
Secondments, short-term visits & specific supervision – scientific & archaeological data from the north-south orientated geographical corridor: Partners 8-18.
Sites for summer field schools: skills in field methods, heritage management & public dissemination: Partners 12, 17-18.
Specialised scientific insights to the programmed courses

The museums are the industry of the archaeological world and they are routinely engaged in combined research and heritage-preserving activities such as excavations, scientific processing of data, exhibitions and new forms of dissemination to the public. Some of the university-associated and museum-associated labs also carry out scientific analyses on the same commercial conditions as private firms (partners 8, 9, 10, 11, 17). Summer schools and secondments will therefore give the trainees key insights into the many new possibilities now emerging for economic exploitation of the cultural heritage.

ESR & ER fellows: At the time of employment each ESR and ER will receive information about their contractual rights and obligations, subsequent formulations of Individual Career Plans, and practical matters in terms of mobility/secondments. ESRs will enter a Ph.D. program over up to 3 years concluding – if appropriate - with a dissertation.ERs will be scholars with a recent Ph.D. degree in a relevant theme on an international level of excellence. Each ER-fellow will be sparring partner for their inexperienced younger colleagues. These post-doc appointments aim at promoting post holder’s future career through excellent publications and management skills.

Supervision and supervisory board: The coordinator and the scientists in charge of the network will be main supervisors of ESR projects and mentors for the ERs. Right from the outset, an individual career development plan for each ESR fellow will be scheduled for the whole duration of the appointment period, taking into consideration the detailed planning of the training, individual and communal milestones and deliverables, adequate participation in training courses, a limited amount of teaching at the home institution, and secondments to partner institutions. Regular supervisory meetings with the fellow will be scheduled in the individual career development plan.

Every ESR will have one main supervisor at the home institution and two supplementary supervisors from outside the home institution. These supplementary supervisors will be located among the body of network and associated partners. Associated partners will typically be chosen as supplementary supervisors in scientific and/or archaeological fields of knowledge, and their engagement will often be tied to the fellow’s secondments to associated partner institutions.

ERs are expected to be more independent, but will also need individual plans for the proper progress of their research – made in negotiation with the mentor and the supervisory board. This is composed of all main and supplementary supervisors and will monitor the quality of the supervisions and mentorships and will take action, if problems arise in any aspect related to the training. Supervisors will be encouraged to participate in courses aiming at promoting the quality of their supervision.

Secondments: All recruited ESR and ER fellows will be seconded to partner institutions for a period of maximum 30% of the appointment period. To secure the cross-disciplinary anchoring of the training, secondment to a high-profile scientific laboratory will have first priority as will secondments to partner institutions in possession of relevant archaeological and scientific data and/or expertise. This exchange of fellows will be necessary in order to carry out research along the lines described above and will ensure a high degree of interdisciplinary knowledge transfer.

Training activity programme: The bulk of network activities will take place half-yearly in connection with major gatherings in January and in summer mostly August. In addition, relevant scientific & complementary skill courses will take place during the earlier part of the contract period, months 6-30. This will leave enough time in the later third year for writing up the thesis. Each ESR is required to take courses corresponding to half a year’s studies, equivalent to 30 ECTS. The scheduled courses on network level will leave room for a few extra courses on local level or outside the network.

1. January RT module: Each year in January a training module will take place over 1-2 weeks – gathering all fellows, network partners, and associated partners active as supervisors. The January training module will take place in Berlin. In addition these joint training events will comprise:

one-day workshops in Team Receptivity and Team Mobility – (can include relevant ass. partners)
steering committee and supervisory board meetings
thematic course package (1-3) over three to six days of training in mobility and receptivity

2. Course packages of the January RT module - 6½ ECTS:

Berlin	Course Package 1: Mobility and Receptivity
month 13 (1 week)	Basic concepts, data, theory, and methods
3 ECTS
course concept:	mixture of training presentations, senior reviews & expert lectures on selected topics
role of ESRs & ERs	training presentations of individual projects in the two teams (WP 1-4)
role of seniors	discussants of precirculated training papers - in dialogue form

	Expert lectures:
Århus (1)	• Mobility and receptivity as theoretical framework
Berlin (3) & Southamp.(7)	• Cultural interaction: modes and channels of transmission
Gothenburg (2)	• Geo-political configurations, boundaries, and transformations
Kiel (4) & Saloniki (6)	• Economic & political foundations of interaction
Cambridge (5)	• Materiality & the construction of identity
Stockholm (11)	• Archaeological potentials of biochemistry, archaeobotany & archaeozoology
Bochum (9)	• Archaeological potentials of archaeometallurgy
Umeå (16), Southamp.(7)	• Archaeological potentials of geochemistry (e.g. soil sampling, pottery analyses)
Copenhagen (8)	• Archaeological potentials of DNA & isotope analyses
Stockholm (11)	• Archaeological potentials of biochemistry, archaeobotany & archaeozoology
Bochum (9)	• Archaeological potentials of archaeometallurgy
Vienna (10)	• Archaeological potentials of human osteology and pathology

Berlin	Course Package 2: Mobility and Receptivity
month 25 (1-2 weeks)	Data analytical perspectives
3 ECTS
course concept:	mixture of training presentations, senior reviews & expert lectures on selected topics
role of ESRs & ERs	training presentations of individual projects in the two teams (WP 1-4)
role of seniors	discussants of pre-circulated training papers - in dialogue form

	Expert lectures in Bronze Age mobility and receptivity:
Berlin	• innovations in metallurgy and the transfer of knowledge
	• travelling concepts of depositional rituals
Southampton	• mobility of technological knowledge other than metals
	• materiality of the body
Gothenburg	• geo-politics and social transformations
	• agricultural innovations on the move
Aarhus	• travelling cultures
	• responding to transculture: inventing tradition, mimicking & emulation
Cambridge	• sociology of identification: within and between-group relationships
	• incorporation of objects & the impact of ideological innovations
Kiel	• settlement archaeology as long-term history
	• settlement organisation, economics & political power
Saloniki	• micro-level of crafts & daily life
	• landscapes as history, metaphor, mobility, and economy
Associated partner labs	• people, plants and animals - insights from the sciences
	• objects, ideas and knowledge - insights from the sciences

Berlin	Course Package 3: Mobility and Receptivity
month 37 (1 week)	Mobility of Culture in Bronze Age Europe - Emerging results
3 ECTS
course concept:	mixture of training presentations, senior reviews & expert lectures on selected topics
role of ESRs & ERs	training presentations of individual projects in the two teams (WP 1-4)
role of seniors	discussants of pre-circulated training papers - in dialogue form
All seven nw partners
	Expert lectures in Forging Identities:
	• Europeanisation and regionalisation in Bronze Age perspective
	• cultural melting pots
	• social complexity & political geography: hotspots and the question of the state
	• travels, cultural transmission & human migration
	• cosmologies in transition

3. Scientific & complementary skills courses - 5 ECTS:

• IT science-archaeological applications : 2 days in Aarhus – month – 1 ECTS

• IPR & research dissemination: 1 day in Aarhus – month 6 – ½ ECTS

• Fundraising & project/career management: 1 day in Aarhus – month 6 – ½ ECTS

• Management of organic and inorganic data: 2 days in Kiel – month 10 – ½ ECTS

• Best practices in cross-disciplinary research: 5 days in Saloniki – month 16– 1 ECTS

• Data patterns & interpretation: 1-2 days in Southampton – month 22 – ½ ECTS

• Ethics in archaeology and the political dimension: 1-2 days in Cambridge – month 22 – ½ ECTS

• World heritage legislation, economics & management: 2 days in Gothenb.– month 28 – ½ ECTS

4. Summer School Training Module - 16 ECTS:

The Szazhálombatta field school in Hungary: months 8 & 20

http://www.arch.soton.ac.uk/Projects/default.asp?ProjectID=17

Facts:

Szazhálombatta is a Middle Bronze Age tell settlement on the River Danube and part of a rich archaeological landscape. The pre-urban site was centrally placed in the traffic between E and W and N and S in Bronze Age Europe and had a key position in the regional political geography. The 6 ms deep deposits have yielded an enormous number of architectural features, objects, organic and inorganic residues. The tell was included as a RTN site in the ‘Emergence of European Communities’ project, training fellows in new scientific methods, which will be further enhanced over the next campaigns. The ITN will also explore the dissemination possibilities of the nearby archaeological heritage park run by the Matrica Museum.

Manager: Southampton in close cooperation with the Matrica Museum (ass. partner 18)

Main training elements: field methods, public dissemination (filming, etc.), cultural heritage economics, ad hoc workshops

Network contributors: Cambridge & Gothenburg

The Teleac field school in Romania: months 20 & 32

Facts:

Teleac is a Late Bronze Age fortified hillfort on the River Mures in Transylvania. The 30 ha large residential site with deep cultural deposits is located centrally in a hotspot, close to rich gold and copper ores and with massive ritual depositions of bronze objects in the vicinity. It is located close to the Alba Iulia Museum, which has conducted trial excavations showing a great potential for cross-disciplinary research, development of heritage economics and public dissemination.

Manager:Berlin in close cooperation with the Alba Iulia Museum (ass. partner 12)

Main training elements: field methods, public dissemination (filming, etc.), cultural heritage economics, ad hoc workshops

Other network contributors: Saloniki & Aarhus

The Jutland oak coffin field school in Denmark: months 32 & 41

http://www.borumeshoj.dk/ http://www.nm.aaa.dk/fortidsminder/printDetail.asp?id=38&show=1

Facts:

Jutland’s oak-coffin graves from Middle Bronze Age mounds are known world wide. The well preserved water-logged burials found in some of the mounds give a unique insight into Bronze Age society: the Egtved girl, the Guldhøj chief and the Borum Eshøj woman, etc. The mounds of southern and eastern Jutland were built to form part of the prominent hilly landscape – testifying to its central importance in the wide-reaching communication network. These mounds hold a vast research potential. Moesgård Museum plans to excavate some of the more promising mounds in its vicinity and plans to utilize the results in the new exhibition building to be opened in 2012. The ITN Forging Identities will take part in these activities.

Manager:Aarhus in close cooperation with Moesgård Museum (ass. partner 17)

Main training elements: field methods, public dissemination (filming, etc.), cultural heritage economics, ad hoc workshops

Other network contributors:Gothenburg, Cambridge & Kiel

5. Field Studies in person months:

	Szazhalombatta Matrica, Hungary		Teleac Transylvania, Romania		Oak-coffin Mounds Jutland, Denmark		Total person months
YEAR	2009	2010	2010	2011	2011	2012
ESR	10	5	5	5	5	10	40
ER	2	1	1	1	1	2	8
total p. months	12	6	6	6	6	12	48

6. Outside-network Courses - 2½ ECTS

Outside network courses and scholarly conferences may be relevant for the trainees to embark on. The supervisory board will recommend participation in relevant courses organised by the Danish and Nordic Ph.D. Schools, the AU Faculty’s graduate school for anthropological and archaeological studies, and the graduate school ‘Human Development in Landscapes’ in Kiel. Lists of courses can be viewed at: www.hum.au.dk/klasark/daf/, www.hf.uio.no/iakh/forskning/dialpast/, www.anthro-Ph.D.dk, www.humaniora.au.dk/uddannelse/phd/forskerskoler/program_aas, and www.uni-kiel.de /landscapes/.

In addition, training courses on complimentary skills will be organised in accordance with the needs of the recruited fellows for example with regard to presentational skills, proposals writing, science communication or other issues as appropriate. The courses available here will typically include training in specific archaeological themes, methods and theories and will be open to the ‘Forging Identity’ fellows.

7. Closing network conference

The three-day closing network conference Forging Identities will be organised by the coordinating partner in co-operation with ERs and the supervisory board. It will take place in Aarhus in month 48 with c. 15 external participants and the presentations will be published online soon thereafter.

Project work plan

The inaugural and concluding meetings will be in Aarhus, whilst the January gatherings will take place in Berlin, which is easily accessible, fairly cheap, and with the necessary facilities provided by the Berlin partner. Summer school activities are likewise placed at institutions with adequate facilities.

Schedule of milestones and deliverables:

Month	Milestone	Deliverables: (D0-D23)	Nodes responsible for milestone/deliverable
0	Project clarification & ESR-ER announcements prepared	Annex I & international announcements (D0)	Coordinator (committee)
1	Committee kick-off meeting in Århus: Team Receptivity & Team Mobility are constituted. ESR-ER recruitment begins	Website running with information about project, recruitments, teams and work packages (D1)	Committee/coordinator
3	Data recording starts in WP 1-4	Shared IT platform for archaeological and scientific data recording and data processing running (D2)	WP leaders/coordinator
8	Summer school in Hungary withad hoc team workshops	Online web access to raw film about fieldwork (D3)	Southampton
12	Data processing starts in WP 1-4	Pre-circulation of training papers (D4) and developments of D2	WP leaders/Kiel
13	First January RT module with team workshops, board & committee meetings & Course Package 1	Training presentation of papers (D5)	Kiel/network partners
14	Collection of material for first progress report	First annual report (D6)	WP leaders/coordinator
15	Initial academic & public dissemination	Online publishing of D5 (D7)	Kiel
20	Summer schools: Hungary & Romania with ad hoc team workshops	Online web access to additional raw film about fieldwork (D8)	Southampt. & Berlin
24	Data interpretation starts in WP 1-4	Pre-circulation of training papers (D9)	WP leaders/Berlin
25	Second January RT module with team workshops, board & committee meetings, Course Package 2: Mid-term Review	Training presentations of papers (D10)	Berlin/network partners
26	Collection of material for mid-term report	Mid-term report (2nd annual report) (D11)	Coordinator
27	Data interpretation in progress	Online publishing of D10 (D12)	WP leaders/Berlin
32	Summer schools: Romania & Denmark with ad hoc team workshops	Online web access to additional raw film about fieldwork (D13)	Berlin & Aarhus
33	Intensified public dissemination starts	Museum dissemination in draft outline (D14)	Coordinator
36	Intensified academic dissemination starts	Pre-circulation of training papers (D15)	Gothenburg
37	Second January RT module with team workshops, board & committee meetings & Course Package 3	Training presentations of papers (D16)	Gothenburg/network partners
38	Collection of material for third annual report	Third annual report (D17)	Coordinator
39	Academic dissemination in progress	Online publishing of D16 (D18)	Gothenburg
41	Summer school: Denmark withad hoc team workshops	Finished fieldwork and project film on line (D19)	Aarhus/coordinator
46	Final public dissemination	Contribution to new exhibition; to open at Moesgård primo 2013 (D20)	Aarhus/coordinator
47-48	Research process concluded. Validation of process and results at committee meeting in Aarhus	ESR, ER & senior academic output submitted to international journals and series (D21)	WP leaders & committee
48	Closing network conference in Aarhus	Conference papers (D22)	All
50	Project concluded	Final report submitted to EU (D23).	Coordinator

Management structure

Management of knowledge and intellectual property (IPR):

All knowledge will be managed according to the rules and principles agreed by the steering committee. Relevant discoveries will be published either jointly or individually by the involved researchers and according to the work plan. All data and data analyses will be available to all participants through the common IT platform; when published, however, proper reference to the publication should be made. The status of milestones and deliveries of the work plan will be reported to the committee and the board by the coordinator at each board meeting.

Recruitment strategy - vacancies and appointments

One of the main intentions is to attract and recruit young and resourceful candidates who wish to benefit educationally from cross-national and cross-disciplinary research. The Code of Conduct for the recruitment of researchers will be applied in all phases of recruitment:

The time table is shown in the work plan (schedule for milestones & deliverables).
All advertisements for ESR and ER positions are based on international calls encouraging qualified candidates to apply independently of their gender, nationality or ethnicity (equal opportunity policy).
Formulation of the advertisements for positions and their international announcement will be enacted in close cooperation with the steering committee and follow the work descriptions and objectives of WP 1-4.
Guidance for applications will be available at the web site of the Danish Ph.D. School in Archaeology. The announcement will contain relevant web addresses where information on conditions for employment can be obtained.
The application assessment committee will consist of three persons on professor or senior lecturer level representing different institutions: Two from inside the partnership and one from the outside. In choosing between two equally qualified candidates the decision-making will consider the gender balance in the teams and in the group of fellows.

Dissemination actions

Teaching dissemination goes hand in hand with the wider dissemination of ITN activities and results. This integrated strategy concerns academic as well as public media: Complementary courses and the summer schools have solid elements of dissemination, which include introduction to film-making, new high-tech media, and museum exhibition. The ITN has been invited to contribute to the Bronze Age section in Denmark’s new world museum at Moesgård to be opened primo 2013: The first emergence of European identities in the Bronze Age provokes debate on current hot issues associated with increased mobility of people, knowledge, and culture in Europe.